Campos - Week One

Elder Woodmansee and Elder J Sousa

Some of the street art in Campos

The Bugre with the sister missionaries

Not quite the Ferrari Riley would prefer!

HELLOOOOOO

Wooo!! Well, I knew, it, I just knew it!

Sooo, I'm training! Yay! And not only that, I’m District Leader also! Wooooo

Yikes, this week was a little scary. We got to the transfer meeting, and it was good to see all my other friends from the mission. We had 6 new missionaries this transfer, and I was a little worried that I would train. Anyway, I got transferred to Campos! Yay! My area is on the south side of the river, the part that has the cemetery.

So, this week was really hard for me. Probably one of the hardest of the mission. My new companion is Elder J. Sousa, and he is really cool. Fresh out of the MTC, ready to work. Anyway, this week was hard because the elders before us left just about nothing for us to do. So I got to our area, not knowing where anything is, with just about no investigators, and no  addresses of members or anything. And I had to figure everything out for us. Yeah, it was pretty hard this week.

We knocked a lot of doors to empty houses this week. It's a holiday weekend here so that made it hard to. We tried to find people to teach in the area book, and tried to find members. At night was the hardest because we can't knock doors anymore, and all of our visits fell. Really annoying and frustrating. But there were definitely good parts to this week too. Like church on Sunday! And the lunches at members houses! They were all good this week.

This week was really, really hard. But I learned to trust more in the Lord. And that it will never be worse than this week, because now we have a few people to teach, know the area, and a few members to help us. And I learned to trust in the lord. Because there is no way that I can do it alone. I'm pretty sure I talked to more people this week, did more contacts, and knocked more doors than any other week on the mission. Elder J. Sousa has a strong desire to be a good missionary, and I want to be a good example for him, and help him do the best.

The only elder that stayed here is a little disenchanted with the ward, complaining that they don't help in the mission work. But, I learned from the sisters, (I have sisters in my district, with bicycles!) that  with WORK missionaries can have success in almost any area.

As a part of my new duties as district leader, I have to interview people that are going to be baptized! So I took a bus Sunday, after lunch, and traveled for an hour and a half to the city where the sisters are working. They have bikes because they are working harder than anyone else in the mission. Then we drove about 20 minutes in a Bugre (a little buggy thingy. See photos) with a member, to where the investigators lived. Everything was good with them so then we drove back, took another hour and a half bus. Yay!

So this week I’m determined to work hard, and have success in this area. This city is awesome. I know that with the lord's help my companion and I can have success in this area, if we work for it. There's a quote in Preach My Gospel from one of the prophets that says the key to missionary work is WORK! So we're going to work even harder, and talk to every single person that we see. Oh and people say I'm speaking extremely well for only having 6 months on the mission. =)

Well, it's a little scary still having to lead the companionship by myself, but it's a great opportunity that I have to improve myself as a missionary. I feel really blessed to have the opportunity to train and be a district leader. It's a lot of responsibility, but I’m pretty sure I was given this for a reason. Probably to help me be a better missionary and to trust more in the Lord's help.

Anyway, thanks for everything fam!

Congrats, Cam on the graduation, sad to have missed it!

Love you all, keep being awesome, I'll let you know how next week goes!

WOO mission!!!

Lots of love, I got to stay excited for the work and excited to work. =) And I want to be just like Dad when I grow up. =)

Love you all one more time!

Until next week. WOOHOO!

bye.