Dusty's email -- 1/5/09

Sorry this is late. We had computer problems and were down for a couple of days.

JH


Hey all,

I’m here in my new area, it’s a city called Pachuca. It is about 3 hours from my last area. So for transfers I had to start at the Mission Home, then take a taxi with the zone leaders to a bus station and buy a ticket. Then I left with them and a few other Elders out here. It took about 2 hours to arrive here in Pachuca. But we got here alright. The area is a ton different than Neza. It’s much, much more calm. There isn’t graffiti everywhere, and there aren’t many dogs runny around. There really aren’t people in the streets. It is pretty nice.

At the transfers President goes zone through zone. Elder Reed, my friend from back home, also had changes. He is going to train a new missionary. So we were sitting by each other, and President started naming off the changes and all. He didn’t call us until the last zone. So he’s not in my district but we are in the same zone. At least I had someone to talk to on the bus ride. There were a lot of changes this time around. My 2 companions from the MTC were there. Also my papa (trainer), Elder Mora was made a Zone Leader. It was great to see all them.

My new companion is so awesome. His name is Elder Panoaya, he’s from Puebla, which about an hour and half from where we are. Haha, it’s kind of funny. But he is such a hard worker. He has 3 months in the mission and this is his first area. We are both real young, but he’s awesome. We saw a ton of success this last week and I’m really looking forward to this cycle, because he wants to work and we hit a ton of doors every day. We have 5 baptisms for this week and I hope for 5 in the next week too. But we have to talk to the people, because I’m not as sure with them. It’s so awesome.

It kind of stinks being a leader, because, for example, on Wednesday, I had to go out early in the morning to where the zone leaders live for some training on being a district leader. Which is fine. But to get there area it is an hour bus ride, or two hours roundtrip. So with the bus ride and then the training we didn’t have much time to work that day. But the Lord blessed the little time that we had this last week.

My district is awesome, and so is the zone. There are things that the last leader did a little bad and so I’m going try and do better. But I’m so excited for the opportunity to work here.

President Bulloch has raised the bar for us going into this year, and I’m excited. We have a great opportunity to accomplish many great things, and I know that my companion and I are going to be part of it.

It’s really, really cold here. Oh man, its freezing! It’s getting down to like 40 degrees at night. So it’s a shock, because in Neza it never got close to that.

Thanks for the letters and I hope that all is well. I hope that mom heals up quick and good which it sounds like she is.

I really liked the picture of Todd. I was happy and glad to see him. Dang, he’s grown up a bit. haha.

Things are great, and the new area is a lot different from the other one and is a ton bigger. But I’m getting use to it and loving it. The members are awesome. There is an returned missionary who comes out with us all the time. He makes me laugh because he’s gets out in the street with us contacting people and everything. It is obvious he loved his mission. He served in California and of course loved it there.

Look forward to hearing from you next week.

Love
Elder Howard