New Companion Elder Areola

So this week has been pretty good. My new companion is named Elder Areola. He's 22 years old and lives in the boundaries of the Philippines Baguio mission which is just south of mine. He only has two more cycles left before he goes home as well. He's really a pretty hard worker and it's nice to have a companion that's actually willing to put some work in. I'm also learning a lot about paper work type things that my previous companions didn't even acknowledge the existence of. So on some level, it's like I'm still in some level of training. 

Monday -

We'll just skip Monday and Tuesday in this email because it was with Elder Perez which constitutes a lack of work.

Tuesday -

Skip..

Wednesday -

Nothing all day with Elder Perez except for sending him of to his new area. Later, after being in a tri-some with Elder Butler and Vaea for a couple of hours, we went to pick up my new companion Elder Areola. I picked him up, brought him to the apartment, got him settled in, and then we went out. Basically, I just showed him around and let him meet some of the nearby members so he could get familiarized with the area a little bit.

Thursday - 

On Thursday we really wanted to work, but also we had to wait for the two new Elders coming to Ballesteros. So we ended up hanging around close-ish to our apartment and doing a lot of finding. We found like 20+ people. We talked to a lot of people and gave out a lot of pamphlets after sharing a short message about them. Also, while we were in the apartment for lunch I was in the bathroom doing some of that urination thing, and then a magnitude 5+ earthquake happened and it shook open the door and it bumped me. Like nothing really bad happened but you could feel it and it kinda made a weird noise. Later Elder Prusse and Elder Mamauag (the new elders in the area) came and we showed them their new apartment and stuff, which is just adjacent to ours. It's part of the same building actually. They're both pretty cool. Elder Prusse is from Arizona and is training Elder Mamauag. Elder Prusse is 19 and Mamauag is 26 and actually grew up in Ballesteros. His grandparents even live here still. So it's funny because he's serving on his mission, in his first area, in his home  town. Also I got 2 packages sent from my family that Elder Prusse and Mamauag brought from Laoag.

Friday - 

We went out and did a lot of work in our area, even though we realized that our area might be changed for the new elders. We just kinda went around and visited some members, less actives, recent converts, and did some more finding. We were also able to help resolve a concern of a member that had become less active.

Saturday -

On Saturday we did a lot of trying to reorganize our area so that the new elders could have an area. We basically gave them parts of our area, and the Ballesteros B elders (Butler and Vaea) gave them part of their area as well. It was kinda difficult to divide the area up because if we didn't do it carefully, it would mean that a couple of the companionship would never be able to work close to the apartment and would have to pay for a tricey to go out far every day. After getting that organized we walked to a further area called Palloc and had a dinner appointment with some members.

Sunday -

It was pretty typical of what a Sunday should be. We went to church, had a meeting with all the missionaries and the Branch Mission Leader, and then went out fellow shipping with lots of members. It was good and we got some work in and helped Elder Areola get more familiar with a different part of our area. And that was pretty much our week. I look forward to more work which was rare last cycle.

Pictures - 

pictures of me and Elder Areola, and then pictures of our whole Ballesteros district with the new missionaries as well.