The Jungle Calls

March 12, 2012

After 6 months in Las Caobas I am finally being transferred out!  It is extremely bittersweet actually.  I love my area and the people that we work with, but a change of scenery will be a good thing for me I think.  In fact, I will be getting a major change of scenery as I am being transferred out deep into the countryside with a Spanish speaking companion.  My new area is called Yaguate in the town of San Cristobal and I will be with Elder Ramirez from Mexico.  It is deep in the countryside and relatively close to the ocean.  It's going to be quite the wild ride.  

This past week has been filled with preparation for next transfer and saying goodbye to all of the people I knew here.  I will be leaving behind Milton and his wife who just this week set a date for when they will be baptized.  They still need to get married which might take some time but they are attending church and are adamant about their decision to join the church.  We have found a few other great investigators in the past few weeks who I hope will progress with Elder Schaffer and his new companion. 

The only big news from this week came from Santa, who we are still working with after 4 transfers.  Apparently she was fed up with her husband living in the house and so she decided to barricade the door while he was at work to prevent him from entering.  Her plan worked and she hasn´t seen him for some time, but we don´t think that that will be a permanent solution to her problem.  Now I will be leaving and the next missionaries will have to do their best to help her fight her way to baptism, rather literally.  I did all I can and I am positive that she will one day be able to get baptized with her children, even if I am not there to see her through to the end. 

This transfer Elder Van Moos went home along with Elder Betteridge who is one of the veteran missionaries in our zone.  It´s amazing how fast the time flies, as cliche as that sounds.  We have a had a lot of fun sending off Elder Betteridge with small, missionary appropriate parties (aka hamburgers and sitting around talking about the mission).  I am also sad to leave behind Elder Domine who will be staying in his area training after only 3 transfers in the mission.  Also Elder Wilson, who I have become very good friends with, is training an Elder Petrie now who has an amazing conversion story.  They are all really amazing elders and it will be hard to leave them all.  Of course, I will also be saying goodbye to my companion Elder Schaffer who has taught me a ton about how to thrive in the mission.  It´s been a good few transfers and hopefully I can recreate what I had here in my new area.  It's going to be a hard transition, but so was leaving on a mission to live in a third world country and that turned out to be a fantastic decision.  

The jungle calls.