Transfers, Travels and Training

This was a pretty eventful week. It started a little slow but quickly picked up and ended up pretty cool. We have transfer next Tuesday and I got a lot of awesome news.

Tuesday was a good day, we had exchanges with the zone leaders, Elder McCabe (my first trainer) and Elder Ammons, and their trainee Elder Jones. I went with Elder McCabe and Elder Jones into their area. It was fun because Elder McCabe was with both of the people he trained. It was a good day, we had a lot of solid lessons and the day was pretty busy. It was a nice change of pace from the usual in Ashton Park. While I was away, Elder Craig and Elder Ammons went crazy. They spent most the day street contacting and made three friends (people who were taught and scheduled a second lesson) and four potentials (people who were only taught, when we have a second lesson they will become a friend). It was insane. Perhaps even more important was that it showed to us that street contacting can work here. Since then, some of those potentials have become friends and we even made a new potential on Friday! He was walking his dog and took a Book of Mormon and said we could stop by. While I was trying to pet his dog, it scratched me a little on the arm, but honestly it was a small price to pay for a new potential.

Thanksgiving was also this week and I am sure many of you are interested what missionaries do on holidays. The simple answer is that it depends but we usually still work. On Halloween we just returned home an hour early and spent most of the evening doing studies instead of working. Thanksgiving nothing really changed but we did plan to spend the day in active member homes instead of trying to visit other people who may have family in town or otherwise be busy. On Thanksgiving we only ended up going to the Griffins house for dinner. The food was great and it was a pretty fun conversation. They talked a lot about old friends that lived in the area. Elder Craig and I, knowing none of these people, were happy to just listen and enjoy the food. It was a nice Thanksgiving. I am thankful for the Griffins to have fed us that day. The next big holiday is Christmas and I have heard that usually they move our preparation day (the day we relax, do laundry and go shopping) to Christmas day. This is done so we can relax and call family on what would normally be a holiday to everyone else.

Speaking of Christmas, I may not be here in the United States for that. That's right, I got travel news! With transfers happening, our mission makes leadership calls (calling missionaries to be a trainer, district leader or zone leader) on Friday. Elder Craig and I honestly weren't expecting a call, so we were shocked when we got one. We got three pieces of news in this order. One, we could go to James' baptism, (James is a friend that Elder Craig taught for almost four months in his previous area). Two, President Zimmerman had received news that I would be travelling to Mozambique sometime between the 13th and 18th of December! Three, we were both called to training!

We were both shocked at the call, except for the baptism part, we were pretty sure we were going to that. I hadn't received any news on travel or my visa or anything so knowing so suddenly I would be leaving in just a few weeks was incredible. The news about training was also pretty crazy because we both weren't expecting to train. President didn't specify if we would be training together but Saturday night we got transfer calls and I found out I would be staying Ashton Park and training with Elder Craig. It wasn't too surprising but it was nice knowing for sure.

The baptism for James was really cool, it was the first one I have been to on the mission. James has honestly gone through a lot and him getting baptized was really cool for him. He would've been baptized sooner but two weeks ago he got hit by a car! He broke his shoulder and it was incredible he was even ready. The service was attended by a modest amount of people including his non-member daughter. His ward is happy to receive him and help him receive all that God has to offer him.

This week I saw a lot happen in Ashton Park, our efforts in street contacting led to some results. None of the people we have met are super solid yet but they all have potential. I hope in the next few weeks we can continue to see some level of that success. I know with faith it is very possible. I want this work to continue, I want this area to continue to grow. When we start having success with these friends, the members of the Ashton Park ward will see that and it help them to work and help us. This area can have success, before I believed and hoped for it, and now I am beginning to see it. The hope is still there, because I strive to always hope for this area. With Mozambique on the horizon I want to make sure my last few weeks here are as good as they can be. I now that faith will overcome fear and confidence will rise. I know God will help me on this journey. I know he wants me to succeed because this is his work too. I will help him do it.