2014-03-24: An Eye Opener and Lots of Room to Learn and Grow.

Well this past week was interesting... I spent Monday and Tuesday saying goodbye to the people in Palencia.  It was pretty hard leaving the area after being there so long, and I got attached to the people, and the area in general.  An update, so we went to say goodbye to the family I talked about last week and they are planning on having a wedding and a baptism in 3 weeks.  I am so happy for them!!!

Well I learned a lot from Palencia, the area and the companions, but it is time to move on.  As we were leaving the area at 6 in the morning on Wednesday in a taxi to go to change conference, I was just thinking about where I will be going.  I get to change conference and meet up with missionaries I know, I saw Elder Farr, and I go into the room to receive my change.  My new area is Zone Alameda, Area Alamada1.  Smack dab in the middle of Zona 18 of the capital.  My New companion is Elder Mendonca from Brazil.  Alameda is a zone where no one wants to go to... Every missionary I have talked to in the mission jokes around about how dead and how no one wants to come to this zone.  My companion and I are reopening this area because they closed the area about 5 months ago. 

So we leave from change conference and get to the area, and we eat lunch and unpack etc.  Then later we leave to work.  And I kind of have a feeling now when they say that this area is kind of dead.  There is so much poverty here, our area is basically a hill and on this hill are tin houses stacked on tin houses with dirt floors.  The walkways are alleys between these tin houses and there is just nothing here.  There are very few members here, and the hearts of the people here are closed due to the poverty, the lack of hope here, drug wars, gang wars, it is so bad that the military has a temporary instillation here across the street from where we live.  There are some members that live in our area and they are friendly, but these past 5 days have been the hardest 5 days of my mission.