Anchieta

It´s hard to believe that transfers were only six days ago. It seems like an eternity since the transfers. Here is what happened.

I was transferred to a small town of 20,000 people called Anchieta. It is about 50 miles south of Vitória. It sits right on the ocean. Anchieta belongs to the Vila Velha Zone. We will be travelling to Vila Velha tomorrow for a Zone Meeting. It is about an hour and a half to two hours from Vila Velha by bus. We have District Meeting in Guarapari, about 45 minutes from Anchieta by bus. The area of Anchieta is quite large. Half of the members here live in a neighbor city, Piúma, about 20 minutes south of Anchieta by bus. In other words, we use buses a lot. And if you can believe it, the buses here operate without set schedules. Or rather, they have schedules, but the buses come so late that you never know.

I am with Elder Vieira. I did a division with him in Jardim Limoeiro a few months ago. He has about five months on the mission. He is from Sobral, Ceará, Brasil. He is really different than me, but so far there hasn´t been anything I can´t handle.

But, that is not all. Here comes the hard part. We both arrived in the area together. Or, in other words, we arrived blind. Without any knowledge of where members live, where the church is, where the investigators live, where the other Elders were working, or even where the nearest supermarket is. Let alone without knowledge of how to arrive in Anchieta by bus, how to catch the bus from Anchieta to Guarapari for district meeting, or how to get to lunch in Piúma.

Also, the church is tiny here. I am once again working in a Group. Grupo Anchieta. There were 40 people at church yesterday. We meet on the second floor of a members house. It is only party finished. It is very similar in appearance to the Grupo Serra-Sede, before we started going to the Serra Ward.

We are supposed to be moving houses as well this week. Right now we live in a teensy little suite above a member’s house. It doesn´t even have a clothes washing machine of any kind. The new house is a little bit farther away from everything, but it is in a nice neighborhood and is very fancy.

Oh. And I am not just Senior anymore. I am also District Leader now. And our district just happens to be the largest in the mission. I am responsible for our companionship, a companionship of Elders in Guarapari, and two companionships of Sisters in Terra Vermelha. And, all four of the Sisters and one of the Elders in Guarapari were transferred here on Tuesday. Only one Elder is not new in the district, and he only has one transfer in Guarapari. So, all of us here are fighting it out.

But on the good hand, Anchieta is beautiful. We can hear the sound of the waves in the morning from our house. There is almost always a nice cool breeze coming in from the ocean. And almost everything here is flat. No hills to climb. The four members with cars here have all helped us considerably. We are learning the area. Also, Conceição and Mylena, whom I left in Serra-Sede were baptized yesterday! There is so much to tell, but so little time! Imagine how it was for all of us to try to get to Guarapari for the district meeting on Thursday! We all arrived at the meeting over an hour late!

Have a good week everyone.

Elder Bodily