Email Letter - 29 October 2008

Hey Family,

So I finally got transferred as you all know and I met my comp. His name is Elder Patterson and he’s from Spanish Fork. He goes home this February and we are the branch Presidency of the Reconquista, West Branch.

Here is Reconquista there are very few active members which I think is the case in lots of areas down here but in this zone its even less.

So there is a couple that are serving their mission here, The Caspersons. And Elder Casperson is the District President and he has two counselors and then our zone leaders are his secretaries. Then there are two other branches that have missionaries as the presidents and counselors including mine and then two others that have presidents and the missionaries are the counselors to them. It’s a little bit different and there is a lot of stress because we can only go out and work a total of maybe two days a week because of all the things we have to do to get everything functioning correctly. We have interviews that we have to do and finances and mutual for the youth and just everything. I guess I have gained a lot of respect for those of you who have served as bishops or counselors or secretaries over the years because now I know just exactly what you have been doing. Especially right now because of tithing settlement.

My comp and I have two areas; one is Reconquista, West and then a place about an hour away on a bus that’s called Villa Ocampo. There are no missionaries out there and the branch president there needs help with finances and stuff like that because he can’t do it alone so we go out there once a week to help him out and to talk to members.

I’ve got a lot on my plate and I’m just trying to sort it all out and get on track. My comp told me that we have an average of 5-10 people every Sunday at church and that’s including us. We conduct and bless and pass the sacrament and make sure that everything runs as smoothly as we can make it. Then after church we are there with our secretary for awhile doing finances and planning things like when we can have presidency meeting and do mutual and who we can visit to make things run better in the branch.

I guess they were right when they said that the mission gets you ready for the rest of your life.

I’m planning on becoming president within the next 3 or 4 months when my comp leaves but we will see how things go.

We have some really good investigators and we are working with them whenever we have a spare minute here and there and we have also made some planes to work with the families most in need in the branch. On my first day here with my comp after cleaning up our house some...because it was and really still is nasty!!!...but better now. We went out so that I could meet some members. The first family we went to visit was the Molinas Family and Sister Molinas didn’t waste any time making me cry. She told me about how her husband along with another guy in the branch were on their way back from church meetings in Resistencia almost 3 years ago when they got in an accident and both men died. Both of these families are in our branch and both of them consist of 6 kids with just the mom to raise them. As of right now they are both inactive but when she was telling me the story I began to cry and realized just how much help they need right now. I’m excited to be in this leadership role in the branch so that I can try to help these two families and many more to come back to church and receive the blessings that the lord has for them.

It’s going to take some work but I know that I’m in this area for a reason and that I can get over this feeling of stress and start helping like I should.

Thank you for all of your love a support. I love a miss all of you. Take care.

Tay