Week 84 - First week as Zone Leader in Rivera

So this first week in Rivera has been really good! I'm super excited to be back! The traveling was kind of nuts. I had to take a 3 hour bus ride from Colonia to Montevideo, and then I waited about 4 hours in Montevideo, and then I took a 6 and 1/2 hour bus ride from Montevideo to Rivera; so that wasn't entirely enjoyable, but that's life sometimes.

 

I really enjoy being here in Rivera again. This area here is awesome, but it has a TON of hills and it's killing my legs. Ha ha! It's not really that big of an area but it's really awesome. I'm finally in a ward for the first time. I've spent the vast majority of my mission in really small branches but now I'm in a ward again. The ward has about 50 people that come to church but they're all very capo.  Almost all of them have desires to help us in the work and rest assured we are going to be taking advantage of that!  Also, for the first time since my first area, WE HAVE LUNCH EVERY WEEK WITH MEMBERS!!!! My apartment is also super great and right across the street from the church!

 

Elder Cox is my companion right now and he is awesome! He's showing me all the ropes in how to be a Zone Leader.  We've had really good conversations about how we can best help the zone and we're both ready to make lots of plans to help out the zone. He's from Syracuse, Utah, and he's from my MTC group, so we both have 19 months in the mission. He also plays the guitar so we use that a lot at the end of the day to build some companionship unity. Our zone is the biggest in the mission with 11 companionships, so it's a lot of work, but we're ready to take it on. 

 

We do have one person that we are teaching right now that has already come to church once named P. His wife died about a year ago and he has recently been looking for the truth to find comfort about the loss of his wife. Well, his brother-in-law is a less active member that they had visited, and through him found Pedro, and he went to church immediately. He already has a great testimony of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, and now we just need to keep helping him get to church. 

 

Well that's all for this week! Love you all!  Nos vemos!

 

-Elder Martin