On Monday, before learning of the changes, the 4 of us missionaries living together decided to have a giant FHE with our pensionista and her family. As such, after a long day of playing fútbol and washing clothes, we had a fun FHE, just in case one of us had cambios. Tuesday during the day we still hadn't learned of the cambios, so we set about working normal. Luckily, even though it was pretty hot, we had plenty of people to visit and teach. As such, we didn't do a whole lot of walking.
Tuesday night was when we learned of the changes, and only I was leaving the ward. The others continue in the great ward. As such, I put about packing up everything. Since Montero is close enough to Santa Cruz as to not require flying, I was able to bring everything. Wednesday in the morning I finished up and set about to wait until the time of leaving.
When the time arrived, we grabbed all my things and we went to meet my new companion, E' Solano. I had already met him before, as he had the assignment to work in the mission office when I was still in Los Pinos, which share the same Zone. Before we left to our new area (since there weren't missionaries in Floresta this past cambio, we're 'opening the area' as they say) we helped another Elder meet up with his new companion.
After the long drive out to Montero (made even longer by a detour) we had just enough time to set our stuff down and eat lunch before picking up the Elders that will be training this cambio and heading back to the city to pick up the 3 new Elders for the Zone, fresh from the MTC. We got back to Montero and dropped off the Elders with just enough time to find dinner before getting ready for bed.
Thursday we went to meet the Zone during the Zone Meeting. It's a pretty big zone of 20 missionaries when we held the meeting. After lunch we walked about getting to know our area and searching for members to help us. At night, we had to pick up a missionary that was arriving from the department of Beni after his flight that joined us in the zone. However, when we got to the airport at the appointed time, we learned that the flight had been delayed 2 hours, so we camped out in the airport with all the other Zone Leaders that came to pick up missionaries. At long last the plane arrived, and we made our way all the way back out to Montero to sleep.
Friday in the morning one of the Hna missionaries had to take a flight to her new area in Beni, so we took the trio of Hna down to the airport to help one check in and prepare for the flight. We returned to Montero and had more time to wander the area. However, at night, another Hna was arriving from Beni by plane, so we made our way back to the airport, waited for her plane to land, picked her up, then made our way back to Montero for the night.
Saturday looked like it would be a normal day of work, and we decided to take advantage of a missionary that had served in the ward earlier in his mission, that just happens to live in our house. As such, we did a little intercambio (exchange) with them. In my adventures, I met up with an Hno that I knew from Los Pinos, which was pretty exciting. However, we got a call from the office informing us of emergancy tansfers for the Elders that we were doing an intercambio with. As such, we rushed back to the house, got them packed up, and helped them get to their new area, which is about 9km south of the city. I've heard that Montero is about 80-90km north of Santa Cruz. Needless to say, we spent the rest of the working day driving.
Sunday we had a multi-stake conference, including all the stakes from Bolivia and Peru. We had the priviledge of listening to Elder Niel A Anderson talk in Spanish about the importance of attending the tample and temple marriage. From there we finally had a normal day proselyting, and the members here are super nice and helped us a lot in getting to know the area. I'm super excited about working in Floresta, and will be sending pictures of the beautiful area soon.
Con amor,
Elder Yates
**Follow up questions about his new companion and area**
E' Solano is from Lima Peru and will be finishing his mission in 5 weeks. He was the financiero of the mission for a time. We're the only 2 missionaries in the ward, and currently live alone. We have a pensionista again, and we do have a little portable electric stove. We also have a very cozy 2room apartment, with a place to wash clothes right by the window. There is also a large mango tree, which should be rippening in about a month.
The new internet café is about the same, only in Montero instead of Santa Cruz. We don't actually have a car, we went in taxis.
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