Week 13 - Zecapa

Has it actually been 13 weeks since I left home? Inserio...

Happy Halloween, everybody! And, to answer the question, they DO celebrate Dia de los Muertos here! 

It's actually not that exciting...

During the day, everyone would go to the cemetery to go dress their ancestor's graves and show respect for those who have passed away, and then go to church. After church, the kids dress up as monsters and go trick-or-treating. I thought there would be more tradition here for this day, but that's basically it. No trick-or-treaters came to our door, so that was kind of disappointing. 

This week, I had to go on divisions with our brand-new zone leader, Elder Calamara. He's a quieter fellow, but he's a hard worker. What made this division different was that he came to my area, and I was basically in charge all day. That was scary because I've never done that before, and I felt like I was being evaluated with every step I took. 

Divisions start at the chapel. Every Friday, all the missionaries of the zone come to the stake center, or main church, to plan for the upcoming week. Then the missionaries who are going on divisions trade partners for the day. In the division companionships, one elder knows the area and knows the people; the other doesn't. The elder who DOES know the area (me, in this case) leads the other elder around all day, and after the day's work is done, reports his labors to the District leader. If you're not leading the area, this is really fun, because you don't know the plan or the area, and you meet new people and teach with a new person. If you ARE leading the area, this is really hard to pull off (especially if you don’t know how to speak Spanish fluently.)

So how did divisions turn out? Elder Malacara, the following morning, went over the mission rules with me again, and basically told me nothing new. 

This upcoming week I have divisions with Elder Vasquez, a new elder who has even LESS experience than I do. We'll see how that turns out, though. 

TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT EPISODE...

I love you all!!! Keep writing, and I'll see you all soon!!

Elder Jeffrey Reed