Rafael Castillo- Week #26

Typing to you from sunny....



Hey Everybody!

Alright so first thing is first. Where am I typing from right now? Let´s just say that we all expected me to be leaving Castillo because of the fact that Elder Shields and I had already been together 3 months and I had more time in the area. Yesterday we had our big transfer meeting with the big powerpoint that shows all the transfers that makes it kind of suspenseful, but lets just say, I already knew what was coming. Nobody knows any of the changes until the meeting, unless you are going campo, which is the far country-side of our mission, which takes like 3-4 hours to get to. If you are going campo, they call you before so you can pack up and take your bags right to the meeting, because you leave right after to head out on the bus. Let's just say we got a campo call on Friday night from the zone leaders...but it wasn't for me...it was for Elder Shields! Elder Shields got bumped up to zone leader, and is the zone leader in Chivilcoy, which means I am here in my first area of Rafael Castillo for my fourth transfer. I will be leaving here on the next transfer meeting, which is Feb. 2nd...August 18th-Feb. 2nd...that is a 5 1/2 month stay in my first area. I wanted to leave...and when Elder Shields first got the call I was really bummed. The natural man got the better of me. I basically thought of every reason I wanted to leave, and every negative thing about my area, and it was weighing pretty heavy on my mind, even to the point that I thought my mission was trickling away while I was stuck in my first area, I mean, we have been working our tails off over here, like hard...but we had so little success in getting people to church and progressing, but I soon got over it the more I thought about it. I realized Satan was already trying to halt the work before the transfer even got started. Through a lot of prayer I received a lot of comfort and an assurance that it is ok, I am needed for another transfer in Castillo, and that there are a lot of good people here that we are preparing for baptism. Plus, with a new companion, it is like a rejuvination of the area, new energy, he doesn't know what happened last transfer, so I am determined to explode through the doors of this transfer and get to work. Basically, I can do whatever I want, because I know this area like the back of my hand. I threw my little temper tantrum and now I have repented and gotten pumped up again for the work.

Speaking of my new companion, he is Elder González, from Chile and he has been in the mission for 13 months, about to hit 14, he was in the last Estandarte for 4 indicators, so I assume he is a hard worker. He is doing pretty well with his English, so we will be learning a lot from each other. He just got finished training Elder Hinton, so I think he is excited to work with someone that understands the language a little better. He is a bit shell shocked it looked like, because Castillo isn't the prettiest place. Little does he know we live in the nice part, but his last two areas have been Campo in Junín, and Merlo. Junin is, from what I hear, the prettiest area, and Merlo is the richest... whereas Catán (my stake/zone) is the poorest in the mission. I don't know much about him yet, he just got here 2 hours ago, but he seems like a good elder.

Anyway, Christmas is coming rapidly, and it actually kind of cooled off here, but it is still hot...also, I already opened all of my presents haha, except the peanut brittle...I am saving that precious treat until Christmas morning. Elder González and I have decided to call home between 3 and 5 my time here, so it would be around 10 to 12 your time. That is good that you bought a card, Elder Shields told me that that is how he does it, has his parents call, but Elder Fox and others buy cards and just call on them, we are going to try and use the Bishop's office, which is what everyone usually does here, so I will use the card I am going to buy today, but if that doesn't work we can use yours, but I will be calling you first regardless. I wrote down the number. I got the pictures of the tree, looks good! but I didn't go to that elf link, we aren't allowed to click on links, it is a mission rule. Well, I could write little details about random stuff, but I only have five minutes left, and we will be talking to each other in 2 days. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!!

Love, Sean