I am in the city of Chimbote. It's a larger city. I pertain to the neighbourhood of El Carmen. El Carmen is cool because it goes up a hill. Half is nicer than Cartavio and Chao (I sit on couches when I teach instead of plastic stools) and the other half is way more ghetto. It is really fun to have the contrast and it is really fun to walk on hills. I missed it.
The ward is incredible. We get between 150 and 190 every week. The members are extremely converted and always introduce us to their friends and references. Example: On my first day here, I was given a slice of tres leches cake on three different occasions. Our ward mission leader takes us around in his pick up Sunday mornings to round up investigators. Being a zone leader, I get to work with the stake president a lot and I am told that he is the best one in the mission.
Being a zone leader is pretty different. Our zone is HUGE and has 11 companionships in it. It's so big that we each have to have a phone to manage it. I do a lot less tracting. My schedule is the same but I OFTEN get calls of things that I have to attend to immediately. Meetings with President (I have to be there), broken showers (I have to fix them), sick missionaries (I have to get them medicine), packages sent from Trujillo (I have to sign for them at the bus stop), weekly indicators (I have to send them in), etc. I thought that that would bug me but the Lord lets you teach the most important people and everyone else just kinda slips away or taken care of by someone else. It is really rewarding and a fun change of pace.
Elder Boekweg is my ideal companion. He is 20 years old and he is a pig farmer from Lincoln Utah (a town of 150 people). That kind of gave him Kurt Cobain disorder and he turned to music. He is a great guitarist and singer but above all a fantastic song writer. I am going to learn a lot from him. He is patient, experienced, exactly obedient, and hilarious. He is going to BYU after the mission as well. He finishes the mission at the end of March with E Leavitt so there is a good chance that I just stay with him here until then which we would both be way down for.
Everyone always tells me that these emails are always way upbeat and I guess that's true. But it's because the Lord has just kept blessing me with great areas, members, companions, and experiences and I'm just super happy.
Hope that everyone has a great week. If you have any questions about Chimbote or about leading zones, shoot 'em on over. Love y'all
Elder Gonzalez
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