Tuesday, October 20, 2015

New Assistant Elder Carter, planning sessions, Picketts



Hey Mom!

This week has been great! Busy with a lot of different crazy things but it has been just stellar. My last email or so talked a little bit about the possibility of training a new Assistant. It happened! Elder Carter is now my new companion and he is stellar! I am going to learn so much from him as we serve together for these next couple of months!

(Thinking of this week) In the beginning... Just kidding! We were able to transfer plan alof of this week with President and Sister Lewis. It always amazes me with the knowledge and love that you can fell for a large amount of people that you only see once every month. Planning and receiving guidance for these planning sessions are incredibly crucial!  I wouldn't trust myself with sending people to new areas with their new companions. All thanks to the Lord, President Lewis, Sister Lewis, and Elder Smith we finished a few days early and were able to continue with the work of transfers. I'm sure I haven't broken down how the transfer planning week has gone so I will give you a little of an idea. After we have a plan of where all the missionaries will go, we go to the computer and start making lists upon lists of information that help to organize the process. From leadership lists to new vehicle lists everything is compiled and prepared for our Monday morning meeting. But I'm forgetting an important part. Telling the missionaries is the fun part of all of this. Later Saturday evening we send out voicemail to all the zones in the mission and inform them of where they are going and with whom they are serving. Elder Smith and I are usually waiting to send them out at a certain time and this last time we finished quickly and were just relaxing in our computer chairs eating m&ms. It's just kind of funny. Sometimes missionaries are scared and nervous about transfer calls and here we are just "sipping an pina colada on the beach." I thought you might like a few more details of how our lives are sometimes. 

At this time we are working with a PMF (part member family) the Picketts. They are so awesome! About 3 weeks ago the father, Darrel , recently was in the hospital for a quadruple bi-pass surgery. Luckily, the bishop was aware and sent us to go visit him. The first time we were going to meet him he was busy but his family was there and after a little small talk we found out they were all members. They were really awesome people! They aren't active at this point but as we continued to talk and get to know them a little bit better, they were deeply tied together by their family. At the point we both felt prompted to bring up their family history and the memories that they have of their grandparents. As one of them shared their experience you could feel the "spirit of love" fill the room. It was a funny story to! When she was a child her grandma was outside with her on her farm and her grandma was working with the chickens. All the sudden her grandma cut the head off of a chicken and it started running all over the place. It was an awesome experience. Right now we have been teaching 3 of the non-member daughters in the family and they are doing great! Thanks for the update on the week!
Love,
E. Archibald