March 21, 2011 in Rio Branco with short term missionary

Hey all,

Sounds like everything is going really well back home with the wedding reception and everything. Things here are the same as always--constantly changing. We got change calls last night and found out the details. My short-term comp is going home start up high school. I'm getting...another short-term missionary. Elder Bush and Queirolo are staying together..until Queirolo's visa shows up. When he leaves, so does my new comp(no name yet) and Elder Bush and I are comps again! We're really excited. That will probably be close to April 14. In other changes, I'm now district leader over fewer companionships...2. I'm just district leader of Rio Branco now, so we don't have to travel to Melo all the time to do intercambios and baptismal interviews and district meetings. We usually get together with all the zone to have our district meetings, but now we're just gonna do the meetings...in the house. It's really weird. Also, the letter system is different for us. We have our own box from the offices. We don't have to go to Melo to pick up our letters. It's a really weird situation, but it's exciting. We're basically our own mini-zone/MTC thing out here in Rio Branco. So anyways, to make all the changes, I have to go down to Montevideo for a leadership meeting. Also, Elder Duffy, one from my district is now going to be the district leader of another district in the zone, so that's exciting. They say that when Queirolo and my comp leave, we're going to go back to 2 elders in Rio Branco-just me and Bush, so we won't have our District Rio Branco anymore and Duffy is going to be our district leader and I get to be Senior Comp again. To be honest, it'll be a relief. District leadering is stressful stuff. So anyways, the changes made us all happy. The assistents called to try to convince Iturria to stay a couple more weeks, but he's already missed too much school, so he couldn't. We've had a really good time together though.

The work is really picking up here in Rio Branco, we had really good attendance in church this week--48! That's the highest it's been since I got here. Adriano and Silvana and their daughter went to church on Sunday and loved it. They're now starting the process of getting married. They're really excited. They still have to make a lot of changes before they're ready, but they're willing and they're working hard. Adriano, miraculously, got a job. They are already seeing the blessings that come from following the Lord, and so are we. Christian and Marcia are about the same. They're really excited, but they need time to get everything done that they need to. It's rice harvest season, so everyone in town is working extra. It's like Shelley, Idaho in potato harvest season. Except here, they don't get school off, they just drop out.

So yeah, everything's going pretty swell down here. Hope you all continue how you have been and that you do even better in this week. ¡Vamo` Arriba!