March 14, 2011 Gotta Get in the Zone

Hey World!

Well, it has begun. I´m a zone leader and it is so busy but really good.

Last Tuesday was the transfer meeting so my new area... Aracatí! It´s way cool! It´s an island in the middle of a resevoir. My new companion is Elder D. Silva. He is incredible! He only has one transfer more than I do but I feel like a kid next to him. He knows how to teach, how to lead, how to everything. I´m definitely going to learn a ton from him. But we´re pretty much just two newbies pretending to be zone leaders here in zona guarapiranga.

My first day in the area we were walking down the street and pretty much everyone on the street knew us and stopped to talk to us. It was cool.

We have some pretty good investigators. Our baptismal goals are Nelçi, Gabriella, and Maxuel. Nelçi is a really new investigator but she already accepted to be baptized this month and is way open. Her daughter is Gabriella and they are really struggling right now because Nelçi lost her job. But the first time we taught her we prayed that she would find a job and the next day she received a call to work as a house cleaner so that´s a miracle. Maxuel is the son of a member family. He is a little rebellious so we´re going to do a fast with his family so that he will feel the desire to be baptized.

We have meetings all the time. I had to go to the mission office for a district leader training to learn about baptismal interviews and such. It was good. Later in the week we had a meeting with the bishops in the new chapel that just finished. They are doing an open house so we had to go see what the plan was for the missionaries. That night we didn´t get home til almost 11pm! This week we have a few more meetings planned and a division with the assistants.

My first Sunday in the ward was ward conference. The ward is brand new (only has about 6 months) so it was the first conference. It´s an interesting ward but it seems like the members are a little more excited about missionary work.

Today we organized a zone activity because we are wanting to strengthen zone unity. We played soccer and volleyball then had a Churrasco, it was great! I´m way excited to work here and getting more into the leadership mode. It´s going to be an interesting transfer I think.

I love you all!

Elder MacLane Taggart