Tra-Tra-Tra-Transferred!

Hey Family!

Okay....

So yeah, you heard right from Elder Falkner. There was an emergency transfer this week. I´ll give you the download what happened. Nothing serious at all.

I woke up Thursday morning, just a normal morning as a missionary like any other. Did my excercises, took a shower, got all dressed, and 5 minutes after my personal study started, I received a phone call from President Cabral. He asked me if I would go and do what the Lord commanded me to do, I said yes. He asked if I was ready to take on a challenge, I said (a little more skeptically this time) yes. He told me that I had to pack my bags immediately because the Lord needed me in a new area, in a zone that has been struggling a lot.

I´m serving in the Bento Ribeiro ward, which is is the same stake as the area I went to after I left Maricá the first time (Bangu). My new companion is another elder from Texas, Elder Neuman. Just like Elder Falkner, he served in the states for about a year in the Vancouver Washington mission, and flew down to Rio shortly after receiving his visa.

As for why I got transferred, Elder Neuman´s old companion was getting really stressed in this area (Bento Ribeiro) for not having many results and the attendance dropping, and I´ve been sent here since he couldn´t handle it anymore. I took his place as district leader here, and since my new comp has only a couple of weeks here, we´re practically white washing the area. The other elder will love Maricá, which has got to be the most-growing area in this mission, and he´ll be able to get the results and success that every hard-working missionary deserves to have.

I´ll admit, it was really REALLY difficult for me to receive this assignment on such short notice, especially because I know the reputation that this area and zone has, but I´m not discouraged and I´m excited to strengthen God´s Kingdom in Bento Ribeiro!

So yeah, Bento Ribeiro is an area right between the two areas I passed after the first time I left Maricá (Bangu and Abolição). There are LOTS of people who live here, plenty of people to teach, and close to where the church is, theres so many stinking stores, I could buy practically anything. Our house is small, but not too bad, especially since it´s just me and my companion who live here.

I only have about two full working days in Bento Ribeiro, and we´ve already had some cool, faith-building experiences. We were knocking doors the other day, and there was one where the lady opened it and said " Come on in elders!" We looked at eachother all confused and said "wait wait wait, are you a member of the church?" and she said " Yeah! I´m the Stake presidents wife!". So, we got to know the stake president a bit, we talked about the needs of the stake, especially the Bento Ribeiro Ward, and we were able to get a LOT of information that we needed to be able to work well here, especially siince we don´t have a Ward Mission Leader here. He gave us a reference of a family that hasn´t been coming to church that they had fellowshipped and helped to be baptized, Lindomar and Leia. and they were very happy to see us, received us very well, and they commited to return to church next sunday. #Yey

We´re mostly focused right now on contacting and visiting incomplete families and helping them by sharing the message of the restoration and preparing the non-members in the family get to know the church and prepare for baptism. Because our area is GINORMOUS, we´ve had to walk a lot, and here ain´t cold, dawg.

Thank you so much for the scholorship info, mom, and for keeping me on the downlow about fall housing. I´m so happy that you enjoyed your conversation with Marlon on Saturday as well. When I received the reassignment on Thursday, he passed by our house really quick and said goodbye with his wife, Juliana, and their kids. Let them know that I miss them a ton! I love this church, I love this gospel, and I love the blessings that sacrifice has brought to me in my life in strengthening my testimony of the restored gospel.

Love,

Elder Braun

This Lan house doesn´t allow me to send any photos... soooo sorry :(