Guess who's a Zone Leader!!???

ut this past week has been crazy! last  thursday, elder critchfield got a call from the mission president and he was informed that he was going to be training a semi-new missionary. but he didn't know if he was going to be staying in the area or if he was gonna get transferred.. so he went to a meeting the next day and found out he was staying!! soooooo yeah. the next two days were kinda long because i knew i was getting transferred i just didn't know where.. so then saturday night i get a call from president and told me that i was gonna be getting transferred. to where? Olmstead. do you recognize that? ha i'm back to where i started my mission !!! crazy right? except after he told me that, he told me that i was going to be called as a zone leader.. so now i am a Zone leader in the Olmstead zone, where i started my mission meaning i'm still in the bronx.. anddd the zone leader area here is english. so now i get to preach the gospel in english . 3rd language... haha i don't know why but it really just makes me laugh. My companion's name is elder Portillo! he's from nevada, but his family is from el salvador, so the both of us speak spanish and are currently serving in english. but i'm super excited for this next transfer! everyone who i talked to before i got transferred told me he was super legit and for the little while that i've been with him i think it has already been confirmed. he's been a member for 2 years, and one of those years he has spent on the mission. pretty impressive is what i'm thinking! but yeah, i'm already here, and it's super weird walking through a place i've already seen and been in, except i'm just going to be talking to different people.. so yeah. i'm a little nervous to be a zone leader, but i'm grateful for this new calling and i know that this experience will help me grow that much more while i'm out here.. it was pretty hard saying bye to everyone in my last area, its the first time i've actually been sad to leave the people i was working with because i'd been there for a little bit longer than my last two areas.. and who knows how long i'll be in this area because i'm called as a spanish elder and now i'm speaking english! everything is kinda up in the air. and sorry i'm not uploading pictures, the cable is packed in my bags somewhere and i didn't have time to get it out. we're gonna try to email again later today after we go shopping for food and if i get the chance to i'll try to send you guys some pictures okay? here is my new address!

ZAZZY

1435 Doris St. #1R

Bronx, NY 10462

I love you guys so much and hope everything is going well . take care and be wise! church is true!

hI ERRBODY!!

errbody.

this past week has been really boring kinda. not a whole lot has happened and things are actually kinda frustrating. patricio and teresa.. blah. they didn't come to church this sunday. and last time we had an appointment with them i was on a split so i didn't get to see them .. and we won't see them until tomorrow. so it's gonna be like 2 weeks since the last time i saw them! ridiculous right? they are really struggling. patricio is struggling with his faith and his commitment to getting married and baptized, and teresa is struggling with keeping patricio in check. she is SO ready and he is just holding her back.. and we don't know how to point that out without being mean. we might even talk to her by herself and see how she feels about it, and maybe they really will have to get separated.. who knows. we'll see tomorrow. everything else is going good tho! nothing new really. marisol and octavio still wanna get married and octavio still wants to get baptized, but we can't give him a baptismal date until they have a marriage date. and so we're kinda just waiting on them. Transfers are next week! i have no idea what's gonna happen. i could easily stay, and i could easily go. so i have no idea. next wednesday you guys will know! i really wanna stay tho, i don't feel like my work here in this area is done. but what do i know, i just do what i'm told haha today we are gonna go down to china town to eat lunch and then we are gonna go to times square and hang out, and then we're gonna end the day at central park, so it looks like we had a good day ahead of us. except it's really foggy, but it's not raining, and i can literally feel myself walking into little drops of water. super weird. it's really humid out here.  but they said it will be sunny at some point today. hopefully by the time we get to park! well. gotta go, love you guys! hope you all have a good week. adios!!

hI!

guuuyyyyssss

not a whole lot has happened since sunday. that night we went to a members house to celebrate mothers day and 2 missionaries in our district had birthdays so it was a party. but things our going well with our investigators. patricio and teresa are struggling a little bit, mostly because patricio is really really REALLY immature. i don't know how we're gonna get through to him.. teresa is ready and he is just holding her back. so we'll see. i was on a split yesterday and left my area so critchfield and another missionary went to visit them and critchfield said they made a little progress but not really.. it's so frustrating!! but we will press on . octavio and marisol are doing great. he comes to church with the kids every sunday and we visited them on monday and they are solid. we just need to help them set some goals so that they can really get going in the direction they want. and we want. and The Lord wants. haha but yeah. sorry i don't really have updates for you guys. but things are going really good. i was so happy that i was able to see you guys on sunday! that was so great.. kinda weird because i never knew what to say, but it was still awesome to see you guys and hear you guys! i love you all so much and i hope you have a super good week :)

we got new couches today. i love them

Mother's day is coming soon!

