La Buenanoche!!! - email from Dec 24, 2012

I simply can`t believe Christmas Eve is here! I feel like just yesterday I was telling myself that I just needed to wait a few more months to talk to my family...and tomorrow is the day!!! Can you believe it?? I`m sure you`re all as shocked as I am about how quickly this time has gone by! Life sure has changed in the last year...I can remember it like yesterday when I called from Negritos during Christmas! Haha, remember that family? I hadn`t bathed for 5 days because of the lack of water!! Well, I just barely got out of the shower. :) Life is better, if not just a little hotter, here in Tumbes. :)

So this week for me was pretty crazy! Of course we had changes and I got the new position of being the District Leader! That didn`t mean a whole lot to me until Thursday when I found out who`s in my district! I get to have Elder Fankhauser in my district! He`s in my group, and is from Utah as well! I`m super excited to have him.

After just barely getting to know my district...we`re already missing one! I got the notice on Sunday night...Elder Santillan went home. :( He`s also from my group. I guess he just packed up his bags and left. He didn`t want to talk to President, nothing! His companion begged him to stay, but to no avail. It`s super crazy to know that...my first week as a District Leader and someone decides to bail, someone that has almost 15 months in the mission!

Besides all of the worry with that, this week has gone pretty well! My companion is doing great, and every day I feel like we`re becoming better friends! It will be tough to leave him.

This week we had to work hard to try to find new people to teach. This area just...I don`t know, it`s tough to find people to teach! However, we have faith that God will put people in our path. We were able to have some great lessons together. Even more great, we have some members who are really doing their part to help us out!

Oh! Another awesome thing...this week we had a Talent Show! I`ll try to include the picture of what we did, a midget trick! It was pretty fun, and a lot of people turned out! I wish the ward would do more activities, but that`s ok. :)

Anyway...I am looking forward to the phone call tomorrow! It will be fun! On the 26th, I`ll be heading back to Talara for the Christmas Multi Zone Reunion! I`m excited to go back...if not a little homesick for good old Negritos...I have a bit of hope of passing through there, but I highly doubt that I`ll be able to. It`s about 15 minutes away from the center of town, and there just won`t be time. :( Maybe I`ll get back to Talara sometime in the future...

Anyway, hope all is well with you! I love you all so much! Have a great Christmas Eve and remember to leave the cookies and milk for Santa Clause!!!! Haha, funny how we have such silly traditions, right? :P

Love,

Elder Schofield