Finally a New Post

           So being Assistant to the President isn't all that different from being secretary, except that now I don't have as much stuff to do in the mission office so I spend much more time proselyting.  I also have one more meeting with the mission president to talk any specific problems in the mission.  And we also do exchanges. Lots of exchanges with the whole mission.  This week on Thursday night at 10:30, we got on a bus and went 500 km to a city called Andradina, exchanged with the Elders there and then at 9:30 pm, we got back on the bus and came back. Needless to say, I am a bit tired.  Next week will be even crazier. We will go to Rio Preto and do exchanges there on Wednesday, and then we will go to Birigui on Thursday and exchange there and then we will do trainings with the missionaries in Aracatuba and Birigui on Friday and Saturday and then we will get on a bus Satuday night to come back to Ribeirao to go to church in our assigned ward.  So I can already tell you guys that I will not write on next Saturday, only afterwards. 

             Being assistant has given me a better window to see a bit how the Church works.  There is a lot of bureaocracy in the mission as in all the stuff in the Church.  Lots of numbers and we are looking for results (baptisms) and it can all seem just like a business.  But when we talk to the Mission President he is only really worrying about the missionaries and if they are well.  He sends us on exchanges with specific missionaries, sometimes just to see if they are well.  God does His work among men, one by one.  He changes the world, one by one.  He worries about us, one by one.  We are special to him, none of us are forgotten.  I know that that is true.

I love you all and hope that you have a great week! 

Elder Russell

P.S. Photos: We also had a baptism. That is a cool story that I will try and tell another day; and a wood house because there were some in Andradina which is really uncommon in Brazil.