¡Nuevo Cambio!‏

Woo and now we start a new cambio. I'm sure at least a few of you are excited to know what happened, and I'll tell ya'll shortly. But for now, it'll just be an agonizing wait (unless you just skip ahead, which I'm sure someone will do.) Even though it was the last cambio that Pdte Zambrano did, and should now be heading home soon, the mission doesn't really feel different. Not sure what I was expecting, but it didn't happen. Maybe in the next (and my last...) cambio it'll be different.

For the very last P-day of the last cambio, we all got together as a zone and we ate tacos. It has been a very long time since I ate Mexican food, and I definitaly miss it. And then, in the evening, we had a big FHE with our pension because it was the last Monday night of one of the Elders in the house. We ate cake and BBQ.

Really tastey. We also had a larger despidida Tuesday night for the same Elder, but this time without BBQ. I liked Monday night better.

After a long day of work and anxious waiting, Tuesday night the ZLs called to tell us our cambios. (Not too long of a wait in the letter, ¿no?) And so, we learned that my old companion, E' Quiroga, is now assigned to Riberalta, the northern part of Beni, while I stay here in Trinidad. My new companion is E' Abrego, a Latino from El Salvador that arrived in Bolivia with me. I was kind of hoping that I would get a new Elder to train try help me not be trunky, but instead I'm with an Elder that will be ending with me. How strange. And I might just be in my last area.

If it sounds like I'm getting trunky, it's a lie. I'm completely focused still. Wednesday in the afternoon we picked up E' Abrego, who was just in the neighboring ward, and started to get to know the new area. We took a little break to give our last farewells to all the Elders that were ending their mission in the airport, and spent the rest of the day walking and visiting a little. And we were told that the both of us were District Leaders together. Not sure how this will work out, but it looks like my little vacation from leadership positions has ended.

Normally, every Thursday morning we have the missionary meeting and Friday the weekly planning seasons, but for whatever reason this week it got switched around. I think it was kind of weird for most of the zone, as many missionaries were still waiting for their companions to arrive and had to plan alone, but who am I to judge. At least it gave us one day extra to plan the district meeting.

In the early morning of Saturday, we all went as a zone to play futbol together and get to know the new arrivals. One of the newbies is E' Quispe, my old companion from El Dorado that I trained. And now he must have almost a year or more in the mission. How crazy to think how fast the time has flown by. Sunday evening, after a very normal week with its weather, things decided to change. We were sitting in ward councel normally, and then it suddenly started to pour rain and the temperature dropped. Because there was no warning at all, none of us had brought a jacket. Luckily we only had to tough out a few hours before we got to return home and warm up a bit.

Most of the week after Tuesday we spent helping E' Abrego get to know the area, and us getting to know each other. We're super excited for this next cambio, and we are currently helping several people progress towards their baptisms. If all goes well, this month should be a white one.

Mucho amor,

Elder Yates