What an eventful week, believe it or not, we drove over 1000 miles this week and didnt even get past the half way point of the mission! We had a tradeoff with the Mobile zone leaders so it was back to the homeland for me! With Mobile being 4.5 hours away we needed to leave about half way through preparation day, not too much happened in the car that was exciting enough to note other than we were jamming pretty hard to the new 2015 youth album, its so good!
We stayed the night in Daphne, Alabama because the zone leaders needed to go to another district meeting. I really do miss that part about being a zone leader, I love seeing how different district leaders teach. On our way up to Atmore after the district meeting we stopped at Rick Wells's house for lunch. Rick is the guy that we found my first Thanksgiving in Mobile and was actually baptized after I left Mobile so it was nice to see him again, they always feed us a lot too which isn't a bad thing at all. The day in Atmore brought me back to many exchanges that I had been on previously with missionaries that served there. Its surprising the things missionaries can remember just from being to a place a few times, it was nice to know a little bit about going into an area for a tradeoff, we usually go in as blind as a bat. Wednesday got up early and went to mission leadership council. A lot of missionaries thought that it was hard to get specific direction on things they need to do in MLC so president changed it up a bit and it was so good! We found out we needed to teach about 3 days before the council and we had tradeoffs for almost all of that time in between so we were sweating it a little bit going in there but Ive learned that if there is no time to prepare the spirit helps you a lot on what we need to say. Its a lot of fun to have those experiences but Ive also learned that winging it is a totally different thing, if we had time to prepare and didn't, it wouldn't have went so well. Once we got back that night we taught Riley part of the fifth lesson and he is progressing so well to baptism. We taught him yesterday and went over the baptismal interview questions so he knows what will be asked, we will have the baptismal service next Sunday! Blessings!
Thursday there was an emergency transfer so we were driving along the coast all day, it was gorgeous! However, it was 35 degrees outside so lookin from inside the car was plenty for me. Ive become such a baby when it comes to the cold Friday we traveled to Panama City to do a tradeoff with those zone leaders, I was on the beach with Elder Smellie. With it being so cold there weren't too many people outside for it being a vacation spot so we had to get creative! We went on the pier! We were there for about 30 minutes and only talked to 1 person so I was feeling kind of guilty but on our way out a lady and her husband stopped and talked to us about how he use to be mormon, just a really good conversation...we are led to places for a reason!
Im loving being a missionary and have no complaints, hope all is well back home!
Monday we went to the mall and meet up with Elder Hintze and Elder Peterson. We just walked around and looked at stuff. How bout that game. FSU got their butts kicked but i still root for them! Hopefully Oregon wins and they can rep the West Coast! That evening we went and taught Celine. We got her a copy of Preach My Gospel, we then studied with her. That was our lesson! It was a lot of fun! We studied about Christlike attributes and focused on Faith.
Tuesday was zone training. That went really good! After zone training we went to lunch then tried to see some less active and find new people to teach! That has been the hardest thing to do in this area is find. We don't get a lot of time to do it so we are going to be working on setting aside more time to find. Because if you cant find you cant teach! As simple as that!! We went out to dinner with the Tally 2 Zl's, Tally 3 B elders and the Tally 3 Sisters and President and Sister Smith! We went to a Hibachi grill. It was really good! Our cook was sorta vulgar with his jokes. Sister Smith didn't take any of his crap and sorta called him out and he calmed down! He was just making immature jokes. It was Elder Garn's Birthday so we sang to him and he got this cool little fruit boat. Fun night.
Wednesday we were in the office for a little bit! I have been able to learn a lot about computers and stuff while i have been assistant, that was never something that i thought that I would learn as a missionary. We had dinner with the Wahlquists. They are so good to us! We always leave with left overs and candy! Love that family! We went over to President's so I could Skype Whitney! It was super cool to see her after 19 months and it honestly was kinda hard but i loved it! Then we did a conference call with all the zone leaders talking about goals and what not this new year. The mission had to come in early so that we weren't on the roads with all the crazy drivers late at night. Elder Sorenson and I made sure we had our sparking cider and made a toast. PARTY!! :) Happy New Year by the way!
