An Interesting Refresh

July 29, 2013
Las Rocas, Chile (Elder Storey)

An Interesting Refresh

So we had transfers this weekend and it turns out that my time in Las Rocas was meant to be short-lived and I am gone again. However, I am not going very far. In fact, Las Rocas is on the far north end of Antofagasta and I am just on my way to the far south end of the city to a sector called Angamos. I am, however, crossing two zones to get there. Just a couple of statistics on Angamos. It is the richest sector in the mission with the nicest neighborhood (Los Jardines Del Sur) in the entire mission. The University of Antofagasta and the Catholic University of the North are both in this sector. The Antofagasta Stadium is in this sector. And, President Dalton lives in this sector and this is where he goes to Church. So it should be pretty interesting. My new companion is Elder Said and he is from Manaus, Brazil. He has about 3 months in the mission and I hear that he does not speak much Spanish and zero English. So it will be interesting communicating with him. I am going to be the District Leader over the other two sectors in Angamos. One of the sisters in my district is (get excited) Sister C. So now you guys will have double the pictures. I know, you are freaking out right now haha. 

(Sister C and Gunnar were in the same Zone way back in Iquique [where they started a month apart], she takes pictures, and has a blog her family maintains in which they post her pictures. Some of our favorite pictures [including our absolute favorite) have come via Hermana C.)

President Dalton has his entire vision based in working with members and in the email I sent to him last week I told him that I want to implement his vision and work very closely with the members. Well in response he has sent me to the ward where it is impossible to do anything without the help of the members. He also told me the he believes in me, so that is good. I was talking to my new ZL today (Elder Marsee) and he told me that with the right missionary Angamos could be a goldmine. So watch out because the right missionary just got here (or will get there, I am still with Storey right now).

I really never felt comfortable in Las Rocas. It is a really good ward with a lot of potential and a lot of good members, but I always felt awkward there. I am pretty excited to start over in Angamos. Elder Congleton served there and he told me that there is an American family from Colorado there and that several times the members gave him filet mignon so that is cool. He told me that you eat like kings there. I have to admit that I was not that happy to leave Tocopilla and I think that was a lot of the reason that I did not appreciate Las Rocas. I have now gotten over that and have decided to just give it my all to Angamos.

In exciting news the other two district leaders in my zone are Elder Hamblin and Elder Tymczymym so I am very excited for that. And in really good news the mission doctor had me drink a liter of milk a week ago and nothing happened. He thinks that I am fine, but we shall see. And yes I do fully intent on learning Portuguese.

(Elder Tymczymym is Gunnar’s good friend Elder Tym from the Iquique apartment. Last week Gunnar was worried he may have developed Lactose intolerance – which given his family history would not have been farfetched.)

Love, 
Elder Peters