Transfer Week! First Change of Areas!

Villa Mella Zone

(Emailed to Friends)
What a week it's been.  Crazy crazy.  Really hard to keep myself motivated to work, since it was pretty much assumed I was leaving.  Hard to focus in lessons and everything, but I gave it my best. I'll do a quick overview of the week.

Monday - We had an FHE, but it fell through.  We ended up teaching Mon.  We answered a lot of his questions about baptism, and he's now going to pray if the church really has the authority to baptism!  I know he'll get an answer.

Tuesday - We did a quick intercambios in the morning. I worked with Elder Decker.  We had a few lessons.  Then they were fumigating the house for cockroaches so we had to come back a bit early.  Then we had a few lessons in the evening.  We had an English class which went OK.  We taught Carolina and Rocheli about obedience as well to help them be ready for their baptismal covenants.

Wednesday - A few lessons in the morning.  We had to come back to the house early to prep our tema for Thursday's zone meeting.  We gave it on commitments.  Then we left a little late in the evening as well because we were working on it, had a meeting with the ward mission leader and taught Mon some more.  Solid day, but not fantastic.

Thursday - Zone meeting.  We gave our tema on commitments and there was a few others.  It went pretty well I thought.  Really fun.  Really cool.  Then they brought new phones for everyone in the zone!  Way awesome.  They're pretty high tech (not really, still have a number keyboard), but are a lot nicer than the older ones. In the evening we had a few lessons, and another English Class.  We asked the bishop for some info the ZL's asked for and he kind of just chewed us out.  For like an hour.  Luckily he assumes I don't know much Spanish still so he just ignored me.  Haha awesome, but it made me feel bad for my comp.

Friday - Only had a few lessons.  They ZL's called and they took the phones back.  Aww.  Probably because they had a Facebook and twitter app haha.  We spent a lot of time filling the font, getting baptismal clothes, prepping and cleaning the chapel all for the baptism.  The baptism went really well.  Everyone filed in late, but that's just how Dominican’s are.  Carolina and Rochelli Reynoso are now members of the church!  Their brother/uncle baptized them.  Really awesome.  Their Dad/Grandpa gave a talk, and the other speaker wasn't wearing a tie so the bishop wouldn't let him talk.  We also watched the video of the restoration.  Went well.  I was super super happy for them.

Saturday - Contacted in the morning.  One lady just let us in without saying anything.  I knew she was a member just looking at her.  She then pulled out a triplet, her limited use temple recommend and a bunch of Liahonas.  She was baptized about 2 years ago, and moved and stopped coming to church.  She's in contact with one of the members though so I think she'll start coming.  The evening we had a bunch of weird intercambios and waiting.  It went OK.  There was ward council, but since Elder Decker and I are leaving we just did splits through it.

Sunday - 6 people in church.  The Dilone family has now come consistently for weeks, even with us not visiting them nearly as much.  They just need to get married and would be easy members.  Then we had a few lessons and a FHE with Carolina's family.  It was fun.  Sad to tell her bye after.

And the big news.  Transfers.  I'm going to Los Minos in the zone Oriental with Elder Martinez, from Panama.  He's got one transfer more than me and this'll be his first time as Senior Comp.  Elder Pawn lived with him and said I'll be in good shape.  Elder Decker is going to be DL in another district in Osama.  Elder Romero is going to finish someone's training.  Elder Pawn is staying the same.  Elder Stephens is going to be DL now as well.  Awesome.  Should be a really good transfer.  I'm looking forward to it.  I'll be going there tomorrow morning!

Carolina & Rochelli

I think that's about all this week!  Hope you all have a fantastic week!
Elder Easton Potokar.

(Emailed to Family)
Baptisms went really well. Carolina bought little stickers to mark her scriptures with.  Super awesome.  I think if her husband comes back they won't have any problem staying active. Carolina’s husband did come to her baptism, but not to her confirmation. And the big guy who baptized them is Carolina's brother, Luis, a rm. One of the little kids is Carolina's son.  The smallest one.  The one in the blue is just a neighbor kid.

On Sunday we ate again with the patriarch and his wife.  They have a daughter and her family who live in Utah.  Close to American Fork.  He's also a temple sealer and I guess was the first one in the DR.  President Eyring ordained him.

Also on Sunday the temple president and his wife came and spoke.  President and Sister Flake.  She doesn't know a ton of Spanish, but he does.  It was excellent.  Really cool.  He talked about tons of experiences he's had in the temple.  It was way cool.  I really really enjoyed that.  They're from Arizona if I remember right.  The same city as Elder Fusselman, my MTC comp.