Thursday we did a lot of planning and office work. We taught Riley at the Ladles home. We taught some of the commandment to him! He is progressing really well! He is still on for him baptism on the 18th. The Ladle family has been so good for him, they are super solid and the spirit is very strong in their home! Its so nice to be able to teach in a members home where the investigator can see the gospel working and blessing a families life and feel that special spirit: Also to show the investigator that we are just normal people!We drove to Marianna late that night and meet the Ozark zone leaders there and stayed in the Marianna Elders apartment!
Friday morning Elder Urquiaga and I drove to Tallahassee and spent the day working there! He is a super smart guy and a deep thinker, he asked some super inspired questions to me as we talked and it was what i needed, i was thankful for that. We met up in Dothan that night and then we drove over to Enterprise for a baptism that was happening, Elder Sorenson found her when he was serving there!
Saturday was Kathie's baptismal service. The service went really well. We went to lunch with the Bishop in that ward. He said he wanted to recruit me for my last 3 months haha. We traveled back to Tallahassee that day and worked a little bit in the office.
Sunday was great! We have church at 1 o'clock here and though I don't like it very much it is a lot better for our schedule, we get to do more in the day.
We had a lesson with Sister Baumeister who is a psychologist and she is dagum smart, thinks way deep. She has been reading Jesus the Christ and has been thinking a little too deep so we had to teach her about keeping our studies and testimony on a firm foundation rather than a sandy one. We taught Riley a lesson about tithing and fasting..he was already living it! Great kid.
I love this time of year to make new goals and account for the ones last year. This life; simply stated, is a time to progress. Heavenly Father helps us progress by giving us trials. One thing I've learned on my mission is that if you want not only to progress, but to gain the christlike attribute of humility: do hard things to make you rely on the Lord. Easiest solution! Set Goals! It is one thing to want to change but its another thing to let the Lord help us do that! I love my mission and I love this church. There is nothing better than the gospel, however, my life with it gets better. All is well, love y'all!
You know, I absolutely love my calling and assignment as an assistant but boy it'll be nice not to have meetings on p-day so I can email a good email, I feel like I've been rushed. This week was full of great blessings!
On Tuesday we had our district meeting with a new district leader and he did a fantastic job! After that we did a gift exchange and had a lunch for our district activity. We had planned on going on exchanges that day with the Panama City zone leaders but it was raining like crazy that day! We were about to leave and I just didn't feel completely right about it. I remember when I was younger and mom and dad at different times saying we couldn't do things for no reason other than they didn't feel good, I am guessing that is what it felt like. Long story short, we didn't go. That night we were going to a lesson and then President called us telling us to lock the mission down because there are tornados warnings all over our mission so it was a good thing we didn't travel.
Thursday was Christmas and it was great to finally open up all of the gifts that had been sitting under the tree, I told Elder Sorenson that on a lot of Christmases there are always like 1 or two presents that you don't care for but this Christmas I didn't have so I was happy. Calling the family was great, nothing to complain about there.
On Friday we went on a tradeoff with the Fort Walton zone leaders, specifically Elder Palau for me. I learned so much on that exchange, he is such a humble guy. On our way back from the exchange we talked about some sacred experiences we'd had over the mission that we had never really discussed with anyone, not even in emails home, it was a good learning experience for me. On Sunday was actually Patrick Baldwins 1 year mark from when we had his baptism. We had a lesson with Riley and he discussed the answer that he had received and set a baptismal date with him. The Book of Mormon has converting power! Sorry for the short, not very detailed letter. love y'all!
