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I said there'd be more at 11:00.

So my brother is now the assistant financial secretary of his mission. What that means is that he's responsible for a lot of stuff and important. However, he's really happy for many reasons.

See, what happens on a mission is that you're sent to a general area, called the Mission. The population in a give area determines the overall size. Where I live, the mission extends over a few cities, probably close to 40 to 50 square miles, approximated because it doesn't have square boundaries and this is just a general guess.

My brother's mission is the whole western half of Uruguay. Uruguay is split into missions: Montevideo (eastern half of the country) and Montevideo West (western half). Both of these overlap at the capital of the country, where the missionaries arrive, depart, receive mail and packages, et cetera.

Anyway, a mission is split into Areas, which is usually a state, province, city or portion of city based on population. Usually there is no more than four missionaries to an area, and each area has it's own housing and so forth. Each six weeks a Transfer happens, in which missionaries are let known whether they will stay in an area or be transferred somewhere else.

Getting on with the story, my brother disliked his last area, namely his housing. I mean he essentially lived in a shack. There were holes in the ceiling, mold on the wall, spiders everywhere, live wires hanging all over the place. Their electricity was controlled by a unit out by the street so punk kids would come by occasionally and turn off the electricity at random times. There stove was this little propane stove and they didn't have any propane.

I mean this place wasn't fit to live in.

So he's there for six weeks when his transfers comes in and he learns that he's being transferred to the capital to be the assistant financial secretary for his mission.

And he's ecstatic. He gets the best housing in the mission for starters. He learned that, because he'll be cashing in inter/national checks, he needs to become a citizen of Uruguay and get dual citizenship. He gets to have a Uruguay driver's license and is able to drive (something which he loves to do). There's a McDonald's and a Subway just five minutes walking distance from his office. And he gets his own personal computer.

So he's really happy right now. He went from living in the worst conditions possible to possibly the best. And what's more is that he's living with really awesome people. They make jokes over the intercoms all the time in the offices.

So he's doing good. surprised