Well it´s been quite a long week. Christmas was great, even though I didn´t know anyone in my new area. Last week´s email had the update about my new area in São José do Rio Preto. Well, it already moved again. I am now in Ribeirão Preto again, the main city of my mission. An American got his visa and was able to make it into the mission. To find a place for him to work mixed up a bunch of companionships so I am now here in Ribeirão Preto. But my companion is still Elder Mateus.
Christmas Eve is the major part of Chirstmas celebration here in Brazil. We spent the night at the bishop´s house. We had a turkey and ham dinner, which was delicious. It was the first time I had eaten ham on the mission. It was a pretty fun night. The mission president authorized us to stay out until midnight as long a member took us home by car. It was pretty fun and was also great to establish a good relationship with the bishop.
Last week we had a mission wide conference to celebrate Christmas. It was fantastic. We watched a movie, had a fantastic lunch, played games and had a really special musical presentation by some of the missionaries. We all heard an awesome announcement that I forgot to talk about in the phone call yesterday. Next month an Apostle is coming to do a mission tour and we will have a mission wide conference again. It´s not confirmed yet which Apostle is coming, but the rumor is that it will be Elder Neil L. Anderson. But to be honest, I don´t care who comes, I´m just excited.
My new area should be really good. It has been known to be the highest baptizing area in the mission. Kind of an intimidating task to come into an area with such a good reputation. It is also infamous for having a lot of ``snakes´´. It has nothing to do with the animal. It´s a code word for girls that flirth with missionaries and don´t leave them alone. It´s so annoying that this kind of stuff happens. They don´t even realize how much they are impeding the Lord´s work from progressing even further. But it won´t be any problem. I´ve never had a problem with a ``snake´´ because the way I act around girls makes it very clear that I´m not interested in any of that. To the young women who will read this: don´t be snakes!
Well, I guess that about sums it up. It was a fantastic Christmas and it was especially great to be able to use Skype to talk with the family. I hope it was a great Christmas for all of you as well. I love you all so much.
Happy New Year!
Elder McLelland
No comments:
Post a Comment