What a busy week! We had transfers take place and though it wasn't a big one, there was still a lot of planning that went into it. Usually we would have the new missionaries and departing missionaries come in on different days for their dinners but the church doesn't schedule flights for the week around Christmas because of prices so we had to smoosh things into one day. I'm not going to go into the specifics of the craziness but let's just say that I was constantly on the move until Wednesday at about 7pm. A good thing about all of it is that everyone got to where they need to be safely and in a timely manner, count our many blessings! On Thursday we had a tradeoff with the Tally 2 zone leaders and I went to their area with Elder Christensen. He comes from a broken family but he is as solid as ever, I learned so much on that tradeoff. Something cool that happened while we were working is when we went to a less active's home, her mother was there. Amongst the small talk we asked where everyone was from and the mother said she was from Wyoming. Now in my mind I'm obviously going to ask about Lovell even though I know the chances of them being from there are slim to none, well what did I know! She was from Lovell, Wyoming. 2000 miles away and 1 of 3000 people in that town. She didn't know any Welch's but dad may know about Burlingtons or Wardells.
On Friday we had planned to go to the office for about an hour and a half but that turned into 6 hours. We redid President Smith's board and it took a while, but boy does it look good! Sister Smith gave us gift cards to Chick-Fil-A because of what we did, while we were at Chick-Fil-A a member from a nearby branch bought us 2 more gift cards, and then we had a lesson with Celine after dinner and she bought us 2 more Chick-Fil-A cards for Christmas, good thing I like chicken!
We had a super good sacrament meeting on Sunday, there were a ton of performances with it being the Christmas program. We taught Riley the gospel of Jesus Christ and were planning on extending a baptismal date but it just didn't feel right this time, he knows its coming though. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas this week and that everyone stays safe if there is traveling. All is well here.
Elder Welch
This week we have had a lot of miles traveled!
P-day we emailed then went and did some shopping. Bought a lot of gifts for Christmas for y'all! We watched the Restoration video with Celine and had a really good talk about Joseph Smith. Tuesday was the 1/2 mission conference for this side of the mission! It was at our chapel! So we got everything set up and it was nice to see all the mission buddies! We had a program where missionaries got up and sang Christmas songs, played the piano and guitar and it went really good!! We had lunch, then did a stocking exchange with a missionary we had been assigned to get gifts for! Each district put on a little skit to introduce everyone and that was a lot of fun! Then we got to watch "Meet the Mormons" as a Christmas present! SO good!! Every time I watch the last segment it tugs on my heart a wee bit. After the meeting I went with Elder Hintze ( Tally 1 ZL). We didn't even get done with the conference until 5 so we didn't have much of a tradeoff that day.
The next day we went and tried to do some finding. Then we traded Back and Elder Sorenson and I packed our bags to drive to Fox Run and stay the night for the other 1/2 mission conference! We stayed with Elder Clayton and MaClaws! It was so weird to be back in the area I was "born" in. I was able to see the Porter family after 14 months and it was so nice to be able to catch up with them, I miss that area and that family.
Thursday was 1/2 mission conference for the Pensacola side of the mission! It went really well! The performances were good! But the district intros weren't as good as the other half's but it was still a fun meeting! We cleaned up and hit the road! Stopped and got some food and got home around 10:20 pm. Long day!!
Friday we did our weekly planning. As well we went and taught Derrick! We taught him about Sabbath day attendance and the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy! He has been working on Sunday and it has kept him from coming to church so we committed him to ask for that day off! Hopefully his boss understands! We had the Ward Christmas Party that night! It went really well, most organized ward party I've ever seen in my life! The food was great! A woman who was trying to start a rehab type church was there and had been invited by a member of our ward. She was nice and we were able to give her a short church tour and left her with a Book of Mormon and an invite to meet with missionaries and come to church! That evening we went to see a member and he was jamming out on his guitar! He is really good! So he offered to play for us! He has like 15 different guitars! Huge collection! He has a whole big speaker system hooked up in a room in his house and he jams out!
