Good News

Dear Family,
Well,there are many eventful things that have happened this last week. Most eventful starting with yesterday. We were eating lunch and we got a call from President Jones. He talked to Elder Butròn and called him as assistant! Haha Elder Butròn was definitely not expecting that. President always calls the assistants the Sunday before changes so that they can be there Tuesday morning and help with changes. So Elder Butròn had about 3 hours to say bye to a few people and then pack up. Elder Finter and Elder Williams (the assistants) came to the pension and picked him up. Elder Williams is going home in three weeks, and he will be a traveling assistant until he goes home, which means that he goes to a different sector every day and does divisions with a different companion every day. Elder Butròn will be with Elder Finter. Right now my companion is Elder Delong, but he is just a temporary companion. On Tuesday we will go to changes together, and we will take his new companion back to his sector, and I will come back here with my new companion. Also, in order for you to understand a little better the sitiuation, there is something I have to tell you that happened 6 weeks ago when I got to Talagante. On the day of changes President called me and asked me if I would accept the calling to be a zone leader, and of course I accepted even though I was really nervous. At first I didn`t want to tell the family because I really want to avoid the whole "look at me I`m a zone leader" attitude, cuz that`s just stupid. I`ve met a lot of moms in the mission who have missionary sons and they only talk about the leadership positions that their sons have "my son`s a district leader and he only has 7 months in the mission blablabla". Although I know that they are just proud of their sons. But if I had a son that was a missionary I wouldn`t be proud of him for that, I would just be proud of him for working as hard as he can, whether he has a leadership position or not. It`s really not that big of a deal anyway. But as I thought about it more, I realized that it was selfish of me to not tell you about my experiences in the mission. So then I decided to tell you about it, and then I just kinda forgot. So now I am telling you. the end. So the zone leaders are usually a companionship. Last change, Elder Butròn and I were the zone leaders, and now that he is gone, a new companion will come to help me with the zone. I will let you know who he is next week.
In other news, President jones is going to send 4 new missionaries to the zone to help in two of the branches that need more support: Esmeralda and Cordillera. They will only be here for 3 weeks. The two missionaries that will be working in Cordillera will live with us, since they obviously can`t live with the sister missionaries that are currently working in Cordillera. And the Elders in Esmeralda will live in Esmeralda.
In other news, Daniela the nine year old, is very excited to get baptized. She made a deal with her brother Rafael that he has to get reactviated so that he can baptize her. When we were in a lesson with her on Friday she said "I`m already ready to get baptized, I`m just waiting for Rafael to come back to church" Every time that she prays in the lessons she prays that Rafael can try harder to become active in church again. Rafael came the last two weeks, but he is struggling with the word of wisdom. The Branch President said that if he works hard he should be ready to baptize her by the end of the month. Also, yesterday as Elder Butròn was saying his goodbyes, we talked to Ana and told her: "Ana, you could get baptized two weeks from now. You are ready. Will you prepare yourself for an interview next weekend?" And she said yes! So Elder Delong and I went by last night to teach a lesson and she has a fecha for December 19.
To answer your questions: 1. i got the package from grandma and grandpa. Thank you very much 2. No, we did not get to watch the Christmas Devotional - so thank you for taping it. I think that's all for this week.
Love,
Elder Cloward