Among the Gaúchos: Zone Leader Stuff

Gaucho Legal

I bought these boots, all I need now is the hat to finish off my gaucho set. :)

7/13/2015

My first week here in Santo Ângelo as zone leader went well. My companion Elder Santos Araujo and I have a lot of stuff to do. We have a "good cop (me), bad cop (him)" relationship haha with everyone, other missionaries investigators etc., haha. When Elder Santos Araujo left the CTM I came in so he has 2 more weeks than I do in the mission which makes him my first companion who has more than a year on the mission when I served with them.

My companion Elder Santos Araujo

As a zone leader we don't have junior or senior companion so we just work things out as we go... so that's interesting. Here's some of the stuff we got to do last week. Tuesday after the 6 hour bus ride from Livramento to Santa Maria was the Mission Council (coolness!) where all of the zone leaders and leaders of the sisters get together and we receive training from the assistants, Sister Parrela and Presidente. A big part of what they told us to help our missionaries was to 1) be happy and 2) believe we can baptize. Then after the trainings everyone sits in a bit circle and we discuss ideas of how to improve the mission. I presented an idea of how to better accompany our district/zone meetings with specific goals and guided additional studies. After all the meetings were over Elder Santos Araujo and I got on a bus to Santo Ângelo, another 4 hours, and we got home late and tired.

The bus to Santa Rosa

selfie #aloneonthebus

Next week we have Zone Conference (meeting with various zones back in Santa Maria ahh! more bus rides) so as the zone leaders we had to contact the bus company that will leave from here in the city. We organized all of the information of the missionaries that will travel with us and had to communicate to everyone when we will leave and from where etc. The bus will pass through here, Ijuí and then Cruz Alta before heading down to Santa Maria (not to mention having to do all that in reverse on the way back -ugh).

As a zone leaders we also do the baptismal interviews for our district leaders. A bit about Zone Santo Ângelo: its huge! The zone covers 4 cities, here, Santa Rosa, San Tiago, and São Luiz Gonzaga. So Friday I had to travel to Santa Rosa alone to go do a baptismal interview for the district leader there. I left 6 from here got there 7. Ran and did the interview: all good. Then went to the district leader's house and gave him some instruction on how to do the paper work etc. because he is new. Then ran back to the bus station at 9 to get home around 10. A bit exhausting but it's all part of the deal. My area here has had some great elders pass through so we have a lot of work to do. Including we had a baptism this week of a boy named Sandro :) Irmão Guilherme is his neighbor and has been working with Sandro's family to bring them to church, literally we are only helping him do his own missionary work as a member.
This week will be super busy too so I look forward to getting to tell y'all all about it.

Love and hugs! have a great week

Elder Pierce