Saturday we helped the Sister missionaries with some service at Derrick and Sister Sanchez's home! We raked leaves! We left from there and had lunch with President and Sister Smith! Then we finished up transfers! We were working on it till about 5! But we all felt pretty good about everything! :) This transfers going to be wild! We usually have the incoming missionaries come in on Tuesday and do a welcoming devotional and then train there trainers the next morning and send them off to their new areas, then go to Crestview and do the Transfer changes. Then all the departing missionaries come back to Tally with us! We have dinner with them and they leave the following day! But... this transfer we are having the departing dinner and welcoming dinner the same day and the morning we are training the Trainers we are dropping off the Departing missionaries! So we are having some Zone Leaders do the training for us so we can drop off the Departing missionaries! Then we are going to Crestview and doing the changes! So Wednesday is going to be a wild, wild day! But a fun day! I love being busy!! Sunday we had church! It went really well! Riley our investigator doesn't really know what the Spirit feels like so last lesson we taught him about it and he felt the Spirit in the meeting! He's coming around! We had a lesson with him right after church and watched the Restoration Dvd with him! He has been reading, coming to church and is learning how to Pray! He is solid!! We had to organize all the transfer stuff so we did some stuff in the office and then got to call the Zone Leaders and tell them who in their zone needs to pack there bags and be in Crestview! Like i said its crazy organizing all of this! We had to tell everyone exactly where they need to be at what time like 2 or 3 times! But we get it worked out! :) Sometimes its like herding cats but it teaches us communication skills! love and miss y'all, all is well.
Elder Welch
Monday, we went and played basketball and dodgeball at the stake center with all the other Elders! We then had dinner with The Ladle family! They are super cool! Lauren (Senior in High school) is sorta dating this kid named Riley ( I may have already told you about him) He has been coming to church with her for like 4 or 5 weeks! We have been trying to set something up with them so we could start teaching him and we finally did. So we had dinner then a lesson! We taught him the Plan of Salvation! Went really good! We don't know how much of it he was really able to grasp! But he seemed to accept it! He has been reading from the Book of Mormon so thats a good sign! But it was a really good lesson! Hopefully he's not just doing this for Lauren! We will make sure he isn't!
Tuesday we had District meeting. It went really good! Basically he talked about how we all will go through hard times in our lives! But by showing gratitude and having a good attitude we can look at those hard times as blessings and learning experiences! This is what he had to say,
"Everyone’s situation is different, and the details of each life are unique. Nevertheless, I have learned that there is something that would take away the bitterness that may come into our lives. There is one thing we can do to make life sweeter, more joyful, even glorious
We can be grateful!
That night we taught mission prep and that was fun!
Wednesday we had MLC! We had it in Crestview! So we had to drive the transfer van and haul the Tally 1 and 2 zone leaders and the Dothan zone leaders down with us, the Campus and Tally 1 sister training leaders and Dothan drove our car! We had a really good meeting! A lot of really good things discussed!
Thursday was mostly just travel!
Friday we had a good day! We started board week! We wont be able to do it much next week cause we have the 1/2 mission Christmas conferences! We get to go to both! So we started looking at everything! It seems to not be a very big transfer! We ate with the Wahlqusts for the 2nd day in a row! They are super good to us! We met with Celine and taught her a Christmas lesson! It was really good! We have done our last 2 lessons in her home so hopefully us being around will soften her parents hearts! I think we are slowly breaking down that wall between us and them! Hopefully one day it will all pay off! Celine is so solid though! She's doing great!
Saturday we worked on the Transfer Board! We had lunch with President and Sister Smith! I love spending time with them! We met with Sister Hughes and had a good lesson with her!!
We had a good fast Sunday! :) Sacrament meeting was great! We taught Riley at the Ladles after church! We taught him the Restoration! It went really good! HE IS ALREADY FINISHED WITH THE FIRST BOOK OF NEPHI!! He's cruising!! We watched the Christmas Devotional! I really enjoyed it!
Well that was our week! Like I said it will be another wild week! We will have our 1/2 mission conference here in Tally Tuesday and Thursday we will be in Pensacola for their 1/2!
