October 21,2013

Friday  we had our interviews with President Wagner.  I talked to him a lot about the challenges we were having in the area-- nobody gives us referrals, the leaders don't trust in us, etc.  We were really pretty discouraged at this point, especially after Sunday when we had a meeting with our ward mission leader, bishop, and relief society president to fix the meal calendar.  We were going to try to modify it so that we could all eat in our own area separate every day so that we didn't have to waste so much time going to lunch and back.  The feedback wasn't positive.  So we told President about the situation and he said that if I felt like there wasn't enough work for 6 in that ward, to just let him know, and he'll pull some or all of us out.  I said that we still weren't to that point, that we wanted to keep trying to see what we could do to save the situation.  But later that night we got a call from the Zone Leaders telling us we had special transfers.  They closed our area and sent Elder V to the I stake, and I would be opening an area in M here across the street.  Sad news.  We came home and packed everything up and got ready to be in the offices the next morning.  It was one of the most depressing nights of my life.  I felt like we had failed, that we shouldn't have said anything and kept working.  But, it was the will of the Lord.  

My companion is Elder H.  He has about 5 months in the mission and is from Mexico.  He reminds me a lot of Elder A.  Quiet, focused, and a really hard worker.  The area we were in had sisters before, but they were also mysteriously taken out that night.  The good thing is that it's a neighbor ward to E, we meet in the same chapel here by the temple and I already kind of can get my way around here.  Also, I already knew a couple of the members of this ward.  There are also 6 missionaries in this area--the Assistants and Elder K and his companion.  I'm still Elder T's district leader but the sisters are in another district now.  It's nice only having to take one phone call every night.  The round-abouts are decorated with mayan-looking pyramids, fountains, statues, etc.  There's a lot of mansions and really, ridiculously fancy buildings.  The members are really awesome and it's a much bigger ward than E, population wise.  We have a bunch of less actives to work with, which will be a nice change.  

Our first night we did divisions with the assistents so that they could show us the area.  I went with Elder S, and after talking for a few minutes I came to find that he is Amber's cousin!  (which we knew, didn't realize he didn't know that!) The world is very small when we're Mormons.  Anyways, we were walking down a big highway at the end of the day when a car honked at us and pulled over.  We turned to see what was going on, and the guy rolled down his window and said, "Hey, this is kind of embarrassing but...could you help me tie my tie?"  He was on his way to a wedding and for the life of him could not figure out how to tie his tie.  So we helped him tie it and contacted him.  He's super cool.  His name is L, he lived in the US almost his whole life, and he gave us his address and phone number and told us to call him during the week to put an appointment.  When I was 12 and first learning to tie a tie, never in my life did I think that having this skill would lead to the salvation of some soul someday.  But hopefully everything goes well with him.  

We visited the bishop yesterday and he told us of a less active family that he wanted us to visit.  We went and they let us in.  Their names are R and S.  They're an older couple, their kids all live in different parts of Mexico and they've been members for about 5 years.   They were very, very friendly with us and we had a great lesson with them.  They said they want to come back to church but that it's going to be hard.  They can do it.  They also want to introduce us to all their neighbors--awesome!

Glad to hear everything's going well at home.  This has been a rough stretch for me, and I've noticed there's a lot of things I need to change and do better.  I was studying today about repentance and it really stuck out to me where it said that our faith and our love for the Savior are what lead us to repent.  He is our light, our hope, and our guide.  If we trust in him and learn to love Him as He loves us, we will be able to become like Him and live with Him some day.  This is his church and I know He lives, which is why I will never, ever give up.  I love you all and thank you for all your support.  Have a fantastic week!

Elder Pew