This first week here in Belloni has been great and has been a lot better than many of my other whitewashes... Elder Sasselli and I are zone leaders (this is Elder Sasselli`s first time being a zone leader) and we have gotten to know just a small part of our area because it is the biggest area that I have had yet. The ward is really big and we only cover half of the ward boundaries and we share the rest of the ward and the house with two other missionaries.This is my first 4 elder house and I`m really enjoying it, except for it`s really hard to manage our time with one bathroom for 4 elders and one phone for 4 elders to get ready and plan with the members. It is a ward of about 130 active members... but there are over 1,200 members on the ward list, so retention and inactivity seem to be a big problem here.
I heard from Elder Ferguson last night that Daniela Otero was baptized last saturday and we had a present surprise and we had a baptism here in Belloni last saturday as well. Her name is Maria Dupazo and she asked me to baptize and confirm her. Our ward mission leader is a great help here in the ward and accompanies us to a lot of lessons.
We have another baptism set for the 20th(Jaqueline Turco) and are teaching a family(Flabia, Joaquin, Constanza and Eloisa) that could get baptized on the 27th of August. We have been really blessed in our area and are gainnig the trust of the members here in the ward. What is a little stressful is that the rest of the zone is not doing so good. There are now currently 18 missionaries in my zone and we were the only companionship of the 9 that had a baptism this last week. and it looks like the zone as a whole doesn`t have very many investigators. I`m now in the same zone as I was when I started the mission in Bella Italia, and I even remember having come here to Belloni one day about a year ago in an exchange. I never thought that it would one day be my area.
I`m excited for this time here with Elder Sasselli. He is from Fresno, California and has been in the mission for about 9 months. He is a great missionary and I know that we are going to have a lot of success together. The other 2 missionaries that live in our house with us are Elder Burnett(from Springfield Utah) and Elder Kleinau(from Florida) We have a lot of fun together but they make me feel so old in the mission becuase they all have only been in the mission for 9 months or less... and I`m coming up on a year and a half. I`ve already learned a whole lot from them and from my area and am sure that I will learn a lot about following the Spirit in my calling as a zone leader to help my zone get back on top of things and start having baptisms again. Tomorrow Elder Sasselli and I are going to the mission home for a zone leader meeting and it will be fun to see all my zone leader friends their.
Thanks for all that you are doing... Keep up the work and always remember that the Lord loves you and gave his life for you and me. I love my Savior and I know that He lives and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is his true and restored church upon the earth today. The Spirit will guide us when we search for his guidance and are living worthily. The book of Mormon is true, READ IT EVERYDAY and it will change your life!!!
Love,
Elder Gardner
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