Elder Welch
We had a great week!! What a humbling week and what a learning week for me! This week the Lord taught me so many lessons! I'm so thankful for each one of them! Its amazing how he works through others to teach us!! I love it!
Monday we were in the office from 7:30 am till 5:45 pm helping President Smith with things! It was wild! We were talking about the next few transfers and what our plans are and what things we feel would benefit the mission! A Lot of it was just raw ideas we were throwing out there so President said he was going to think about it and we would talk about when he got back from Destin. We were given time to make up for our lost p-day on another day of the week, but we didn't find any open time to do it! I guess thats a good problem! November flew by! Its crazy how fast time is moving, We traveled over 3000 miles this month!(get it??? time moving...3000 miles, man i crack myself up)
Tuesday we had district meeting! It went really good! We did our conference call with the whole mission, helped move the Christmas tree into the Mission Home, and then headed to Cottondale and meet up with the Dothan Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Crook back to Tally! Im so privileged to be able to go on exchanges with missionaries that are of a high caliber! Its very humbling and exciting to be able to learn from them! I love it! I learned a lot from the day that i spent with Elder Crook! He's a great missionary!
Wednesday we worked for a bit then headed back to Cottondale to exchange back! We didn't have much going on!
THANKSGIVING!!!!!
What a great day! We went and played turkey bowl with some members from our ward and the missionaries from 2nd ward and 3rd ward! It was a lot of fun! Half of us didn't have cleats so we were slipping and sliding all over the place, but worth it! We lost on a touchdown pass that the guy dropped but said he caught! Clearly he dropped it! But oh well! I guess he will have to answer to Heavenly Father for lying to a bunch of missionaries! After football, we went out to the Patton's in-laws! (By the way Ben and Kasey Patton; AKA: the coolest members in the mission are having a kid! We going to get them to name him {if its a boy} Nicholas Landon Patton! [Coolest name ever} ) There was a lot of people there! The food was great, but they keep bringing us more and more! I was going to blow!! I had people coming and checking to see if i had eaten all of my "Greens". Then we went to President Austin's house and fellowshipped the people there! Some of President and Sister Smith's kids came to visit so we went over there and taught them a Thanksgiving lesson! Super fun to be able to get to meet them! Then we went and taught Sister Hughes! Man i can even tell you how amazing her lesson was! It was so powerful! Probably the strongest lesson on my mission! We had been teaching a lesson to all the members about trials and relating trials to baking a pumpkin pie! But for some reason we taught it a different way, but Elder Sorenson and I were on the same page! We were clicking!! The spirit was amazing in that room! We said stuff that i needed to hear myself personally! It was amazing! I may have needed that lesson more then Sister Hughes did! It was amazing the spirit and the guidance we were given in that lesson! When i stood up to leave i felt the words,"Ask her if she would like a blessing!" but before I could get the words out of my mouth Elder Sorenson asked her, its nice to have companions that can hear and follow prompting. So amazing that when you and your companion are unified with each other and the Spirit how powerfully you can teach and testify!
Friday we went on exchanges with Panama City Zone Leaders!I went with Elder Truman to the PCB. We just contacted all day but one fun thing that happened was when we were out tracting we were walking down the street and some lady pulled her car over. When that happens it usually isn't a good thing so I was getting ready to go on defense mode. She rolled her window down and said "do you like key lime pie?" My first thought was, great this lady is going to throw a pie in our faces. However she just gave us a free one, nice lady!
So on Saturday we headed for Mexico Beach where we were meeting up to exchange back! Once we traded off we went back to Tally and went and taught Celine! She has been going through some trials with school and work and her parents so we were able to share some really good talks with her through out the week and we talked about them and she sorta just vented to us! You could tell she needed to just talk! So we just talked about life and how our Father in Heaven lets things happen to us so we can grow! I felt prompted to refer her to a mormon message titled "Mountains to climb" so I did and then a little after i thought that Elder Sorenson said he was going to do it Wow! Lightening strikes again, the power of being unified and both recognizing the spirit and following it! We talked a lot about the talk from Jeffery R. Holland, "Cast Not Away Therefor Thy Confidence" (Powerful talk y'all should go read if you never have) but she is staying strong and fighting back against Satan! She's amazing!
