One Secretary, Two Missions
Hey friends! Welcome back to another week of unplanned adventures! So this week the mission split happened, do nada. I woke up Thursday morning and the system had split the mission, no warning. That was not in the plan for this week but hey what can you do. That being said this week had so much to be done. If I am being so for real I don't even remember yesterday but hey we are gonna try to write this email anyways.
How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye?
So on Tuesday Presidente invited the secretaries to his super fancy house to have dinner before we split the mission. He drove us there and I was just taken out of the missionary world for a minute. We became a group of friends, talking about everyday life, going to his house for dinner. Joking around, laughing, smiling, it was a much needed breath of fresh air. The apartment that Presidente lives in was donated to the Church by the last American Mission Presidente who straight out bought it, for that reason it is extremely nice. We pulled into the properties parking garage and there were Porsches, trucks, collector cars, every direction that we looked. Put four Elderes that haven’t seen those types of cars in a hot minute in there and their faces show nothing but pure joy. Dinner was super good. Sister made stroganoff de carne, mashed potatoes, and chocolate pudding. The whole night was filled with laughs and smiles. After goodbyes were said and tears were shed everyone made their way back to their areas.
Wednesday was another work day which I don’t really remember what was being done but, out of nowhere, the secretaries for the Guarulhos mission showed up. I thought I had said goodbye to them already but hey, you already know, missionaries are really bad at goodbyes. We spent the day taking care of some things and laughing and chatting. That evening we said our real goodbyes and they headed off to their office. Well so we thought they were real goodbyes. On Thursday morning I got a text from President verifying that all the files that needed to go to their mission had been taken over there… they hadn’t. He told me we had four hours until the mission officially split and it needed to be done before the afternoon otherwise it wouldn’t be as easy. I got Guarulhos’s secretaries on the phone and told them they needed to be in the office and we had to get everything out of there. I called up our favorite member that always helps out when we need to transport things, João. We sent a bunch of files, 70 boxes of Books of Mormon, missionary packages, and other random stuff over there. We said some real goodbyes and just like that the mission was split. I thought we had one more week but nope, that was it. They may or may not have forgotten a few very important things but that's a topic for another time. It actually resulted in President video calling me so that I could see his reaction. It was pretty funny. Never thought I would get a FaceTime from President.
Two at Once
My favorite thing that my President does is walk up to me and say “speed this up for me” or “resolve this for me” (it sounds cooler in Portuguese) with no other instructions, just trust that I will get it gone. When President foreshadowed that I would be coming to the office (see the “Foreshadowing” email) he said he wanted to call someone that made it so he had less problems to solve and more time to be with the missionaries and in the field. He has held true to that, that's for sure. A big result of that is I am always doing two things at once. On Tuesday alone I got three random special assignments; an internal investigation with President on some missionary spending, decide who would get interviews then told me to send everyone home because he was already late for an appointment (dinner with us secretaries ahaha), get in touch with someone from somewhere to find out if a new missionary was flying in on Wednesday. Goodness sakes, that last one was an adventure. I called four different Church departments, got hung up on, talked to two important people, talked to two other people, got a different answer from everyone of them and eventually I talked to some person in Salt Lake and found out they weren't coming to our mission. That was a fun one.
On top of already doing two things at once I did another two things at once thing this week; running two missions! The Guarulhos mission, which didn't have funding yet so São Paulo East was sustaining, and my own mission. Bus tickets, MLC and zone conference logistics, deliveries, missionary travel, card activation, all of it passed through the good old Brazil São Paulo East Mission office. Multiple days started with a 4am phone call and ended with a 11pm last minute thought. On Saturday, our day out of the office I was having lunch with a member when I got some calls from some Guarulhos missionaries telling me that plans had changed for zone conference and everyone needed to head out… well I had a lunch to eat, a lesson planned, thirty minutes from the office, so what do I do? Pull out the member's laptop ahahah. Luckily the members are the coolest and didn't mind me using the table as my desk. By a miracle it all worked out and everyone was able to get home. I couldn't really tell you what I expected but hey it was an adventure. A big plus of all this hecticness is that I got to serve all my friends one last time.
Off Grid
There was a little scare this week when some missionaries went off the grid. I haven't been that anxious in a while. Quick run down… some missionaries got in an Uber, I told them to let me know when they made it home so that I would be able to sleep peacefully. I was monitoring the Ubers progress as well. The Uber got to their house and didn’t stop… okay it might be a glitch. I wait 3 minutes, it keeps going, no message. Okay I will just call them. No answer. Call again. No answer. The Uber is now driving the opposite way. Call again, this time a different way. No answer. Call their AP (they are in the Guarulhos mission) and fi him in. He calls. Nothing. I call the Uber driver, also nothing. By now 10 minutes have passed with nothing so we get both Presidents on the phone. Luckily Sister Andrade worked her magic as always and got a hold of the missionaries who had in fact gotten safely home and just decided to go ghost mode.
There was another situation that happened this past week as well but I am going to spare the momma hearts on this email thread and not share the details. Just know that at 3am in the morning my President made a 35-40 minute drive in less than 20 minutes and his wife almost got put in the back of a cop car.
Moral of the story: you all have mission secretaries and leaders that love you. When they ask you to let them know when you get home, please let them know otherwise they will not breathe until they hear your voice. I kid you not my heart was beating unhealthy fast for 20 minutes as I was glued to my chair. Afterwards I had to take a few laps. Another piece of reassurance for missionaries and parents of missionaries: when there is an emergency we do not waste time. Missionaries, if something is wrong do not hesitate to reach out. There is no “I was just kidding,” there is no joking around, when it comes to the well-being and safety of missionaries. If you say the right words in the right order there is a team of missionaries, mission leaders, and likely Church Authorities already at work to get the situation handled. If you can't tell I love these missionaries with all my heart, yes even the ones I had to send to the new mission. If anything happened to any one of them I would not sleep until I got the all clear.
Other Happenings
We had to take a laptop to dinner because who knows when work is gonna call.
After dinner on Tuesday, President walks up to me and goes get all these people Ubers please. Thought he was coming for a hug but oh well.
Also Tuesday night I had to assemble 30 snack bags for our beloved ZLs and STLs. It felt like I was making snacks for a kindergarten field trip hahah.
I spent the little free time that I had this week making the most beautiful, informative spreadsheet in my whole life.
Saturday me and my comp were practically sleeping walking in the streets
Last week I started sleeping with my ringer on, this week I started sleeping with a laptop at my bedside.
We deep cleaned our house this morning. It was so bad. I don't know the last time someone has cleaned this house.
Quote
“Argh tô trunky agora” [Presidente Andrade, 6/23/2026]
God's Hand
Missionaries safely getting home
Seeing angels protect missionaries everyday
Not sleeping through Church
Laughs and smiles
Members that are willing to help
Everyone got home safely
Everything worked out one way or another
Spiritual Thought
This week I read John 16 a handful of times. I was focused on the way Jesus Christ taught his disciples. When he saw that they were lost or confused he stopped, taught the same thing but a different way, gave examples, and did it all with love. We should not leave people behind if they don't understand, we shouldn't leave them in the dark, we should lovingly help. Christ gave the perfect example. This is something I am striving to do better.
19 Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me?
20 Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
21 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.
…
29 His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb.
…
31 Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe?
Okay I think I will end this here. It was another wild week but I survived and you survived this week's email. I love the Church, I love the Gospel, I love my Redeemer, Jesus Christ. I am so happy I am where I am and with the work I have been called to do. I love you all and update me! Until next week!
Com amor,
Elder Urbano
