August 1, 2011

Heya family, who's pumped up for another Elder Abbott letter? Don't you want to hear about how many doors I knocked this week? Well actually here we don't really knock doors, we bang fences (every house has one, no matter what) with keys to get peoples attention, then contact them. Good times, every time. Okay first things first, transfers. That's right, today is transfer today and it did not dissapoint. It was super cool to see all of my buddies from around the Mish and goof and gaff with them for a while. This was the first Transfer Meeting with Presidente Flores, little piece of Mision Mexico Torreon history. He gave a really, really long talk about whole bunch of different things, but you can't help but feel motivated everytime he talks to us. Right now he expects us to baptize the world, which is probably what he should expect from us, but he sometimes says it in kinda funny ways. The normal baptizamal goal for a month per zone would be like somewhere between 20-30. He wants 1000 baptisms. Every zone. We thought he was kidding, but he doesn't really look like he is kidding. I don't know, I am still trying to figure out this President, but he is for sure a really inspirational guy. To tell you the truth it's about time someone came to clean up this Mission, lots of improvements we need to make. Anyways, so here is what happened at transfers: I got a new companion! It was tough to say goodbye to Elder Rivera, but he left for Gomez with a pretty new Gringo who he can help a lot. As for ol' Elder Abbott, my new companion is named Elder Chavez and....I am Senior Companion! It's true. The dude has about 3 months in the Mission and I am his second companion. I'm pretty excited about all of it to tell you truth, I feel like I am ready to take on more responsibility. So right now I am keeper of the keys and the phone of the companionship and it feels pretty cool. After being with Elder Rivera 24/7 for 3 months it's kinda strange to be with somebody else, but change is always exciting. So Elder Chavez, he's from Mexico City and seems like a pretty clean-cut guy. It feels like the start of a good transfer and should be my last here in La Rosa. This is my chance to prove something with my responsibilty, hope I can do a good job. I'm feelin' pretty confident.

But before all the transfers, me and Elder Rivera had a pretty action-packed week. Everyone knew it was our last week together and so everyone wanted to give us really delicious food and cake, we definitely didn't mind. Before the transfers came in last night, a member who recently got baptized organized a little fiesta for yesterday on our last day. Not like the dancing and music kinda fiesta, but a very chill cake-eating kind of fiesta. I really enjoyed it. A few of our recent converts were there as well as a few other members know really well. It was a pretty awesome experience to see these people I didn't know 3 months ago, but now I feel so close to. It was weird, a lot we're crying and everything! Once we got the news that I would stay here and Elder Rivera would go, people were bummed to see Elder Rivera go, but happy to see me stay. I felt the same way, man was I nervous before those tranfers came in. I really do love with area and want to make the best with my last transfer here, I'm lucky to be here.

What else happened? Not too much I guess, a pretty normal Missionary kinda week. But expect more details in my next email home, this week is my first week as senior companion, so should be "pretty....educational." Name that movie...Back to the Future! Correct! Those movies are easily on my top 10 of all time, probably in the top 5 actually. So good. Thanks for all the awesome emails this week, Randy gets the award this week, quality large email from Randy. Good size. So Daniel Dekker got his Mission Call! No way! My good buddy is headed down to Ft. Something, Texas. There are tons of forts down there, and I don't remember what they are called. That is really, really cool that he is headed down there. Tons of the people I teach down here in Torreon either lived in Texas, or have plans to later live in Texas. Could be that me and Daniel teach the same people in the future? Anything can happen. Tell him congratulations for me and to pack extra insulin. He'll just be a year behind me, and it'll be great to see him Thanksgiving of 2013.

Anyways, think thats all I got for you guys this week family. I did have some cool pictures, but another niño erased all of them again. I gotta stop letting kids play with my camera, always delete my picutres. But sounds like everything is good on the home front and everyone is happy, which is great news. I really do feel energized to start this new transfer as senior comp, just hope I can live up to what Presidente thinks of me. Congrats to Kev for finishing the Symphony Bar exam finally, and finishing his 27 year career of schoolin'. That is just way too much school. Okay better get going, have a good family, the church is true, take it easy, and....love you guys!

Love,

Elder Abbott