One Down, A Lifetime to Go (but I love it)
Hey friends! Well, it was transfer week, send people home week, get new missionaries week, random problems week, just as predicted. Transfer news isn’t anything crazy now that I know I will spend most of my mission in the office. I did get a new comp though, Elder Corales! He is super dope and from Peru so I am making him teach me Spanish. I moved over to his area which was next-door to my old one, still the same ward. My old comp, Elder Allen, went to Guarulhos because he will be the financial secretary in the new mission. With transfers our p-day moved back to Monday… not really the biggest fan but we will survive. Anyways this week was wild, the things just did not end.
Tchau Tchau
This week we had 12 people finish their mission and go home. We hit the ground running on Sunday. On our way to lunch we got some messages from our executive secretary that a Sister, who was scheduled to leave Tuesday morning, still didn’t have a ticket home and that our secretary would be out of office on Monday meaning she wouldn’t be able to buy it. This meant that Sunday night I got to contact the Church’s emergency travel agency here in Brazil. That was an adventure in itself. We had to call our old executive secretary to teach us how to do things that I hopefully don't have to do again.
On Monday I got to call said travel agency because they had problems getting the ticket, the Sister was freaking out (valid), and her family wanted to know when she'd get back (also valid). I told myself I was not leaving that office until I had her ticket. Shortly after my phone call I got it figured out. Also on Monday all the Elders and Sisters that would leave on Tuesday got to the office. It got real hectic real fast. They all went to President’s house for dinner and I kept working. After dinner all of them stayed the night with us so we spent the night having a nice Elders chat. Very interesting.
After sleeping for barely a few hours we woke up to make sure an Elder got off to his 4am flight. I slept for a little longer then went over to the office to start another day of hecticness, getting people home, and transfers. The Sister that I got the bus ticket for had a ticket for 11am which meant she needed to leave the office at 10am. Unfortunately she did not leave at 10am. She finally got in the Uber at 10:20am with an expected arrival at 10:54am. I called the Sisters waiting at the terminal and explained the situation and gave them one mission. Make sure she gets on that bus. I sat and wait breathlessly and prayed until I saw that Uber got to the terminal. By a miracle she arrived 10 minutes earlier than expected. That didn't mean I stopped stressing, I had to wait for the text that told me she was on the bus. At 10:57am I got that text and I took a deep breath. God works miracles. A little bit later I received a video of her on the bus on the way out and I could not have been happier.
Throughout the day we sent off a few more missionaries. The hardest one was our AP, Elder Bahia. As he was walking out there were 10 of us outside to send him off and he couldn't look at any of us. He walked from President's office to the Uber balling. That was hard. Later that night we sent off all the Americans, including my best bud, and that was it. Everyone made it to the airport safely and my job was done.
Transfers
Monday morning transfers were also announced. There were a lot of people that were coming from the interior to the city and vice-versa. What does that mean? A lot of bus tickets and logistics. The one who usually handles that is our executive secretary but, for personal reasons, she was not in the office that day so that meant we had the grand opportunity to make sure that transfers happened smoothly. Our day of working transfer logistics started at 10am… we left the office at 10pm. On top of that we had 22 trainers that needed to do divisions in areas while they waited for their novinhos! My comp spent most of the day handling bus tickets and I broke my brain figuring out where to put duplas on divisions. If you want to see transfer logistics look at our beautiful transfer board(s) in my google photos. Transfer day came and went smoothly. We had an Elder that went MIA for a little bit but not much I can do when he and his comp decide to get in different Ubers. Outside of that it was to sleep for a few more hours and greet the novinhos.
Novinhos
Wednesday we woke up, quickly got ready and crossed the street just as a truck of suitcases pulled up. We unloaded a bunch of suitcases and just like that we were getting another batch of missionaries. We got the office all ready and before we knew it we found out they were on their way. We gave trainings to each missionary one by one to give them all the information they needed to know to have a good first week. I had to translate every now and then and goodness gracious translating is hard. Out of everything we had going on my favorite part was getting to be the smiling face that welcomed them to São Paulo Leste. I know how overwhelming it is so I wanted them to feel as loved as possible. After giving a bunch of trainings, getting people settled, and babysitting a little more, it was pizza time. Yep we got pizza for all the new missionaries… unfortunately the pizza made everyone a little sick but we survived. It was super funny, two Americans and two Brazilians came over and rang the office doorbell asking where they could get food because they were starving. When we told them we got them pizza they were full of pure joy. It was super funny. Everyone also got to call their parents which is a new thing that President chose to do and I love it. When it got late enough we got everyone home, closed the office, and got people in bed. We only had a few problem children and a few missing beds but it is what it is.
Thursday morning I was supposed to wake up at 5:15am to get over to the office before everyone else… that did not happen. I got up at 6:25 and got ready super quickly. We got everyone's stuff over to the office and another day started. My comp and I went to the store to buy everyone food. Only as a finance secretary do you go to the store and ask for 50 slices of cheese. Gonna be so real I don't remember what I did for the rest of the morning but probably had to do with something. I did at one point get pulled into the President's office to solve a problem with their bank in Salt Lake and translate for him. I don't really remember when that happened but that was an interesting one. All the novinhos got their comps and then it was time to send them off to their areas. Oh wait, first we had to set up their banking apps, then it was off to their areas. For three hours I ran around the office with a laptop in one hand and suitcases in the other trying to get people to their areas. I was sweating and dead by the end of it. It doesn't get more secretary than that. I had a brief meeting with President. Finished up some pressing tasks and we closed down the office for the day. After four 15 hour days we finally got a second to breathe.
Secretary Sidequests
Helped install President's 85 inch TV on Monday
My comp hit a year last Monday so we bought 4 pizzas
Had to open 15 more phone lines in the middle of the madness.
Had like 500 meetings with President this week
Had a financial training with the area and then a budget report with President
Was the first point of contact for like everything this week, it was such an adventure
Was technology secretary for like a day
Did 12 contacts on Saturday, 8 of which were spanish
Brazil is dead during the World Cup. The city that never stops… stopped
Got açaí for the first time in a long time
President did a devotional for the youth that we got to go to
I was practically sleeping during two member lunches
Had the densest brownie of my life but it was so good
I got a little roasted by Sister Andrade but it's all part of the job. I'll be better.
God's Hand
I didn't crash out
Sister got to her bus on time to make it home
Everyone got to the airport safely
Didn't get fired this week
Being able to translate during trainings
Understanding Spanish
Real conversations
Power and authority from on high
The spirit of revelation
Spiritual Thoughts
Okay I need you to pay attention. If you are talking to someone struggling you need to listen to them first but you also need to listen to the Spirit. In the last 24 hours I have had time to talk to some missionaries who are struggling and in those moments they don't say much but the spirit says a whole lot. You know the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” It's like that but a million times more. The spirit reveals things that sometimes the person doesn't even realize and as we strive to feel and hear that voice we will hear it. That same spirit will guide your words and actions to support them.
“For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.” (Luke 12:12)
Just wanted to let y'all know that I have the best district in the world. I love them with my whole heart and I know that we were put here to support one another. Anyways sorry, I just had to boast a little. I love you all as well and miss y'all! Thank you for the emails. I will respond… eventually. Praying for you!
Até logo,
Elder Urbano
