36 NEW AREA. NEW COMPANION. NEW ZONE. NEW HOUSE. NEW. NEW. NEW :)

These are the Missionaries in Bryce's District that he had the privilege to lead.

All packed and ready to move. Goodbye house that is a store:)

The bus trip to my new area was 2.5 hours.  I was in the offices for almost 5 hours waiting to leave!  My new area is cool.  I’m super excited to get to work here. The bus was cool it had touch screen TVs on the back of every seat. We couldn’t watch the movies or listen to the music, but I was able to read all of my emails yesterday, I just couldn’t send for some reason. 

There were seven of us that came to Parral, and some of them I knew. Harrison from Arizona (Harrison lived in the BIG HOUSE with Bryce)  that was cool to see him again. I saw Nicoll (Bryce took Nicoll’s spot in the BIG HOUSE and they were in the same zone for quite a while) and MuciñoI (This was Bryce’s very first companion) at the changes too. Nicoll is training again and Muciño is a zone leader now.

Elder Harrison (AZ), Bryce, Elder Nicoll (AZ) Not sure who the sister is

We got to the place where the busses leave from to get to the station in Parral and left at like 5ish, and didn’t get there until like 7-7:30. When we got there we had to wait for the other zone leaders to get there and call us taxis to get home. Then we left, took my bags up to the house, then went out and walked the area a little bit. Then we came home and I unpacked and got the district meeting ready for today, and yeah went to sleep!

My comp is from Wyoming and he just graduated before he left. He doesn’t really talk much, but I think that’ll change soon. His Spanish is coming along slow and steady and I think he understands well, but speaking it is coming a little slower for him. He has 4 months in the mission and just finished his training and he’s doing really well. My comp has been in this area for 3 weeks, so he’s still kind of learning the area, so we are going to learn it together. 

We live in an apartment above a member’s house and it’s kind of small, but we have a kitchen, a real bathroom and stuff like that so I’m super excited!  I couldn’t take pics of the house this week because my camera died this morning when I went to take them :(  I’m more excited about the kitchen and that I have a closet honestly

I’m soooo excited to be out of Chihuahua! I’m in a little city called Parral and its cool so far! It’s a lot quieter than Chihuahua and there aren’t as many people. And my district is huge!!! (A district is a group of missionaries that live in a specified boundary) I have two companionships of sister missionaries and the zone leaders (zone leaders watch over several districts within a specified boundary)  are in my district, which is a total of 8 people!

Yeah I’m still the district leader. That’s why I was saying my district is huge! 4 companionships! I have more than half the zone in my district!

There are 12 in the zone in total, because they split this zone in Parral and made another one, with 12 as well. The zone leaders have to be in a district because it’s the district leaders who interview their investigators for baptism, and to be involved in the district meetings more.

Fowler  was sad he didn’t get to be a zone leader somewhere else. His companion got changed so I think he was happy about that.

I know my new zone leaders a bit, and one of the sister missionaries in my district was in my district when I first got to the mission, so I know a few people. The district meeting today was fun! We were laughing the whole time it was going, and having a good time, but it was still constructive and I feel like we are going to work super hard as a district.

I feel good about working here, and the branch (a branch is an area where there aren't enough members to make a ward) seems cool. I’m excited to have another gringo comp! It’s like what happened when Fowler (Bryce’s second companion) and I were comps. I finished my training and then I got an American companion.  My comp just finished his training and now he has an American comp.

Preston Fowler and Bryce - Bye for now, friends for life!

Questions from Jenna (Bryce’s sister) Is it uncomfortable to have to keep meeting new companions? Not really. It’s the same questions, how long do you have in the mission, where are you from, what do you like to do... blah, then you get to work. You get to know each other with time and it gets better when you both get more comfortable.

Have you liked all your companions?  Yeah I haven’t had a companion that I haven’t gotten along with yet... and that’s what scares me is living with someone that I can’t get along with for 6-12 weeks. But I think I’ll be fine this time too Elder Morgan seems cool.

Corn Tamales

Bryce and Elder Garcia at dinner eating tamales

I think this was taken because there are Nuns following behind??

Bryce and Elder Garcia 

Yeah, I have no clue

Nain and his family - This is a family Bryce and Elder Fowler found when the two were companions.  They were able to teach Nain about the church.  Nain married his "wife" (girlfriend in Mexico) and decided to have his entire family baptized.  He, his wife, and his son (his daughter is too young to be baptized yet).  Nain had his good friend baptize them.