Paysandu

email 2/3/09
Farewell Montevideo! It is time for me to go. I am very excited for my next transfer. I get to go to a new area, which for me is exciting because I don’t know if you have all been counting but being a missionary for 16 months I have only been 3 places. I am very excited because I am training too. Tomorrow I will go to the offices and pick up a fresh green Elder who is coming from the MTC in Buenos Aires, where all South America South missionaries come from these days, no longer do they come from Provo. Then we will get on a bus and go to a brand new area. This will be my first time opening an area. (To open an area means to go in where nobody that was previously there will be there.) I am excited about opening an area because that means I wont fall into any wicked traditions of previous Elders, I will just start how I want and how I feel it needs to be. Paysandú is back up north, to the heat of the interior, and it is back to the small city. I can live with that.

I feel content to leave this area at this time. We just had 2 baptisms and we have 2 more set up for this next month and a few possibles, and the ward attendance is back up above 100. I feel good that I can leave this place better than I found it.

What I am beginning to really understand is that the Atonement is not something that we put on at the end of our lives. It is something that really has cleansing power today. It can clean us and change us today if we let it. Jesus Christ really is our Saviour. He really did suffer for the sins of all humanity. That is a reality, it is WAY more than a good idea that makes us want to do good things. It is true. The power of the Atonement is real and applicable.

I love you all so much and I hope that you are all well and happy. Take care!!

Andy