Tanner Just Got Transferred from Aguazul, And He's Pretty Sad About It

This picture does not do an adequate job of portraying how gross it is....

 Although it will be super hard to leave Aguazul, I have been called back to Bucaramanga to be the zone leader there. It is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, zone of the mission. I will be serving in a area called Canaveral. Despite being super bummed to leave my beloved Aguazul, I am excited to go back to my same zone and be the zone leader. I look forward to seeing some of the people super special that I left behind in Bucaramanga. 

I am writing this at 240 and have to travel to Yopal in a few minutes. Then from Yopal I take a bus to Duitama, a 5 hour ride, then a bus from Duitama to Bucaramanga, a 10-11 hour ride. Should be good.

I will be serving with Elder Gonzalez from Bolivia. I hope he is good.

Elder Pinoargote will stay and receive a comp. Elder Pinoargote is really great. I will miss him.

I will really miss Aguazul. It is real special here. It was tough saying goodbye to many people. It is nice to know that I am loved here. I really love them.

I am sorry, but I do not have time to write a large letter this week. I am here in Bucaramanga after having a heck of ride to get here. I will update you all in a short manner.

Zone Meeting in Bogota

First of all, when I received the call to leave Aguazul, to be honest I was real bummed. I love Aguaul so much. The work in Aguazul is not easy. With only two families and a group of only 10 strong members, it is rough. However, I fell in love with the branch, the investigators, the people, everything. I so desperately want to go back. With the last hour that we had there, we borrowed some bikes from a member of the church (which is against the rules, by the way, and I am sorry) and I visited as many people as I could. It was really tough to say goodbye to some people, like President Cortez, and especially Alba and Melina. They have a special place in my heart. I will miss them so very much.

Plus, Alba was officially reactivated this week. 

Despite the desire to stay, I had to leave. I was to travel to Yopal and then leave with Elder Palma for Duitama. The ride from Yopal to Duitama is normally 5 hours, but it took us 6. The road was horrible. In the bus we bottomed out many times. I do not get sick easily, but I was sick on that bus. 

We arrived in Duitama that night at 11, expecting to get on a bus for Bucaramanga. However, the bus never arrived so we had to sleep in the zone leader’s house in Duitama for the night. It was so cool and what made it worse was the mattresses were literally wet. As you all know, I can sleep in any conditions, but that night was long, cold, wet, and smelly. 

Tuesday we left from Duitama for Bucaramanga. I was the trip leader and the ride went fine. It took about 10 hours in bus. We arrived and I went with my new companion, Elder Gonzalez from Bolivia, to our apartment. It is big, but old and gross. I will have to clean it.

This morning we had to wake up at 3 AM, after going to bed at midnight, to go to the terminal to pick up new missionaries. They look so lost. Needless to say I am tired.

I am looking forward to serving here in Cañaveral. Elder Gonzales seems chill and hopefully we can get some big work done. I will probably be here for the next six months, but who knows. 

I will be a zone leader with Elder Gonzales. There are 22 other missionaries here in the zone Bucaramanga. We gotta whip some of them into shape. I look forward to helping them to become better, and learning from them. It will be wild.