A new horizon

Well, today is a new transfer and I´m really excited to have stayed in my same area. I was really nervous to leave because we finally are getting the work to run more fluidly and are having a steady flow of 7-8 investigators at Church weekly and soon the baptisms will come rolling in. I really didn´t want to miss this opportunity. But, I do have a new companion. Elder Bean from South Jordan, Utah. We have the same amount of time on the mission. But, he went to the Provo MTC because of visa delays. I´m really excited to be his companion. We are gonna have a blast together. I can´t lie, I´m really excited to have an American companion. It´s awesome how we have an instant cultural connection. But it was sad to say goodbye to Elder Mateus.

We had some great experiences this week. We took a new family to Church this Sunday. We are really developing the work with families in the area. Ever since the great experience in Birigui baptiziing that complete family it has become my main focus. Here we have 4 couples that we are teaching and they are showing good progress. The biggest challenge is getting them legally married before baptism. A majority of the people we are teaching are from different states that have come here for work opportunities. The North Eastern region of the country is very poor and has very few work opportunities so many move here to work in construction to try and build a more stable lifestyle. They are such humble people and come here not knowing anything and have ready hearts to hear the gospel. It´s been quite a humbling experience. Also, the pig ear soup is starting to grow on me.

Our mission really kind of strayed from the basics of Preach My Gospel and numbers had been used in many incorrect forms and we all basically turned into robots. But we are having some amazing changes in the mission to really get us more focused on the people and their specific needs. These past two weeks I feel much more relieved and less stressed about my numbers and more focuse on my investigators. Interestingly enough, focusing less on the numbers in themselves is actually helping them to improve. We are getting a lot more people to commit to go to Church and they all are loving it. I´m really loving the mission again.

This weekend is a big Brazilian holiday called Carnaval. It is probably one of the most wicked holiday traditions ever. But luckily it´s not too big of a deal here in Ribeirão Preto. It´s basically Mardi Gras but 100 times worse. Kind of sad to be honest. I can´t wait to celebrate a good, clean 4th of July celebration.

Well, I hope you all have a great week. This has been a great one here for us. I´m really excited and pumped of for the mission. My gas tanking is filling up rather that draining out on the mission....despite the occasional trunkiness and excitement to see you all soon. I love you all!

Elder McLelland