Dad - I agree about the weird feelings you're talking
about... I was talking with an RM here yesterday and he talked about how on the
mission you end up feeling like time never stops flying by, but also you don't
feel like it'll ever end. I can't get my head around the idea of stuff like,
"A month from now I'll be doing---" cuz I honestly don't feel like
it'll end still haha. So weird... But oh well, like you said, I'm just working
on ignoring it all, cuz it doesn't even seem like anything is gunna change.
With my new president, I'll try to explain how it's been. When President
Parrella arrived here 3 years ago, there was a TON of rule breaking and
literally a lot of sin. President Parrella had to really bring the hammer down
with really strict rules, and over the 3 years he like purged the mission of
all the crud that was going on. So now that President Fortunato arrived, the
mission is in a very smooth and right state of mind, so he's been able to
loosen up on a few things cuz he knows that the missionaries here are at least
trust worthy. The changes he's making are gunna make incredible things
happen... I just hope that I can experience some of the changes while I'm still
here.
So, news from this side of the world is that President
Fortunato is putting a MUCH bigger focus on working with members, and wow it's
been awesome. Members always seem to ask you how much time you have on the
mission, and now that everyone knows that I'm gunna end my mission here in
Aeroporto, they're all... let's say honored to be the "resting place"
for a missionary, and the ward here is ending up as kinda a family for me.
During the rest of my mission we haven't had that big of a connection with the
members and all, so it's been a lot of fun to get to know the families here.
The guy who was bishop before the current one went with us to visit members
that he knows who had fallen away with time, and we ended up finding this
awesome couple with 2 kids who hadn't gotten baptized cuz they aren't legally
married (still... dang brazilian marriage costs and hassle ><) but we
"reactivated" them and they went to church this week! They have a
little 2 month old daughter, and as you can guess... It made me hungry to see
Arlee hahaha... She's already so ridiculously cute, and to imagine here in a
few weeks? Good heavens it's exciting :) We're still learning new techniques
and changing the way we work a lot, but I'm really excited to see the results.
In all honesty it's kinda crazy cuz I'm super excited
to see how much better the work will go with these new ideas and rules and
stuff, but in the back of my head I know that it'll take a while for these
results to happen... And that "a while" will be longer than 3 or 4
weeks... It's a really bitter sweet feeling cuz I love helping the kingdom of
the Lord be more and more established here in BH, but at the same time the
Spirit makes me feel and realize that after these next few weeks, my duty is
going to be different. It's really weird to imagine that stuff really will change
here in the future. I'm dedicated and decided to work my tail off to the very
last minute, but it sure is weird to know that I'm not gunna be able to do this
amazing work for THAT much longer. I'm just trying to get everything out of
every minute that I can... Just as Mom has said how Aust misses Brazil, I'm
certain that I'm gunna have that exact same reaction. I love this place... I'm
beginning to realize stuff here that doesn't exist there, that I love... And
now I'm just trying to run around and get the stuff that I want to bring home
haha. Kinda hectic, but luckily on days other than pday I can forget about all
the little stuff and just go to work. Thanks for all your prayers, emails, and
thoughts. I'm so grateful for these last 23ish months that I've had out here...
It's just incredible to me how much I've learned, and I'm certain that I'll
learn a lot more these next few weeks. Love you all! Hurrah for Mighty
Israel!!!
-Elder Ballard
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This is our excitement of using 2 computers at the same
time!
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