Transfer to Los Arcos! & Semana 1 there

So interesting stuff happened this week. On Thursday we were supposed to have divisions with the zone leaders, I was going to stay in Rivas Vicuna with Elder Claros and Elder Butterfield was going to go to the sector of the zone leaders with Elder Wilke. But Thursday morning we had our interviews with President Jones, which we have every change. President pulled me and Elder Butterfield aside and told us he had to talk to us. He said we would have special changes and that I was leaving Rivas Vicuna and Elder Butterfield would stay. He told us at about 11 in the morning, and said I needed to be ready to leave by 3 in the afternoon.

"I talked with him about it in the interview. He said that being a misionary is like being a surgeon´s knife. To be useful, the knife has to be sharp and clean. The knife is the one that has to get dirty and messy, and when all is said and done nobody tells the knife that it did a good job on the surgery. Obviously the knife really didn't do anything, but was just an instrument in the surgeon's hand. The surgeon, of course, being Jesus Christ, since He is the one that is guiding this work. President also told me it was really important that I place my faith in the Lord and not in my own talents or abilities. He is really a great man and always knows the right things to say. So Thursday we went to visit people to say bye after I packed up. We went to see the Correa family and it was really hard to say bye to them. They made me and Elder Butterfield a dvd slide show of pictures and it was really cool. We also went by Cristian and Javiera's, but Javi wasn't there because she was with Vicente doing doctor checkups. It was really hard to leave. It is amazing how close I got with all of the poeple there in just 7 weeks.

"President told me the work in Los Arcos would be really slow and I would have to be really patient. He was definitely right. For the first time in the mission (which I admit has not been that long) we had zeroes across the board for our weekly numbers. I know that numbers do not matter but they are still a good indicator of how the work is progressing; they are called the key indicators for a reason. My new companion is Elder Becerra. He is from southern Chile. He has about 1 year 5 months in the mission. He does not speak English. So yeah i am speaking a lot of Spanish but that is definitely the best way to learn. We have two wards in our sector, Los Arcos and Lo Ovalle, and we have a lot of ground to cover. Elder Beckstead was here with Elder Becerra, I switched with him and now Elder Beckstead is in Rivas Vicuna with Elder Butterfield. Elder Butterfield said that there is always a reason for special changes, thus they are called special changes. But I have no idea what it was, and I know it doesn't matter. I am here now and this is where the Lord needs me. So I will write more about my new sector next week.

"I love you all, thank you for your prayers and support. I think I need them now a little more than I did before in Rivas Vicuña."