Tuesday, Oct 28th, 2014

Hey yall, So I was transfered, and I just got into my new area here in Vilhena 2 at like 5 in the morning. I had a 1 hour plane ride, and then a 12 hour bus ride to get here! It was crazy, but it looks like a great area. I am here with my new companion Elder Neyra. He is from Peru. He has been out like 6 months I think. But he speaks pretty well. I am here as District Leader. Our district has 3 companionships of Elders. 1 companionship live here close by, they are Vilhena 1, but the other companionship is like waaaaayyyyy far away. But for some reason they are in our district. There are a lot of areas like this that just dont go to district meeting, just zone conference. haha So I will just have 4 in our district meeting. It will be weird, but good to start off. I know I was telling you,Mom and Dad, yesterday in a email that I didnt know how my district would accept me, but they were really cool. The other 3 Elders (including my comp) picked me up this morning, and made lunch there at their house and we had a good time! One is from Argentina, and the other is from here in Brazil. This will be a good experience for me for sure. I still dont speak really well, but not have 3 other Elders in the house who speak English will definately help me learn faster. haha 

Our house is soooooooo much better! Its like 2 times bigger, we actually have real windows, we have newer things, we have a kitchen that will actually work, and a table to even eat on! Our room doesnt have air conditioning, but we have fans, and here its not neeear as hot as Manaus! Becuase we are in a totally different state of Brazil, Rondonia. So our house isnt that hot. I feel like we upgraded like a LOT when I arrived in our house! So yeah, I am pretty happy about that. 

Our Branch here is called Vilhena 3. But the attendance is a lot less than my last branch. We had over 110 every week in my last branch in Cidade Do Leste, but here we had like 37 people attend last week. My comp said its been decresing a lot in the last transfer it had like 65 but yeah, I think this transfer has been really hard on this area. My comp said they didnt have any baptisms last transfer. So I dont know what the problem was but I am ready to hit the pavement and get to work on this area. I want it to really grow this transfer. I know the Lord will help me know what I need to do to make this branch grow, and find the people that are ready for baptism! 

My companion only knows President Castro and so I can already tell he is more humble and is willing to do things the right way. I havent been able to do companionship study or weekly planning with my companion for the last 6 weeeks. My companion didnt want to do it with me. So I did as much as I could alone. like the area book and planning, I had to do alone. But I feel like this transfer will be different and I will be able to have a lot of help from my companion. 

So anyway, I am excited to see what this week will be like. I will be able to tell yall how it goes next Tuesday! Thanks for all the prayers of support. I know they are answered in my behalf! I am so grateful for them! 

I love you all, 

-Elder Swalberg