This week was pretty cool! It had a handful of ups and downs, but it was full of good learning experiences.
This last Tuesday we had our Zone Conference. It was pretty cool, Elder Kampff and I were given a half hour to present a training to the Zone (26 missionaries) with the Sister Training Leaders(I dunno what theyre called in English). Then everybody got together to listen to the big bulk of the meeting with President Tavares. It was a cool meeting, we learned some new things. Afterwards the senior couple in our zone went to the mall to pick up the 48 sandwiches that we ordered for lunch. It was pretty funny, and also satisfying to see our plans work out. Afterwards we had a few practice sessions thingies to train our teaching methods, and from there, we all split off to our areas.
The next day, President Tavares hung around to use his time to interview all the missionaries in the Zone. Luckily I got to chat with him for a good time in my interview and I was able to resolve a lot of the problems that have been stressing me out lately. I left the interview feeling a lot better.
Immediately afterwards, Sister Tavares (president´s wife) came to me and asked "Elder, is Elder Jan still here with the car? I left my phone in the hotel, I need to go get it". I replied, saying that Elder Jan was in the interview at the moment. Sister Tavares, being a bit unpatient said, "alright, come with me Elder". I obeyed, and followed her outside. She handed me the keys to president´s car and said "Do you know your area well? Do you know where hotel Faro is? Take me there. I need my phone."
Alright. We hopped in the car, and to my sweet surprise, it was stickshift. She recognized a reaction and said "oh no Elder, I hope you can drive this type!" I said with pride, "stick isnt a problem".
And I came to the conclusion that that´s why I lived in Italy for 3 years, just to learn stick to help out president´s wife.
Haha but it was funny, my first time driving since entering the mission! We just crossed the town quickly and stopped in the hotel in which she left her phone, and then we came back.
In other news, being a zone leader this transfer has actually been a bit more annoying than cool. We had a couple of companionships who had misunderstandings with other companionships and it got so bad that we needed to hold a seperate "round table" meeting just with them to solve the problem... just highschool pt. 2 sometimes.
We went to eat lunch with the District President, Presidente Silva. He recently moved with his family to a neighborhood that´s about 30m by foot outside the city. In a division a few month ago, I actually knocked on the door of his house before he had moved there! When we showed up for lunch, I told them that I had already knocked on their door.. It was pretty strange and funny.
He´s a really cool guy, he had two sons there, with 15 and 17 years of age, and one more on a mission. Presidente Silva actually lived in Utah for 8 years of so with his family due to a church calling. As such, his sons grew up a great part of their lives in a foreign country. It was fun to chat with them about their experiences. I got to relate to the a lot, I did something quite similar. They said everybody just assumed they were mexicans and that they miss In´n´out a lot.
Just before sitting down to eat, President Silva headed upstairs and came back down in shirt and tie. He said, "Elders, after lunch, we´re gonna visit some folks I´ve met here in the neighborhood". And that´s just what we did. We headed out with him to find some of his new frends in the area. We found one, but he wasn´t very interested. But no worries! President Silva is doing an amazing contribution to missionary work, because he´s inviting!
Probably curoius about how General Conference went here... I was pretty nice, Here in Faro we´re basically the hub of the Algarve, so members from various neighboring branches came to town to watch in our chapel. It was broadcasted in Portuguese with a projector in the sacrament room. It was pretty sweet, I enjoyed it. There was a separate room with a TV in english, and a bunch of missionaries went there, and some members, many with the intent to learn english and watch in the native tongue, but I decided to watch in Port., just to get good practice in. The sessions started at 5pm and 9pm. The Sunday session at 5pm had about 80 people that showed up, quite a crowd.
Funny enough, I´ve already met the man who translated to portuguese. He´s from a neighboring branch here in the Algarve, and his father actually attends here in Faro. So, this elderly man in our branch got to hear conference translated to his tongue by his own son... how cool is that?
Well, I think that´s it. Things are going better now. I will be hearing about transfers this next week. President Tavares already has told me that I will be receiving a new companion here in Faro, so the new news will just be who it is! But yeah, I´m doing well now, healthy, learning.
Take care everybody,
Elder Ward
Ps, I ate octopus with a member this week, it was okay... tasted like boiled egg whites.
And we were playing a game with members this week. The person who lost had to do the cinnamin challenge... nobody pulled it off. I also didn´t lose, so I didnt have to. I got fed up with the wimpyness of everybody choking on cinnamin, so I did it voluntarily and swallowed, showing them all how its done!
A common sunrise that we get to see every morning here in Faro.
A photo with a bunch of people!
Myself, Ernesto and Yolanda (Ecuadorean members from Loulé who came to watch conference)
Esmeralda and Barbosa (Barbosa is a found lost sheep and Elder Jan and I got to know in Vilamoura, he´ll marry soon with his partner, and Esmeralda will be baptized soon.)
The woman in the front with the big smile is Blanca, another Ecuadoran from Loulé. She cooks good.
Then Elder Jan and Elder Fogg, who are still in Loulé. Then some other Elders. The woman in front of them is a Chinese woman who recently arrived in Algarve.
Last is Jorge, who plays the flute in a big square in Albufeira to work, husband to Blanca.
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