Ward mission leader is awesome.  Super sick.  We visited him at his police station.  He's pretty legit.  Willing to work and learn, but he does work a lot so it's hard to do much with him.

Got a few people to write in my journal.  We're basically just going to make the rounds tonight so I can say goodbye to everyone and have them right in my journal. Maybe teach a few of them.

When we found that less active lady it really hit me how I'm leaving.  It made me super sad that I might never see these people again.  Felt like leaving the MTC or leaving home again.  Hurts. I'm honestly not looking forward to tonight much.  It's going to be super hard.  Super super super hard.  I know it's going to be super rough.  I had to say by super fast to Carolina yesterday and that was hard enough.

Got most my packing done already.  Just waiting for a few things to dry.  It's going to be hard to get everything to fit.  I'm kinda worried about it actually.

Elder Pawn lived with Elder Martinez so he told me a bit about him.  We're going to be living in a two man house, on the second floor.  He's from Panama.  Likes soccer.  Likes to work out a lot, so maybe he'll be able to help me with that.  Likes to study A TON. Probably like Romero does in all his free time. That's a fire and habit I hope I can pick up from him.  It's not going to be as exciting as the house I live in right now, but should be cool.  He sounds like a good guy.  Convert since he was like 13ish I believe. I'm sure I'll be able to pick up my journal habit without problems and will study a ton harder now.  I know he doesn’t know like any English either so my Spanish should improve a ton since I'll basically NEVER be using English. I think he has had 2 transfers in Los Minos.  It'll be like how it was with me and Romero.  We'll just work hard and try to figure things out while we're going.

I'll take a cab in the morning around 10.  I got the current missionaries number and called them in Los Minos yesterday and they gave me the address and I just give that to the taxi driver and that's that. I give him the address and he takes me right there.  In theory at least. I already called the driver and I'm set. I don't know if I'm closer or farther away from the temple.  I want to say farther. Not sure if it's a country or city.  It's close to Megocentro.  Same zone.  I think it'll be in between.  Elder Pena said his family lives in my area.

I know Elder Lansa is my DL.  He was Elder Decker's DL before and he said he's an awesome guy.  Also Elder Ventura and Moncada will be in my zone.  Should be awesome.  Not too worried about who'll be in my zone.  I'm interested to know who'll be in my district though.

I also finally got both of the pairs of slacks done too so now I have 5 or 6 pairs of slacks I can use.

Another question.  Have you ever written your converts from your mission?  When we found that less active lady she told us her missionary wrote her and she acted like that letter was pure gold.  I thought that was amazing and I set a goal of sending them all one every little while.  That was the moment that really hit me that I was leaving too. Paula and Victor will be hard to reach.  To send letters to them I'd probably have to send it through the mission, and I don’t' know how they'd write back.  Probably through the mission as well.  It'd be cool to send them Christmas cards, or things like that.

Lady in the blue shirt is Carolinas mom.
  Rochelli's grandma.

That lady is Carolina's Mom.  I'm not sure why we took a picture just with her haha.  I think her Dad is in the picture with us later too.  They are both members.  I remember her Dad, Manuel Reynoso, telling me everything is going to be OK when I cried in sacrament one of my first weeks here.  Really awesome guy.  Kind of goofy, but really great guy.  I didn't understand much when he told me that, but Elder Moncada translated for me.

That's Carolina's son, and Rochelli's brother.
He sticks his head out to watch people go by.
It's on the second story and his head just fits
perfectly between them.

The older couple are some less actives we visit.
They were baptized like 20 years ago.
Really cool people.

I'll let you know how my area is next week.  Hopefully I can find another fast internet to send you pictures this fast.  I'm sure I'll have tons of pics. That's about it this week.  Please ask if you have any more questions!

Really really like that quote on change. (There is nothing so unchanging, so inevitable as change itself. We need not feel that we must forever be what we presently are. There is a tendency to think of change as the enemy. Many of us are suspect of change and will often fight and resist it before we have even discovered what the actual effects will be. When change is thought through carefully, it can produce the most rewarding and profound experiences in life. There is a constant that allows us to use change for our own good, and that constant is the revealed eternal truths of our Heavenly Father.)

Love you tons!  Pray for me cuz I'm going to need it!
Love, Elder Easton Potokar.

That tshirt is for our zone.  The back of it is that liahona emblem that Elder Pawn drew.