I Missed my Normal P-day, so Letters Today

Hello Everyone!  Last week was absolutely crazy! I had to go back to Ribeirão Preto to register my visa.  That ends up being about a 6 hour trip by bus.  I arrived there the night of Wednesday with a couple of the others who had arrived in the mission the same time as me. We stayed in the apartment of the office Elders until the next day when we did our visa registration which was super easy.  We had to sign a paper and get our finger prints and it all went off without a problem.  Then as we were preparing to leave for the busses to return to our areas, the fun began.  The office Elders told me that I wouldn't be leaving today because one of my companions, Elder Leal, was getting transferred and the other would be coming with him to Ribeirão and I would go back with him when they would arrive that night.  But some time between me not getting on the bus and they getting on the bus, the Mission president changed his mind.  So I was stuck in Ribeirão and we didn't know if my companions were going to come at all.  Long story short the President changed his mind back but I didn't leave till Saturday. It was a little annoying but it was interesting because I got to see what the office Elders do.  It is a very misunderstood  assignment in my opinion.

But I am finally back in Votuporanga and I actually get to spend the entire week here for the first time.  I am pretty excited about that. We have a couple of promising investigators but we are still doing a lot of finding since we still have about zero progressing investigators.  But we are continuing forward, Elder De Oliveira and I.  I feel like the work is about to pick up here in Votu-por-agua (as a member called it). I hope this is true.

I hope you are all well.  I love you all!

Elder Russell   

P.S.  Some answers to Dad's questions:  The food is all kind of the same for me.  I like it but nothing really has stood out.  Member retention is about the same down here as in the US I believe, so around 45 to 50%.  We don't knock doors (or actually clap in front of fences since everyone has a fence in front of their house; and not like a white picket fence but like a FENCE, occasionally with barbed wire); but we have a mission goal to do 20 contacts a day and these are usually in the street since that is way easier.  At the moment we do focus a lot of effort on finding new investigators.  The Branch is nice, is small, and not particularly into missionary work; but I am beginning to think that the previous missionaries here weren't always the best so that might explain that.