Week one in Valdivia!

Hey everyone!

Well here we are in my new area. I am in the city of Valdivia which is the biggest city i have been in so far in my mission and it's way different from Quellón, it's HOT! I haven't gone out to work without a jacket in so long but here I've never needed one so far. My new companion is Elder McDonald and we've been having a lot of fun. There are two zones here in Valdivia and we are over the zone of Calle Calle (that's cai-yay, cai-yay) which is part of the city and a couple little towns to the south. We have some awesome missionaries here and I'm excited to be able to serve them.

So the members here must have known about my awesome Thanksgiving dinner a couple weeks ago because my second day here we had a ward activity with a nice Thanksgiving dinner.  It wasn't quite the same as back home but much better than a turkey sandwhich haha. We had five investigators in the activity, which made me super excited to be here and help the work progress.

 This week has been incredibly busy. I never knew how much stuff the zone leaders had to do in this mission. On Friday we had my first mission leadership conference which was awesome. I love every chance I get to recieve counsel from President and Hermana Obeso, they are the best. We actually got to sit by them for lunch and they talked to me all about the food they have in Mexico but all I could think is how much I'd  just love a nice Cafe Rio burrito haha. President also talked to me about this zone and stake that I'm in now and how much help it needs, it's one of the weakest stakes of the mision, he said, but it really does have a ton of potencial. No pressure right? I've felt a little overwhelmed with all these new responsibilties that I am getting the hang of, but something he said has helped me have more confidence in myself. He said that the first day he was in the mission and interviewed me in Rio Bueno he knew that one day I would be a zone leader.  Him saying that helped me remember that the Lord has put me here for a reason and will help me rise up to the challenges. None of this mission has been easy, but then again life was never meant to be easy. Through the challenges we learn and grow and become the people that God needs us to be. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here and become the person I need to be in order to further the Lord's work.

Thanks everyone for your love and support, have a nice week!

Elder Cameron Dower