Hey Hey

So my new area is in the city Marilia - Sao Paulo. I'm actually serving in the ward Marilia. It's not that big of a ward. There are about 85 members that go there every week. We got a list of all the members yesterday and there are 318 people baptized in our area. We're gonna try to visit these families and activiate them.

My companion's name is Elder Carneiro. He is from Porto Alegre - Rio Grande do Sul. In Brazil the further south you go, the more developed the country is. Porto Alegre is the most developed and updated city in Brazil. So Elder Carneiro is familiar with more logos, brands, and marks, of clothing, cars, etc. He's short and fat. He seems way cool.

I had the craziest week of my mission this last week. President Leal called us Monday night to tell us to prepare the Zone Conference that was this last Friday. We had to go to restaurants to see if they could make a fat lunch for all the missionaries. On top of all the running around and phone calls to everyone and their mom, we had to prepare a 50 minute training to give to 38 missionaries and President and Sister Leal. It was a ton of pressure.

In the end we triumphed. Our training was money. The lunch went well and we ended up saving 40 reais (Brazilian currency) of the money that President gave us. When Friday was over, I was able to breath normally again. All the stress and worries went away. Everything's back to normal now.

My vision is being opened to a different perspective these days. Being a Zone Leader, I look at things differently. The missionaries in our zone are really young. Including my area, there are 8 in our zone that we are responsible for. 2 of the areas have Sisters working there. This is the first time that I'm working with Sisters on my mission. Elder Carneiro and I have to help each area out with the work, health problems, companionship problems, and support. It's weird. I feel weird giving people advice like that. Last night one of the Sisters called us to tell us that she was feeling down and that she didn't have the will to work. And the other night a different Sister called us to tell us that her foot hurt. I didn't know what to say to her.

But I'm liking this city. It's big and a lot of movement; lots of cars, big trucks, people and noise.

That's it for this week I think.

Elder Carter