WHOA! Elder Barros just told me what we did last week on P-day and it seemed like FOREVER ago, I thought that we had skipped our p day last week.
This week we were getting ready for zone council and trying to prepare for transfer. It is the first week this transfer that we didn´t travel. I am an emotional wreck, but not really because I can´t convince myself no matter how hard I try that I am not going to be a full-time missionary next week. I should have taken Krista advice and bought the things I wanted to take home with me along the way, which I kind of did, but not too many. I always put it off for another thing cause we didn´t have time, and nothing has changed. I don´t think I will be bringing too many things with me, sorry if your gifts are really lame... I am not good at buying things for other people, I especially apologize in advane to my sisters who are even harder to buy for.
I love zone council, it is always one of the most uplifting moments of the week. I don´t particularly enjoy giving training, I feel like I am ruining what should and could be a very uplifting spiritual experience, but with Elder Barros helping me out, by some miracle, it turns out alright. OH! just remembered something that we did!
Like I have previously mentioned, I was feeling down for passing so much time in the office and not being able to plan effectively because there was always something to do, and I feel like our area was suffering a lot, also I feel like maybe I was losing important missionary habits. It is SUCH a blessing to be able to go on exchanges with other missionaries. We called Elder Capistrano and Elder Cox from a near by zone and arranged an exchange with them for wednesday and thursday. Usually we do this with the intent to train and to help the area, and to also learn. I confess that they were purely selfish motives of wanting to get out and just get some work done and have a normal missionary life again :p. I also felt like we helped out a bit, and I love Elder Capistrano a lot, I will miss him. We taught a few lessons and contacted a lot of people, and I gave them a few ideas about how to help the area. Working side by side with those that we lead is so important, it is how The Savior lead.
I think that this email is my large plates of Nephi, just a summary, the small plates email might come later.
We have a great blessing in the Brasil Porto Alegre South mission, his name is President Castro. I have noticed that President Castro has a way of saying that he loves us, without actually saying it, which he does too, but he does his best to show it, through actions. He asked the area presidency if he could have permission to have all of the missionaries who are leaving the field participate in a course of Self Sufficience in their last week of service to prepare them for "the real world." It is a program from the employment center of the church, I don´t remember how it is called in english. We learned about how we can do well in an interview and practiced. It was REALLY useful actually and I enjoyed it a lot.
Before I came to the office, I had planned on asking if I could NOT participate in my last week, because I thought it would be a downer to finish my last week in a class and not out in the field. But when I heard President Castro explaning to us here, why we do this class the last week. For him, this is his present that he gives to all these missionaries, he asked for special permission to be able to do this, I felt overwhelmed and I couldn´t find it in me to say no. Plus, it was going to be in the morning so we wouldn´t be using work time during the day which helped me feel better about it. It was tuesday, wednesday and thursday morning.
Hey I´m gonna finish this up later, we are going to lunch. Loves. BRB