it's mothers day this sunday! wooooh!!! so yeah. we get to skype. we are going to the senior couple's house in our district and they are letting us skype over there... so nice of them! but there are gonna four of us there, and only one computer.. so maybe i'll have them text you when we get the times figured out? because they can do that. just know that i can skype :) i'm excited!

uhh patricio and teresa.. struggling. we're gonna go see them tonight for a little bit to help them translate something into spanish.. their fridge is broken haha so we have to help them call the service people.. but they were at church on sunday, we just don't really know how much time patricio "needs" ... hopefully not too long. we want to help him, but we cant force anything on him. agency is dumb sometimes haha but we DO have some good news... one of the less actives we've been working with has been living with her "pareja" for like 15 years.. but they're not married. the woman is the member, the man is catholic.. and he's been visited by missionaries for a lonnnnnnng time and has never had any interest. but last wednesday we went over there and he told us that he wants to get married.... and baptized!!!!! what the heck! haha soooo awesome! me and critchfield are so happy. we didn't really know how to react at first, but now we're just gonna help him with the missionary discussions and help them set a date for a marriage and a baptism.. isn't that awesome!? another cool thing.. remember Marta? the lady we baptized in my first area? well she showed up to our ward on sunday ! and it turns out she has lived in Concourse ward boundaries this whole time!! it was super cool seeing her and i think we're gonna visit her soon.. turns out she probly lives in the area i work in now.. i was so happy to see her haha it was awesome. but yeah. that's pretty much all the news.. my companion hasn't been feeling well the last few days so things have been a little slow cuz we wanna make sure he gets his health right, but he's doing better so things should pick back up soon! but yeah.. i'll see if i can get the Mcnairy's to let you know the times that we'll be skyping okay? love you guys!!! see you guys soon :)))

Investigators update

Hey!!!

nothing really cool has happened. except saturday we went up to a camp in newburgh, new york for a service project! only 2 of the zones in our mission went and i was lucky enough to be in one of them! and honestly, we didn't really do anything there except for take dumb pictures haha as you have seen.. uhmm investigators wise, we just got dropped by a columbian couple. they told us that they were raised catholic and all of this other nonsense and said that the things we are teaching them are confusing them about the things they've been taught their whole life.. which is kind of the point haha but they told us they didn't want to continue the lessons.. so that was lame. but they were really nice about it and said that we are welcome to come by and say hi whenever we're in the neighborhood. so we are still friends! as for patricio and teresa. gosh they drive me crazy! they didn't come to church on sunday.. then teresa called us yesterday and told us that patricio is having some issues.. he was all good and ready to go through with everything, but he went out with his friends on friday night and they pretty much talked him out of getting married and baptized .. they told him we are pressuring him too much and just a bunch of things that really got to him i guess. so i don't think the wedding will be happening next weekend. we are going over on saturday to knock some sense into him.. or probly just talk to him about how things are going and why he's had this change in him.. we have to help him realize the importance of both marriage and baptism. it's not the first time that he has his doubts so i think we'll be able to get him back to where he was/should be. i just hope this doesn't keep happening! blahh.. so frustrating. but anyway. mom's birthday is coming up soon, are you guys planning anything big? and mother's day! i'm so excited! it seems like christmas wasn't too long ago at all and now i get to talk to you guys again! you guys better be writing down your questions and stories cuz i want to hear all of them! so yeah, that's pretty much the update with me. and also that i've lost some weight since we've been going to the gym i think. i don't know if i look like it though. but whatever. i eat a tonnnnnnn, like. a lot. it's a problem haha good thing we're going to the gym cuz otherwise i would be mr. sumo!!! i don't really have any other news.. things are going well and i'm still having fun AND the weather is FINALLY getting nice. it has been teasing us for the last while but i think the cold is gone for good. at least i'm hoping so! i hope all is well with you guys, los quiero mucho!