Sunday was great! Church was good! Riley (Lauren Ladles boyfriend) came again! Like his 4th or 5th time! We haven't been able to teach him but have a FHE set up tomorrow with him in the Ladles home! We are pumped! He's a great kid! Super strong faith in Christ! We actually gave Celine a blessing for what i already talked about too. She's staying strong!
Thats all for this week, know I love and miss everybody and that All is well. Oh also go watch the video on christmas.mormon.org ! Super good! About the true meaning of Christmas! Then share it! #sharethegift! We are doing it as missionaries and trying to spread the true meaning of Christmas! It's a powerful video!! You'll love it! :) Hope you enjoy!!
Elder Welch
I honestly don't even remember what happened this week, it seems like a very long blur. Last week we had a cold front come in and I think I caught a cold from that this week. One plus side to this all was that I got to take cold medicine which made me sleep like a baby...no I'm not addicted, I just like good a good night rest.
Tuesday was a fun day, we had our zone training and then after that all we did was go and doing the departing devotional stuff with President and Sister Smith. We only had 2 missionaries leaving but we still got to go to a really good restaurant..Genghis Grill. On Wednesday we sent them off on the airplane and then had a lesson with a recent convert that moved here from California. This lady is a saint, I only wish that I can be as dedicated as her one day. She has a disease and had to go to California for three weeks and she has studied so much. When she left she was just going through the Book of Mormon and was in 3 Nephi somewhere. On Wednesday she told us that she had finished the Book of Mormon and is now in the 88 section of the Doctrine and Covenants. Everyday she reads the Book of Mormon, DC, and something from the Latter day prophets. This is the same lady that had a daughter die right before she was baptized.
I went on a tradeoff with the Pensacola zone leaders this week and I love that zone, my old stomping grounds. I heard about the FSU shooting that day and I was hoping all of the campus missionaries were ok. Other than that we have been in our area trying to find more people to teach, it has been really hard the past two weeks for some reason, we have some good potentials but we really need to broaden our teaching pool. No sermon on the mount today for y'all...mostly because there are no mounts here to teach on but I just hope everyone reflects on the blessings they've received this week. Love and miss y'all, all is well!
What a busy week! I feel like Elder McPherson left about a month ago but in reality it was only 9 days ago. The major events of this week seem almost like a blur to me. We are changing the way we do our tradeoffs with the zone leaders and so this week was our trial run with that. Normally Elder Sorenson and I would have driven all the way to Mobile and do 2 tradeoffs at once, blitzing their area and then moved to Pensacola and Fort Walton after that. Now we have to meet in the middle and go back to our respective areas, boy does it give us more time to work in our area. With us making a goal to be at the missionary standard for lessons taught in a week, we have been working our hinny's off! We were well on our way to the goal we set for the week but a ton of lessons dropped, more than the usual. You could say that was discouraging, which at first it was but I think we can keep our spirits high. To try and kick start our area we have been doing this lesson with members about examples and relating it to a pumpkin...I won't go into detail about that but I promise its good! We talk about being an example to others by setting our pumpkins on the porch and not in the back room (Matthew 5:15). We then talk to them about referrals and how in all reality missionaries ask for referrals to keep it on the members minds. We understand that if members already had a referral, they wouldn't wait until we asked to give it to us..therefore. We commit them to pray as a family that night for a less active family or area we can go and contact and then we would follow up with them, we've seen great results from this!
