entonces [then]...... well Buenos Tardes a todos [Good afternoon everyone]. Lo Siento [I'm sorry] that it´s taken me so long to write, but my story will explain.
So............ birthday. Gracias a todos [thanks to everyone] for all of the birthday wishes!
Saturday was pretty normal. Elder D** and I went running in the
morning and then we had service. Then in the afternoon we cleaned the
chapel with the members and then we had a lesson/dinner with some
members. It was a really good day but nothing special. Haha the hermana
that makes us lunch everyday was so mad because the otro [other] elders didn´t
remind her that it was my birthday and she and the branch president (her
husband) always invite all of the missionaries in Guayara and they all
have cake together, but she was so, so mad because she forgot. Their
daughter was supposed to have her baby that weekend so that's probably
why; but I wasn´t expecting anything, just a normal day and we had fun
taking pictures that night.
But Sunday night. We had the first fireside with the branch that
we´ve ever had, and it just so happens that the sister-in-law of the
Bishop in my first area in La Merced was visiting her friend over the
weekend and was there, so we got talking about that. (She lives there,
too, in La Merced.) And guess what?! Remember D**, the 12 year old who
got baptized in February and we were teaching his family, too? Well his
parents, who the mom was so distraught because her husband had so many
drinking/drug problems and that she wanted to leave with the kids to
live somewhere else, and he wanted to change but never really did
anything but was super scared that he would lose his family and that you
guys were saying to me that one day D** would be the one to help all
of his family accept the gospel.............. well, they got married on
Friday, got baptized this last Saturday, and were confirmed on
Sunday!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!! I might have not been there, but it´s just as
good knowing that they´ve all accepted the gospel together!
Well, as I was talking with this hermana about La Merced and
everything that´s happened over there, one of the other missionaries of
the branch gave me his phone and tells me that it´s the President´s
Assistant. So that made me just a bit nervous, what did he want? The
Assistant: ¨Elder llegó su cambio.¨ In other words: "You´re being
transferred." Elder D** is going to be in a trio with the other Elders
in Mamoré until the real transfers (which are this next Monday - I was
transferred early)...... So then I started thinking why in the world I
would be tranferred early...... I couldn´t be a secretary because
they´re always Latinos, I couldn´t be the new assistant because I just
don´t have enough time in the mission for that, and I´m not ready to be a
zone leader yet...... The Assistant: "Elder, you´re the new mission
secretary. You´re leaving tomorrow morning to come here to the
offices........." I honestly didn´t hear the rest of everything he said
because I was so shocked. So after that brief, unexpected phone call, the
entire branch was just staring at me in silence haha. So I told them
that I was leaving to go to the mission offices to be the new mission
secretary and it was super sad and then they all sang ¨God Be With You
Till We Meet Again.¨ Wow. It was really sad and really weird to say
goodbye to everyone in Mamoré and I almost cried and the other Elders
were crying (I´m not joking either) and then the members were crying and
then it was a really really really really really really long night. It
was definitely the longest night of my mission just sitting in bed so
confused and wondering how that had all happened.
So then on Monday I was flying all morning to be here in Santa Cruz
and everything has been super crazy and I feel so lost coming from
small town Beni to the very center of big-city Santa Cruz. I´m not
joking; everything feels like a dream, it´s just not real. But it´s a
really weird dream filled with delayed flights and baptismal records and
the transfers that have to control this next Monday and passports and
everything else that I don´t understand and yup. That´s my life for the
next 3 to 6 months. Oh boy. I´m going to be so fat, too. So basically I´m
in charge of everything travel, everything records, passports, visas,
medical insurance, transfers, pouch, and I´m the President´s secretary
and the first person that anyone talks to when they need to contact the
mission and it´s so much stuff that my head hurts so bad it's
ridiculous. Basically my job is so full of stuff to do that the south
mission decided to split my job into 4 secretaries instead of just 1. My
companion is the new financial secretary and he does lots of stuff too
and the south mission split his job into 2, so basically the south
mission has 6 secretaries and we´re just 2 here in the north haha! We
don´t get to sleep either because lots of the flights leave super early
in the morning or really late at night. And for the past 2 nights we´ve
had people coming AND going all night long.
But I have my own stamp, so it´s all worth it.
Haha, no. I
honestly don´t know what to think because I never wanted to be here in
the offices, but it´s something different and I like change, but I don´t
get to work normally (but we do proselyte in the nights after 4 or 5),
but the President and his wife are really nice and I´m excited to work
with them. But I´m here, so I´m going to enjoy it while I can. It´s just
really different but really fun at the same time.
Oh ya, and it was Pdte Zambrano´s birthday yesterday, so we had a
small party here in the office with some other folks and other
missionaries from our zone after their interviews that they had. And la
hermana Zambrano was getting everything together and we were all helping
with everything to give a cake to Pdte Zambrano when he finished his
interviews and in the end, it turns out that it was for me too haha! So
everyone sang to us and we had cake and really good food.
And so yes. I´m currently sitting in the offices. It´s super
late because we´ve had to do so many things today to get ready for the
newbies that are arriving tomorrow and Saturday and then for the
transfers Monday and Tuesday. And Pdte and Hma Zambrano are going to be
in Peru all this next week so we have to run the show here, the 4 of us
here in the offices (the assistants and the secretaries). And 3 of the 4
of us are new here so we´ll see how everything goes haha!
So now that this chapter´s finished, I´d like to add another story
of a phone call I got this morning from the missionaries in Mamoré.
Elder Z**: Elder, una consulta [a question]. What´s the direction of the lady who
does the laundry?¨ Haha they would ask that haha! But after that, which
they were actually serious about because they didn't know where to go to
pick up their laundry haha, Elder D** told me something that we´ve
been waiting almost a month to hear............ The hermano that was in
Brazil is back in Guayaramerín!!!!!!!!!! AND they´ve paid almost all of
their debts!!!!!!!!! And they still have more money that apparently he
came back with lots of it. YES! I don´t even care that I´m not there
(no, that´s a lie, I still want to be back in Guayara) but that doesn´t
even matter because he got back and they´re super happy and Elder D*
told me that they have a lesson with them planned for tomorrow night.
Basically, I´m just really happy and don´t even know what to do! I
think I´ll finish the baptismal record that I still have to send to Salt
Lake.
But tenga una buena noche [have a good night].
I asked Pdte
Zambrano why I´m here en las oficinas [in the offices]. No joke, I really did ask him. He
and Hermana Zambrano both were telling me that they didn´t know why,
and that only I and the Lord know. I´ll be looking for that answer here
soon because I´m still asking myself the same question.
Con mucho amor, (my companion finally finished up his stuff)
Elder Groneman
Secretary of the Mission
 |
| Guayarmerin |
 |
| hauling wood |
 | |
| Elder Groneman & Elder D** by the Mamore River (Brazil is across the river) |
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