Elder Zach Taylor - March 24. 2014: My Real Last Week In Obligado

Just a side note - in another short email, he told us that a package that we sent in November finally arrived! So Mom, your chocolates finally got to him! He says "thanks!" It only took 4 months! Ha ha! :)

 

I guess I´ll start off with the biggest news. I´m getting transfered! It´s called Carlos Antonio Lopez (or as President LaPierre always says, CAL), which is the same area I was going to get moved to last change but didn´t because of some difficulties with the apartment. My new companion is named Elder Chumacker.. or something like that. I´m not sure where he´s from, but I think he´s Latin. My zone leaders told me he´s a really good guy, so that´s comforting. This next change is also his last one in the mission, so I get to ¨kill¨ another missionary.. woo! They haven´t told me exactly what day this week I´ll be leaving. All I know is that CAL is close by, so thankfully it won´t be too long of a trip. As for Obligado, I don´t know what´s going to happen to it. President Muñoz said he talked to the mission president and heard they´ll put sisters here. So that might be the case.

This week´s been kind of a strange one, with Elder Hemenway ending his mission and all. It was also kind of a gloomy week.. it rained almost nonstop from Monday to Friday. The mud did wonders to my shoes. The best part of the week was District conference yesterday. We spent a good part of the week trying to invite as many people as possible to go, and we had a pretty good turnout, some 40 people. President Muñoz was awesome in putting together a bus ride and a small lunch to eat on the way back. It was really fun for me, my last big event with the people of Obligado/Trinidad/Hohenau.

My companion was also really happy to see some people from Coronel Bogado, his favorite area of his mission which is close by here. He was freaking out the whole time over because he hadn´t seen those people in over a year. It made me happy to see him that happy.. I hope I find an area that means as much to me as Coronel Bogado means to him.

The truth is I´ll miss this place.. I´ve learned so many things here, and so much from the example of my companion. He´s just one of the funnest, frendliest guys ever, and people in Paraguay absolutely love him for that. I´ve grown in a lot of ways during my 12 weeks in this area.. The good thing about being transferred, I guess, is that you get a fresh start to put everything you learned in your past area into practice. I´m really going to  try to make the most of my first couple days in CAL.
Well anyway, have a good week!

Elder Taylor