Not too many events happened this week. President and sister Smith had their mission president seminar up in Atlanta so he was out of the mission for half of the week, it made our schedule a little busier but he's back now! There are a couple of missionaries leaving this week and so one of them have been staying with us this past week, I love trio life! I was invited to sing a duet for the stake priesthood preview yesterday and that went really well! All of our investigators are a work in progress right now, we really need to find more, please pray for us! We have been super busy all week, one thing Ive learned as I've thought about it is this. Idleness is always not talked to highly of in the scriptures and so I've always tried to stay busy on my mission; however, not having a purpose in your life is no better than being idle. You can work as hard as you want but you'll be going in circles. I love the holiday season, it never feels like it here because it is warm but the spirit of Christmas is still here. I don't know about other missionaries but I love to milk the season! All is well and I love yah!
Another crazy week in the books! Im happy, healthy, loving my mission but boy am I tired!! I feel like we have been all over the place this last week! This email is probably going to be all over the place and hard to understand so I'm just going to apologize in advance.
Last week was Family History week! We kept track of appointments set up using family history. All of the missionaries in the tally zones met up at the stake center and we played dodge ball! We split up into districts and got matched up against the other districts! My team did a black out!! We killed everyone! My team won and all of our games were super fast! It wasn't even close! The trophy was a big FSU flag and we wrote our District name on it, the dates. We get to keep it till next dodge ball tournament! We will have one every transfer and who ever wins get the flag and takes it to district meetings. Tuesday we had district meeting and after the meeting we played volleyball as a district. We then went and picked up all of the new missionaries! They always look so young and innocent! Im sure thats how i looked when i came in! That night all of the missionaries who will be training this transfer came into Tallahassee and will stay the night with missionaries here in tally! All of the new Elders stayed in the mission home and we dropped all the new Sisters off at a hotel!
Wednesday morning we got up and went and trained all the trainers how to be good trainers! I always feel a little bit awkward there because I've never really trained, Im pumped to when Im done being an assistant though. The meeting went really well! After that was all done, those missionaries loaded up and headed to their areas! As for us it was just the start of a long long day!! We loaded up our mini van, the transfer van and its trailer, and the pickup and trailer! We headed over to Crestview, Florida. We got there and everyone who was getting transferred met up and we got everyone into the chapel and started announcing where they will be serving and who they will be with! It was a lot of fun being up on the stand and getting to see everyones faces when you announce where they will be going. I got to see Elder Clayton for the first time since I left Mobile so it was a nice reunion. It was fun! Then we loaded up and headed back to Tally! We brought all of the departing missionaries back in our cars and it was fun! There was 25 missionaries going home this transfer, they were all really good missionaries!
We got a call from President the next morning and he said that we need to make some changes to the transfer already, that has to be a record or something! He had some missionaries saying that they were going to go home so we had to make some changes! Elder Sorenson and I went to work and taught a few lessons and Elder McPherson and Elder Condie ( he stayed with us, he's going home with Elder McPherson) worked with President in the office! It was a wild and stressful day!! That night we met up and President Smiths house and had the departing Devotional!
Friday we had another missionary stay with us! So we had Elder McPherson, Kray and Condie all staying with us! Friday morning we woke up, had breakfast at the mission home and loaded everyone's luggage up and headed to the airport! It was a sad day! We had to send them off! It was hard saying goodbye to Elder McPherson! A lot of weight just dropped on Elder Sorenson and my shoulders! But we got this! We then had to set up for Elder Soares coming into town so we did that for the rest of the day!
Saturday morning President Smith met the Jacksonville mission president half way to pick up Elder Soares! He had a meeting with The Stake Presidents, Bishops, and Ward Mission Leaders in our area and we were able to be present for the training because we were the tech support! We originally had planned to do the training in the chapel and about an hour before Elder Soares asked us to change it to the gym...but there was one problem. There was a baptism going on so we only got 1/3rd of the gym. we smashed 40 missionaries plus President and Sister Smith, Elder Soares and our mission president Councilors all in that little tiny area(free throw line down)! Oh and a piano, projector and screen! Elder Soares and President instructed us and it was great! I learned a lot of really powerful things! They talked a lot about goals, and desires! It was really neat! Elder Soares had Elder Sorenson and I walk with him to the car after the meeting and he challenged us to be baptizing a convert once a month and be teaching 25 Investigator/less active/recent convert lessons a week to set the example to the mission! Wow! We are teaching on average about 6-9 lessons a week! So we are going to have to step our game up! But Elder Soares had complete confidence in us! So i know we can do it! Please pray for us! He also wants up to be bringing all of the zone leaders to our area when we do exchanges! Instead of us both going to their areas! We will now meet halfway and one set will come back and work our area and one will go work theirs! This is going to make our transfers so much busier! But i think its going to be great! Im excited for this new challenge! I love and miss y'all...just a heads up because it'll come super fast..start thinking about goals for next year.
