Change Day Libya with Elder Bracho

Hey all,,

Big news week. Hope I have time to tell all.

Conference: Amazing. It had some serious trunky potential. We watched it in english. I saw Salt Lake. I saw about 15 people I knew in the various choirs. I saw the Apsleys,the Corrys, the Bairds, Russell Steed in the MTC Choir (where is he going?), a bunch of kids from alta choir, and of course, Dad. We got together in a separate room in our chapel (my chapel happens to be the stake center) and we ate lots of food and watched conference in english. It was a really spiritually edifying experience. Our converts all came and our favorite investigator, Sussel went and loved it. Francisc o and she are on track for the baptism next week, which........I will not be at.

Changes: Today is change day. I'm now in Tres Cruces bus terminal, donde se encuentra un paìs. I have finally been moved from the promised land of 33 to the...equally promised land of Maroñas. My area is called Libya and apparently, it has the national horse racing track. Whenever I told the members in 33 that I was going there, for some reason, they all made horse sounds.

New Comp: I don't know much about my comp. I've been hanging out with Lancaster today because we travelled together. I will now be with my first Latino comp, Elder Bracho (No, not Borracho.) He seems really nice. I hear it's a really solid area and I think I'll get along with Bracho really well. He got to the mission one change after me...so I'm the senior comp. That's so weird to me. At least I can be assured that he speaks spanish pretty well. I don't think I could handle having a gringo younger than me at this point, so at least if there's something I don't understand perfectly, he will. For the majority of the time, I can understand everything, but once in a while, when I meet someone new I have to accustom myself to their manner of speaking. Bracho kinda sounds like a little kid, so I might have to adjust to his accent. He's Paraguayo and that's one accent I've liked ever since I got down here.I'm really excited for this change. I have a feeling it's going to be buenazo.

Concerning the last change: To be honest, I loved my 2 changes with Draper, but we weren't as obedient as I would have liked. Now I have a chance to really be obedient like I was with my trainer and as I always assumed I could be in the mission. You guys probable don't really realize that, even though I got along with draper and loved my old area and are going to miss it a lot, change for the sake of change is good. As much as I would have loved to stay in my old area and see the baptism of Sussel and a few other investigators, I'm really excited to hear about them in the mission newsletter or get pictures from Draper. Now I can go get other people ready to accept the gospel.

Francisco and Sussel gifted me a planner book with bible quotes for every day. They're kinda random, but I'ma start including them once in a while in the emails. Here we go.(in Spanish and Portugués...because I can thanks to this book:

Foram com grande pressa e acharam Maria e José, e o menino deitado na manjedoura.

Fueron a toda prisa, y hallaron a Marìa y José, y al Niño acostado en el pesebre.

I'd like to encourage all of you to do as the unidentified they in this scripture. I want to you to go with toda prisa (speed, rush, hurry) y hallar (find) Mary and Joseph and the Child lying in a manger. I know it's not Christmas time, but the conference season is a great time to reflect and think, ´´Am I going with toda prisa or am I just riding along behind the wise men and shepherds, satisfied to let Christ find us?´´ I hope all of us can do our part to come unto Christ. He's already inviting us. We just need to start travelling with more prisa, so He knows we're willing to make it all the way to Him.

Happy Cambio Day everyone. Hope everyone had a great conference. I did.