The Walker Missionaries: Transfer back to Rio

Phone call -I'm being transferred. I don't know. Let's plan to skype 3:00 brazil time.

I still haven't received the christmas package, but my new zone is where the office is at, so when it arrives, I'll have it.

Dear family,

I am leaving Nova Friburgo. I am being transferred once again to
Rio de Janeiro. I will be in Andarai stake which is the stake in the city itself. I'm talking Christ redeemer statue, Copacabana and all that. I will probably end my mission there.

The week was wonderful. We were limited on time due to mission conference in another city (Petropolis). Being short on time we did our best to talk with everyone and anyone we could just to teach a lesson with the hope that they would go to church on Sunday. We left Nova Friburgo on Thursday with no one that promised to go to church. Our travels only permitted us to get back on Saturday. When we finally returned, I had to do splits to do a baptismal interview which left Elder Assis , my companion, to be the senior in our area. elder Assis doesn't know our area too well. We were very unsure if he could manage it, but I figured it would be good for him to get to know the area a little better. He actually pulled it off rather well. He found every house and managed 5 people to promise to go to church. He also ran into his first bible bash and didn't know how to handle it. oops. On sunday two of the five were at church. They are a couple which means that we are in the process of baptizing a family. We actually had three investigators at church. This couple showed up, then ten minutes later another man showed up that we took to church last week. This other man isn't married. The funny part is that this man and the husband of our couple are brothers! Neither one knew that the other would be at church. We are in the process of baptizing a very large family. The members were excited to welcome a family. The bishop was impressed. I was happy. Then came the stressful part. Bishop called us out of our classes at church to talk about the family, but he had another surprise for us: two surprise talks! I had no idea what to say. A christmas talk? I gave a terrible talk. I pretty much just went up there and rambled on about christmas memories and missionary work. Never again!

The conference was also a lot of fun. We commemorated birthdays, and I had forgotten about my birthday. I was slightly shocked when my name was called. It was nice to see a lot of old faces: Elder Munns who says that mom still hasn't written him back, Elder Branco, Elder Cragun, and much more.

Well, I'm off to another area. I'm excited, but a little sad that I am leaving such a wonderful ward. However, I am happy to get out of here before the rain comes and floods the city again.

Love you all and the church is true.