week 2 in the jungle - "A need for change"

Wow, I only have 10 minutes left of my 1 hour internet time....how does it go by so fast?! Well, I had to write a ton to President Ghent and that took a while. So it was a quick week, and a lot happened. I spent most of the week in divisions in Puyo (since Thursday, and I am leaving today, Monday) with only one pair of socks, one pant, one shirt, one tie, 2 garments, and 1 Guillermo to get a hold of and do the baptismal interview...what a strange week.
Monday we went to Quito for the zone leaders council. It was great and president has set some really high goals for the mission in February and in March. There were 6 more missionaries sent home for doing bad stuff (making 15 for the year 2013) and he talked a lot about change we need to make in our respective zones. He set a lot of new rules to help the mission get cleaned up (things like no talking to single women younger than 30 unless there is another priesthood holder older than 30 present) and to help missionaries get focused. President has asked us to make some big sacrifices to be able to receive the Lord's help in reaching our goals for these next 2 months. Then we had to take all that information and teach it to our Zone (one other companionship) on Thursday after a service project we did.

 

I then went to Puyo and tried to get the interview done, which was achieved, but the baptism didn't happen on Sunday and will be postponed until next weekend. We did another service project  here in Puyo (in my same shirt and tie).

 

Starting on Saturday was the holiday called carnaval. I spent it last year in Tulcán, you may remember. It continues until Tuesday.

 

Well, president didn't really want us to get involved and wanted us to stay away from any sort of craziness, but to answer your questions about my companion, we ended up getting involved. I did my best to be a good leader, and tried to set a good example, but some things are only noticed up to a certain point.Well, my whole zone is kind of lazy, being in the Oriente does that, and they aren't real pumped about being obedient...so I think that is why president sent me out here, to try and encourage the zone to be good.
Well, I have to get on the bus and take the 2.5 hour ride back to Tena, I really love it though because my bus book is Jesus the Christ and my goal is to finish it before I leave this sector.
Love, Elder Blackwelder