Dear family.
It has been an eventful week. Today is the first day of a new transfer. For those of you who don´t know how the mission works, it´s broken up into transfers. Which is every 6 weeks. And every six weeks you or your companion have a chance of leaving the area you are in and you go to a new area and get a new companion or you stay in your area and get a new companion or you both stay. So Elder Savage was preparing me because he had a feeling that he was going to be leaving. In this mission (Brazil, Curitiba) if you are American, you usually stay with your trainer (First companion) for 2 transfers and then your trainer leaves and you stay in the area and get a new companion. Elder Savage and I had one transfer together, so it was rare that he would get transferred, but he had a chance to leave and become the Zone Leader. So he was preparing me for a maybe.
So last Saturday we went on divisions. I went with the Brazilian in our district. His name was Elder Cordeiro. We stayed in my area and I loved it. I took him around all day to our investigators houses and I was the one leading the way, planning the day, and teaching the lessons. I felt like I could handle getting a new companion.
Well, Monday was the day we found out what was going on. That day a huge storm hit Timbu. We had to hide at Pimental´s house for about a half hour, it was so bad. After we finished our day we returned home and had no power. Luckily I had some candles I had bought. We finally got power around ten and the call for transfers came around 10:30. We were prepped. I was in my sweatshirt and sweat pants drinking some chá (Brazilian tea) and we were sitting on the couch. Elder Savage put it on speaker phone. Elder Lima (one of our Zone Leaders) said transfers were in- he said "Elder Savage, Você vai ficar (You are going to stay)" I was so happy! I was about to start dancing! "Elder Askins, Você vai sair (You are going to leave)" I threw my head against the wall and literally almost started crying. I didn´t want to leave! I have friends here! I knew the area, we had baptisms. I only had six weeks on my entire mission! But I knew that this was part of the Lord´s plan for me here.
So that next day we went around to all the houses of our friends. They all thought Elder Savage would leave. No one thought I would. So we told them, "Elder Savage is staying, I´m leaving." We told our 2 important investigators, Celí and Rosilene. They started crying! We went and told Isabella. We told Pimental and his family. We told our other good friends, Marcos Duarte and his family. They bought me a Brazil Nation jersey and a kit with a light and a pen and a notebook. We told our friend Analia, a recent convert. She started crying. She loved me. She called me "Meu pequeno-grande homen" (My little big man) She gave me some Avon soap. We told Tuté. We had a nice pizza with him.
This morning I was packed and we went, again, to Portão. We went to the chapel for transfers. I am now in this new area, I forget the name of it. hahahaha. But it is actually in Curitiba. and my new companion, his name is Elder Awerkamp and he is Parker Awerkamp´s second cousin.
So that is my week. Pretty eventful. Pretty happy, pretty sad. I love you all and I hope you are doing amazing. "Don´t stop believing!"
love,
elder askins
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