Well, I am now a zone leader. Monday night I said bye to everyone in my old area and got photos with them and everything. Then Tuesday bright and early in the morning I headed to the transfer chapel - where I had to wait two hours. Then I had to go to the bus station, and because we got to the bus station late we had to wait there for three more hours to get a bus. But after all of that I finally was able to get a bus to my new area - Barahona. The bus ride took 4 hrs. lol. but I occupied my time pretty well I thought. I slept for the first two hours. lol. but then I woke up and became a missionary again. I was sitting next to a teenage girl so I started talking to her. I noticed at the beginning of the bus ride that she was read, which is a little unusual because not very many people read here, especially not for fun. So I started talking to her about her book, then I brought up the Book of Mormon that I happened to have on my lap the whole bus ride. I told her all about how awesome of a book it is. And then she started talking about the after life. So I taught her the Plan of Salvation as well. And it was a way good way to pass the time in the long bus ride. Before she got off I gave her my Book of Mormon and she promised to read it. So who knows...... maybe one day down the road another missionary will find her and she will get baptized. A man can only hope right.
When I got to my new area my companion was waiting for me. He is a missionary that I have meet before. He was in my zone when I was in Bani. He is a good guy, but he can't walk very fast which is kind of a little rough because I am a fast-paced type of guy. But o-well. I got to Barahona at 6 at night. We went to the house, I dropped off my stuff, and then we headed right back out to visit the key investigators that we have. Then we went back home. On Wednesday we had to head to the capital again for a zone leader meeting with the president, so we had to wake up early and take the four hour bus ride to the capital again - way fun. But the meeting was good. I learned a little bit and then we had to take the bus all the way back home again. And we were late once again to the bus station. So we didn't get a bus till 3:45 and then we didn't get home till like 8. It was a way boring day. Plus we had two other elders sleep at our house with us that night because they couldn't get to their area because it was so late.
Then Thursday was our first full day. We started it off with my first zone meeting as zone leader - and it was good, We basically just copied everything Pres. Almonte told us and told it to them. Then we did a bunch of contacts and a few lessons. On Friday we taught all of our lessons and did the baptism interviews for our two baptisms that we had Saturday. Then Saturday we had two baptisms - but they weren't really my baptisms because I didn't teach them anything. lol. They were the other guys who's spot I took. But that was still cool. Also Saturday we got to watch the afternoon general conference session. But the bad thing was that I had to watch it in Spanish. The pres. gave a new rule saying that all missionaries had to watch it in Spanish. And I'm not going to lie. It was not a good general conference for me. I could understand just fine. It was just hard for me to stay concentrated. And Sunday was the same.
Now that I have a week in my area I can see that I have much work to do because even with my limited time, I was still able to manage to get better numbers than everyone else in my zone for the week. And I say I and not we because my companion is kind of a bum. I always thought that ZLs were supposed to be better missionary's, but this guy is one complaining slow fool. So pray to give me patience please.
Elder Woestman
