All the News

Hey ya'll. Today is the end of the world. We’ll see how that plays out.

Updates from the week:

At Fort Jackson last week, I taught two sisters. Sister S and Sister C. Sister S has been in basic training forever!!!... She hasn't graduated yet. She’s been coming to church for quite a while and the Fullmers have been working with her. She finally committed to baptism. The Fullmers asked me to teach her everything. She was very accepting and open to the doctrine. She is ready. She will be baptized tomorrow. Sister C is 17 and we'll have to get parental permission. So I’m not sure about her.

Last Sunday night we went to Newberry for a mission fast and testimony meeting. Half of the mission came. President stood up and opened by saying that there were about 60 of us there so if each missionary took 1 minute, we'd be there an hour. 2 minutes - 2 hours. 5 minutes - 5 hours. He did not care about time, he did not give us a limit, and he just requested that each missionary bear their testimony to their fellow companions in the mission. President then said, "It does not bother me if we stay here all night.... seeing how you all are fasting, it may bother you..." ha-ha It had to have been one of my favorite meetings so far. Each missionary was just so real and sincere. There were quite a few laughs. A few missionaries cried. There is this fairly large elder and he cried and then said, "Yeah leave it to the big elder to be the first to cry." He is so awesome. What I loved the most about it was how everyone was just so attentive. It lasted 4 and a half hours and then we broke our fast afterwards. No one complained though. It wasn't boring. It was awesome!! Best quote was from Elder T who got up and said, "I bear my testimony everyday to investigators.... seeing how there are no investigators here, I can feel comfortable quoting from if you could hie to kolob or o my father." hahahaha. It was a very powerful meeting.

So apparently school is out. There have been more returned missionaries that have come back to visit the mission these past few weeks than ever before. It’s pretty weird seeing them. They always come to the office so I get to see them all. AND their wives. haha. Everyone is getting married. What the heck? Elder T is engaged to that girl. Haha

Transfer planning has been quite laborious this time around. We have spent many hours - this upcoming transfer will be the transition transfer. I think we got everything just about perfect though. We did some more this morning. Tonight we will make the transfer calls. So fun. Transfers is definitely one of my favorite parts of being here in the office.

We finished up interviews. Three zones. Whew. Meetings wear you out. (Except for dad. He can’t get enough of them.) I trained, while President interviewed, on building on the foundation that we already have to see greater success. We are seeing a lot of success here in the mission. We are obviously doing something right. I trained to keep going and to "cease not" ... I based it out of Helaman chapter 3... Where the Nephites migrate northward and have to learn to build with cement. And then they start getting wood again and they incorporate it into their building methods to build stronger and more effectively. Then they baptized thousands. Cool chapter. There were some other things I focused on, but that was the gist of it.

This upcoming week is transfer week. New missionaries. Transfer meeting. Departing missionaries. Fix transfer problems. I am so pumped.

Love ya!