New Calling and Transfer

May 31, 2010
Aloha familia,.It’s been another good week here in Sogamoso. The situation in Sogamoso couldn’t have been better. We had good attendance yesterday in church and all the investigators are progressing and looks like they will all reach their goals.

On Sunday there were presidential elections here so they had us be in the house by 4 in the afternoon in case of any unfavorable reactions. It seems like President Uribe (the president right now) has been really good. He is conservative and has done tons to beat down the guerrilla group, the FARC and Colombia has progressed tons (before he got in they didn’t send American missionaries because of the violence and now its safer). Here, if someone doesn’t take 50% in the first go around, they do another vote 20 days later with the top two to make sure that somebody ends with the majority. The conservative guy, who will keep doing the same stuff as Uribe, won 46 percent to 21 for the other guy who is from the "green party" but since he didn’t get 50 they have to do a second vote on June 20th with just the 2.

Anyway as I was saying, just when it looked like I was going to see the fruits of our labors here in Sogamoso and see all of our investigators join the church... transfers came. Since the whole mission was in their houses early they called the transfers in the afternoon. I of course was expecting nothing. I have a good companion and we are on the verge of seeing the results. Anyway to get to the point, I'm out of here. I will be going to Bucaramanga! I will be in the Terrazas zone, the same one where I started the mission and I will be a Zone Leader. Right now it is the biggest zone in the mission (20 missionaries) and includes my first area Real de Minas and they just made Barranca part of the zone. Haha talk about surprises. Obviously it is tough to leave these special investigators, especially Guillermo and Lina. I worry because my companion and his new companion are both new and inexperienced, but I have talked to the Elder who will stay here as District Leader and Zone Leader and told them to pay extra attention and give them lots of support. Despite that I am STOKED. I think this will be an awesome way to end these last 3 months working like crazy.

My companion is Elder Butler, yeah he’s actually a gringo. He has been out about 5 months less than me and is from Texas. I know him from when I was in the office and he is a very chill easy going guy and he is a very good missionary. Also I will get to do splits every once in a while in Barranca (2 hours from Bucaramanga). I couldn’t hardly sleep because I really am very excited and I had all kinds of ideas running through my head of things we can do there.

I kind of skipped the Zone Leader step in my mission when I was A.P. but I got to spend 6 months working with them and "training" them so I know what needs to be done and I have many special ideas to really get things going. I’m really excited because it’s a position where you can have a lot of impact on the missionaries, especially newer ones. Actually I called President Hacking last night to thank him and the assistants also called to "brief" me a little. They told me that the zone has been struggling a little lately and there are a lot of new missionaries. They told me they wanted to use my experience there to help get things turned around and develop future leaders with some of the new Elders.

My ward is called Pinos and they say it’s the strongest ward in Bucaramanga. The chapel is a brand new stake center and is definitely the nicest chapel in the mission. Elder Butler was already the Zone Leader there but he was in a different area so we will both be arriving new in the ward at the same time. I already know the Stake President from beforehand which will help a lot because the zone corresponds with the stake so we should be able to work very well with him to coordinate things for the whole zone and implement all the ideas we have.

It's gonna be sad to say goodbye like always, but I know this is a great opportunity and an awesome way to end the mission. I will get to use 21 months of experience in every phase of the mission and I get three months to really utilize it. I will get to work with new missionaries, have leadership trainings, work in a great area and I am very very decided that I am going to "leave it all on the court" as we say in basketball. Three months to work my butt off in my favorite part of the mission and do every thing possible. I want to work harder than I ever have and talk to every person possible. Its scary to think that this will be my last chapter of this amazing experience and I want to make the absolute most of it.

I'm so grateful for all your support and I am so happy to be working for the Lord. I know that he lives and I know that we are in the truth. I hope with all my heart that the people I will have to leave here will not leave the path they have started and that I can do my very best in my last part of the mission and I can grow closer to the Lord than I have yet. Well gotta go, I'll be writing next time from sunny Bucaramanga. Love you all, thanks for everything, Elder Barnard