I am Loving Every Minute of it!

April 18^th, 2011

Hey Family

So this week was pretty good, exciting, and sad all in one. The sad part is that Elder Hicks is no longer my companion :( I am going to miss him, because we got along and had sooo much fun together, it made the work a lot easier. But some other exciting news, I got changed to a sector in the mountains called Catamayo! It is in Loja. So it is one of the hardest sectors in the mission because there are sooo many Catholics, but it is super safe here, like I can actually walk around with my camera and stuff. Elder Keables was actually here last year, which is cool! But ya we received our changes wayyy early. Like Thursday night we received our changes. I was really bummed at first, because I didn’t know where I was going, and we had some awesome investigators that were going to get baptized, and my companion was awesome as well. But then we got to the bus station where all the missionaries meet, and I found out that I was going to Loja I got super excited. I had to take a 9 1/2 hour bus ride to get to my sector! My companions name is Elder Linares, He is from Guatemala and has about 14 months on his mission. The first thing he said to me was that he was sorry, because he said he is crazy. So this change should be interesting. But overall I am super excited to be here; it is like California in springtime, it isn’t super hot, or super cold. I know you guys were complaining that I wasn’t sending pictures, so I made sure to take some alright! We have some all right investigators here; we are hoping to have at least two baptisms, if not more. Apparently Catamayo only had 6 baptisms last year, so it is a difficult sector, but I am super optimistic and I have faith that me and my companion can have success here. Almost everyone is super friendly here, they always say hi to us and it has a good feeling. But ya the ward is sooo small. I counted how many attended church and it was about 20 people. Crazy huh? But the church is super small; I think it only seats like 40 people. But my companion and me are going to be working a lot to strengthen the ward. The people that do come to church are very nice, Super strong. There are a lot of inactive people, so we need to activate them! But the limit to our sector is like 3 hours away in bus! So we have a huge area, lots of walking up hills and mountains, definitely some good cardio. But so far I am loving every minute of it. We actually have a meeting with an area Seventy today and tomorrow, that is why I am writing so early, because we have to travel like six hours today to go to this conference. So we have to go to loja at like 10 and then to Machala at 11·30 so ya. But the cool part is I should be able to see Spencer again in this conference since Cuenca will be there, so I will be sure to take a picture with him for you guys. Our house is super nice, like way nicer than the one I had before, Its pretty updated, I have like a closet dresser thing and a kitchen and it is all pretty nice. The only downfall is that the shower is super cold! Pretty much knocks the wind out of me every time I jump in the shower, But I guess that is a good way to wake me up! lol But anyway that is pretty much all that is new with me, hope all is well with you guys.

Love

Elder Tormenta