We had a good week! We had a lot of work to do with transfers!
Tuesday we had district meeting, then went up to Presidents house and did the conference call for the mission, then had lunch, we had cafe rio burritos, she's such a great cook! We had a super good talk about how they got called and the trials they have had to overcome as they have been out here! It's amazing how strong of faith they both have! I have learned so much from their examples! It's a great privilege to be able to be around them so much! We then all gathered in a room and had a projector set up on the wall! We pulled up all the missionaries in our mission and where they are right now and who they are with! Then we talk about concerns we had with certain missionaries and struggles they are having! President has some people already moved around so we look at that and tell him how we feel about the moves! Then we jump into it! We start dragging and dropping them in different areas with different companions and talk about everything! How the work is, if they are obedient, how they will get along, who is going to be zone leaders, sister training leaders, district leaders, who's going to be training! We take everything into account! Its fun, but also sorta stressful! Know this missionaries out in the field....if you are obedient you can be placed anywhere and with anyone in the mission, if you are disobedient you can't go just anywhere. Its so amazing how it works! That night we had homemade Pizza! So good! Then we got to watch "Meet the Mormons" It was really good! The church sent President a copy and we are going to be watching it at our Christmas devotional! But we got a sneak peak cause it was Elder McPherson's birthday present! All of it was so good, the last section tugged on my heart a bit but all in all it was great.
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While we were working on Transfers on Wednesday President got a call from Salt Lake informing him that Elder Soares of the Presidency of the Seventy will be coming to our mission on the 8th! So we got that thrown on us with short notice!! But it will be great, We will be having a MLC with him! After we worked on the transfer board we broke out our bikes and rode to some members houses! I haven't rode for a long time and the road we were riding on was hilly, I was worn out! We came back showered and went over the The Pattons and had dinner and a lesson with Celine! We talked about the who, what, why and how of Patriarchal blessings!
Thursday we taught Derrick! We have been teaching him for awhile and he's making some progress, slow but steady. We then went to the Merkisons! We carved pumpkins there with their little kids! It was actually really fun! Then we taught a lesson using the pumpkin as the lesson! We related it to us and how Heavenly Father is the Master Carver! We had to let him into our lives to be cleaned out and changed! Then we need to let our light shine through our example!
Halloween was good! We all switched tags so i dressed up as Elder McPherson and Elder McPherson was Elder Sorenson and Elder Sorenson was me! Super funny! Not very many people noticed! In the morning we had some stuff at the office and got a text from a potential investigator that lives in our apartment complex and he said he wanted to meet with us and that he had a friend with him as well! So we dropped what we were doing and went and taught them out on a bench at our apartment complex! It was a really good lesson; Michael and Reed are their names! We taught about how our church was different and about the Book of Mormon and praying to know! As we were talking about the Holy Ghost and how he works, Reed said "Wow, thats exactly how i feel right now!" SO cool!! I hope we can get somewhere with these 2! They really need the Gospel! We got invited to a Halloween party but some members so we went there! It was fun! Then we had to come in so we didn't get into trouble! We set up our little portable dvd player and watched a movie!
The whole weekend was filled with transfers and logistics from that, talk about stressful! Elder McPherson leaves this week so i will be taking the lead. I need prayers!
Love and miss y'all. All is well.
