June 14, 2011-Killing the Rumors

Dear Family and Friends,
In this email, there will be several myths debunked. Starting off with how Tocantins really is. Tocantins is much hotter, but it isn't the rain forest. I am serving in one of the parts of Palmas called Aureny III. There aren't many trees and it gets pretty dusty. I have not seen any toucans, large spiders, large bugs, etc. To be honest, it's like serving in St. George. Just hot. Like, constantly sweating hot. I go through one handkerchief per day. But the people here are really nice, so we teach a lot.
President Pizzirani doesn't call the Zone Leaders personally. I didn't see him before I left Brasilia, but he will be here at the end of this week for the stake conference. The mission conference of trading presidents will be at the end of the month. The zone won't go down, but rumor is that I and Elder Richardson will go down to represent the zone and participate in the meetings/councils. There are 10 wards/branches in the stake. The stake is really spread out with the heart here in Palmas with other wards/branches in Paraiso do Tocantins (1 hour away), Miracema (2 hours away) and Gurupi (4 hours away).
My companion is Elder Richardson from Mesa, Arizona. We are both ZLs. There are 16, 2 for the 8 zones. We used to do trades back when I was in Sobradinho I, so we already know each other. He's a really good guy. There are 20 other missionaries in our zone. Because we are 12 hours by bus, we act as secretaries/zone leaders. This last week we had to resolve a lot of problems, so we didn't have as much time to work in our area. Also, because of the costs of traveling, resolving problems, I took out money as a precaution, because I might need it. It takes longer for our stuff to get here (1-2 times every 6 weeks), but I got lucky and received the package that was sent from here in Brasil, so that is fun. Thanks for everything!
We have 4 district leaders that are newer, so we are going to give a training meeting tomorrow morning to help our zone out. We are kind of in a rough spot, so we have lots of opportunities to change and grow. I kind of miss the carefree and easy days of being District Leader of 4 sisters. But it is good to have new challenges. The bus drive here was pretty long, but I managed to sleep for over 6 hours, so that was nice.
Tell Beka congrats, I know she'll love the temple. Good luck with all the craziness of family reunions and trips and stuff.
Love,
Elder Barton