New Area!

Hola Familia,

Well, I am in a new area. This place is called Cátiva in the Zone of Colón. I am now a Zone Leader and will be here like this until hte end of my mission. It was sort of a big surprise because I wasn't expecting this at all. Bur my new companion is a cool guy named Elder Harmer. He is from South Jordan, Utah. He is probably going to be the hardest working companion I will have had, and it will definitely be much easier for me to get up on time because he is very obedient.

In this area we have some pretty interesting people. There are a lot of Kuna people in certain parts, and several members that are as well. We have an investigator, husband of a member, who had lived in New York for I think 10 years, so we get to teach him in English (tiene plata).

On Saturday we went to a place called La Feria where there was a stake and community clean up project where we basically went around picking up a lot of garbage. I encountered some smells that I think are among the worst I ever have smelled, and some areas with black waters made me wonder if ever anyone had cleaned up there before.... But the difference made at the end was surprising. I didn't get any photos, but it was cool.

Oh yeah, before I left I told E. Pac that my new area would have a super dirty house, and it came true. we spent the rest of the first day here cleaning up, and it turns out that I think I am really going to like this place. I have my hammock back up and am sleeping in it again.

I think that that might be all for now. I hope all goes well. I didn't give Hna. Ochs the letter I wrote, but basically the ties I sent are recuerdos that you guys can use if you want, I will probably reclaim most of them when I get back. This computer does not have an Sd slot so probably I wont be able to send any photos this week. I will try to find a way to do so next week...

Love,

Elder Niendorf

hello!

Hola Familia,

I hope all is going well. Yesterday was another good Sunday. We had 135 attendence. About a month ago were were only reaching 80. Also, we had the last confirmation of the person who had had her baby. Tuesday we did go to the temple, and afterwards we went to Causeway. That's about it for this week.

These are my last two days here in my area. I have taken pictures with some of them, and I will miss them. But there are only 12 weeks left, so I will be able to communicate with most of them by Facebook pretty soon anyway.

So my time as a district leader has been good. I will probably find out mednesday how my mission will end depending on where they send me. I also have to print off some stuff for some people so this is about all I will send for this week. Next week should have some more news.

Well, until next week..

Love,

Elder Niendorf

August!

Hola Familia, This has been a pretty good week for me. Tuesday we were pretty busy with several visits. We got to see the sister and her newborn baby (she didn't get confirmed yet because she is still feeling ill). That was pretty cool, since the last time I got to know a pregnant woman before and after birth was mom with Josh and I don't have much memory of that. Also, I did my first confirmation in the mission when I confirmed her son, and it was a pretty intense experience in the sense that I actually felt a bit dizzy afterwards... I did Divisions with an area in my district called Kuna Nega, which has mostly people of that indigenous group the Kunas. I was with an Elder Cerrato (who is just like Joshua, speaks English and is form Honduras...) that also served in San Blas and had learned more Kuna than me. I did 4 baptismal interviews, and in our Zone of 16 missionaries we got 14 baptisms in total for the month of July. Why hasn't Josh written to me in forever? Time doesn't fly unless I don't think about, so I try not to dwell on the 3 months that remain. Saturday was pretty hectic because we decided to do an activity after the baptism to celebrate all the recent baptisms. We went to the Centro Comercial Los Andes to pick up the cake, soda, and ice cream, but we forgot that it was the end of the month where everyone receives their money and goes shopping, so it was hard to get a taxi back to my area (busses were all too full to take back a cake and stuff) so I saw a member from La Paz my area of over a year ago, so since my current area is pretty close to that one I got to chat with her and see how everything was going there. That was pretty cool. Then were got back and did the baptism, which went very smoothly. Yesterday we had 124 people in church! The highest in all my 4 months here. 6 out of 9 recent converts showed up, and several less active people we have been visiting (including one that we have been visiting since my first week in the area) So I felt a lot of joy yesterday for all that. It was great. Today is district meeting, internet, and washing clothes because tomorrow we are going to the temple as a Zone and then to Causeway (a place I went to last year in La Paz, with bicycles along the place la Cinta Costera, very pretty). Next Wednesday is transfers so the Monday after that I will tell you guys what my last area is in my penultimate transfer. That's all for now, love you guys, until next week, Elder Niendorf