My letter!!!!

Hey everyone!!!

Well, I am finally here writing about how my week went. :) It´s been sort of a crazy Pday, not at all the one that I was expecting. I was expecting a pretty easy going preparation day, but.. that was before a bunch of stuff for the zone happened. Phew.

But, we did get a chance to eat some lunch and then played just a little bit of volleyball, that was exciting. :) It made me happy. Anyway, moving on to the exciting things that happened this week. Tuesday... was just district meeting after our PDay time ended. That was about the only exciting news for that day. Wednesday... just a normal work day. Thursday was really crazy for a couple of things - Mom and Dad I already told you about that one - an emergency transfer in the zone. (An elder in Matthew's zone decided to leave without permission. He was found several hours later and many miles away.) It´s kind of funny, the zone started out with 14 missionaries and now we are down to 12. But, transfers are this week, and there are rumours that President is going to be making a big change with how the zones are organized, which means my zone´s size could change by the next time I am writing you all. We´ll see what happens. As for transfers, it´s almost 100% that my companion is getting transferred. So, in theory I´ll be getting a new one; as for who, I have no idea! I´m also excited for transfers, because it probably means that I´ll get to be out at fun hours of the morning. YES!

Moving on, Friday, we had some baptismal interviews to do for our zone. They all passed, so the zone was able to get baptisms his weekend. :) That´s always a bonus for me as a zone leader. It feels good when the zone baptizes, not necessarily because I had anything to do with it, it just makes me feel like the zone is being successful. Saturday, was a pretty slow day, we spent a lot of time clapping houses. We also had a family home evening where we made the double chocolate cookies as the refreshments. They were REALLY good. I was happy. :) Otherwise, just lots of time trying to remind people about stake conference and then trying to find new people to teach. Sunday, was a really good day. It was Stake conference day!! It was a really good stake conference. I enjoyed all of the talks, especially the stake presidents, talking about how everyone needed to prepare to go on a mission. He had a two day returned missionary and one leaving this week to go on his mission give their testimonies; there was a huge difference. I don´t know if there will be a difference that big in me, but there was a huge one in them. We also had a lot of investigators in stake conference. A family that should get baptized this Saturday and then a couple of people that we weren´t even planning on coming. We had just kind of told them about it, and they showed up without warning!! It was really cool; they really liked stake conference and are planning on coming back to church next week. They should be able to get baptized this coming month of December!!! YAY!!! The temple president from Paraguay was also in Stake Conference; he talked about how important it is to go to the temple, a really good talk. President Udall is from Mesa, Arizona; he´s been temple president for 2 years. He gave us a ride in his truck, and then we got to eat with him and the stake president´s family. An interesting note, is that our bishop here, was one of his missionaries back in the day when he was mission president in Buenos Aires. The Mormon world, is a very small world.

As for how the area is progressing... We´re working on it. We have spent a lot of the last week getting papers in order so that our investigators can get married and baptized this Saturday... It´s a battle, but we´re slowly winning it. There are a whole bunch of tests and other such things they have to get done because they don´t have children in common. I don´t exactly understand it all, but it´s what the government requires. It´s all pretty crazy. I know that I have been saying it for a while, but I should have baptisms this week. And they will be the first of many here. This area is slowly coming around, and if I have anything to say about it, there will be lots of baptisms here in the coming weeks and months. But then again, it´s all in what the Lord says. The rest of our investigators are all progressing pretty well. I´m excited. Every time we have a bad day, or a long one rather, someone shows up, some happy moment, or bright side of the day; a new investigator that´s amazing, something.

Well, I´m kind of out of time and things to say... I sometimes don´t know what else to write in my emails. The Church is true. It´s still growing, always will. I´ve just got to do my part as does everyone. I´m healthy; tired, stressed, but also really, really happy. Lots of stuff may happen to us here in the mission, but it´s nothing we can´t get over. :) I´m still going strong. I´ve got a lot of time left out here in the field, and I will try and make the best of every second.

Gotta run!!!
I love you all!!
Matthew