WEEK 36: March 3, 2020

Goodbye to Vacaria!

No email from Andrew this week because yesterday was transfers and he had to travel all day.  He could only spend a few minutes on Google Hangouts with us, so I will summarize our conversation.

Before transfers were called in, his mission mom asked them to buy necessities for the apartment he has been living in for 6 months.  They went out and bought cabinets, chairs, dishes and a table.  I think they’ve been eating on a desk and using the same 2 bowls for everything.  Anyway, after purchasing all of those things, there was no money left over to pay for the cabinets to be installed.  Elder Hammond and Elder Barbosa did it themselves.

After putting all that work into that apartment, Andrew got the call that he was being transferred back to his first area (Cacador) and would train a new missionary.  He was really upset about that because there were some members there that had been pretty mean to him.  He had bad memories of that area.  His current companion must have felt pretty bad for him because he called the mission president and told him that he thought Andrew shouldn’t get transferred there.  A few hours later, the mission president called and reassigned him to a suburb of Florianopolis as a junior companion again. I think Andrew was relieved but embarrassed.

The view from his 5th floor apartment

Study areas

His desk

The beautiful chapel

His new companion is also from Brazil, but speaks perfect English and has been out for a year and 3 months.  The name of the barrio is White Rock.  I think he said the city was called Pariosa.  His new apartment is on the 5th floor and is tiny.  Four missionaries are crammed into a small room and they share one bathroom.  There is no elevator, but what’s a few more steps for a guy used to walking 10+ miles a day?  He did say that he’s glad it’s not summer right now with no AC!  The ward in this new area is huge though.  There are about 200 active members in the ward!

I can’t wait to hear how this next week goes for him.