When in Roma!

Wednesday we had our first district meeting, there is me and my companion Elder Parisi (par-e-see)! he is super funny! I think I'm going to really love it here, it just below zapata, so the same climate, a lot of cops, a lot of crossings, a lot of illegals, and a lot of room for the church to grow. right now the elder in the senior couple is the branch president. he's focus for us is to find him a replacement before he has to go home. the other two companionships in the district are elders and they are both training, so the district is very young. I am the oldest one.

we have a huge area, with a white truck. we white-washed, which means the we are both new here! it's kinda stress full! but Elder Perkins, my old Comp. is my ZL and he is really helpful! I think I'm going to lose weight here. we don't have nearly as many members to cook food for us, and there is a park with a path around it literally right next to the apartment that I have started to run in the mornings. my companion is a little chub-ball, but he'll come if I ask him too! he wants to lose weight too!

The branch here is so humble. I had to translate for the english speakers. I was a little overwhelmed for the first talk, but the second one flowed a lot better! I was able to keep up! (the problem was they were both stake speakings and every time the first would use a word I don't know, I would get tripped up and fall behind)

I did a training in the Zone Meeting we had saturday, each DL had to do one for 5 minutes each. mine was about teaching with power and authority, so I gave each of them a little rock and told them to keep it and always remember to be a "little boulder!" it went great! I was happy with it, but so nervous! we have 20 people in our zone here!

We only have one cool investigator. She's really cool though! I started a transfer long competition for missionary work with my district today, it's called "El Rey Del Rio!" the king of the river! it's because although I'm in Roma, we're the Rio Grande district.

3 day training starts today and goes until thursday. that's three days of meetings and trainings with the president and all the ZLs, DLs, and STL in the whole mission. I'm just super excited to see all my friends from the whole mission! (and learn a thing or two about how to be a better missionary / leader)

-Love you guys lots! 

Elder Duerst 

p.s. don't know my new address yet, just send anything to the mission home!