The Letter of Great Import

Well here I am again. On the cusp of another transfer. Yikes. And on the heels of some awesome miracles this week. This last weekend was probably the most jam packed weekend for pure awesome things since I got into Sanford. It's nice, but not nice the week before transfers because it basically seals my fate that I'm gone. But fear not, we shall discuss transfers later on.

So this week was a little interesting. Right off the bat, monday evening Elder Palmer went up to Springs for a "secret" "Train the Trainers" meeting. I "" secret because really, there are no secrets in the mission haha. Whenever something happens in the mission, everyone knows within an hour or so. He got a phone call from the Assistants during the pioneer days and found out he was going there. More on that later though. But basically I went on exchanges in San Luis, home of the famous Statue Incident, with Elder Bailey from Fountain Green Utah, and Elder Wylie from none other than Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. Ah it was nice to reminisce about Smarties, Canadian Bands, and Stephen Harper. But San Luis was pretty cool, for the most part everyone there LOVES the missionaries. They are all catholic though. The branch has like 50 people in it, but most are drafted from Sanford and Manassa, and probably has about 20 converts from the outlying areas. There is only one member in San Luis so it's a tough area. There was only one time I tried to talk to all these hispanics in a car, and they looked at me like they wanted to shoot me. So we kind of moved away from that. But ya, talked to some people, listened to Elder Bailey speak spanish and me and Wylie had no idea what was going on. It was cool. Lots of really nice decked out cars with not so nice houses. Great sound systems and paint jobs. So ya, that was my experience at the beginning of the week.

Also this week I got a letter. A very good letter. A letter from the mission president. Informing me that on August 11-12 I will be attending the Denver Temple for my TEMPLE JUBILEE TRIP! Basically when you are around your year mark, your whole group you came out with all congregate at the mission office and attend the temple together. It's going to be awesome! And it was crazy to get because it just makes you think "woa, is it really that close to my year mark?" but ya, August 18 I hit 1 year in the mission field. I keep thinking of when I first came out, and saw some missionaries in my district get their letter, and go "wow, that's so far away" but here it is and now all those guys are going home...ya...so it's been cool. It's gone by much much to fast, especially the last 4 months. Just blew by. I hope I'm still here for it because I like driving up to springs in a car full of missionaries for 3.5 hours. It can be a lot of fun.

So last weekend was a blur of stuff. Had a couple experiences visiting people, and they weren't there but just as we were turning around to leave they showed up and we got to talk to them and set some appointments. It was sweet.

Our one investigator that lives part time in Springs had to go back before we got to talk to him, so that was sad, but he went to church up there, and the missionaries got to talk to him and they are teaching him Tuesday night, and he's so close to baptism that I think this will really help him. And they get to meet his wife. That was cool. Then we are kinda sorta teaching this kid, Max but he stalled out a while ago but still comes to church. We didn't want to baptize him because he didn't really have any support. But now, his mom came to town, and he brought her to church and she loved it and wants him to get baptized and is interested in learning more. So we're set up to teach them on Thursday, but we'll get by before then. We may very well have a baptism next Saturday or Sunday to finish off the transfer. Amazing how, sometimes you wonder how it's possible, but then Heavenly Father prepares a way. We really felt like we could baptize this transfer, and knew somehow it would happen and sure enough, there is a way. So hopefully it all works out that we can baptize Max next weekend!

And furthermore, we were visiting a member on Saturday, and as we walked out we both felt, "hey let's go check out how so and so is doing". At the time, didn't think it was a prompting, but sure enough it was. We went by and he was like "oh you got here quick" and we were like...uh... I guess he left a note on our door telling us to call him, because he wanted his daughter to get a blessing. We never went home to see that note, just felt like going over. He's an excommunicated member that has a strong testimony, and his wife is a non-member and they really wanted us to give their daughter a blessing for an emergency. So it was really sweet, I LOVE stuff like that!

And Bishop called us after church to tell us that a part-member he'd invited a couple weeks ago to be baptized has agreed to take the lessons again and plans on being baptized at the end of the month. HOLLA!

So ya. A really good week. Although alas transfer calls are next Monday. Elder Palmer went to the meeting...so...ya. The church is implementing a new training program for missionaries. It's the 12 Week Program. Basically if you train you are with your new missionary for 12 weeks, and you have a 2 hour companionship study every day, and by the end of it your missionary should be able to train. I couldn't imagine training after 3 months, but ya, that's the program. So Elder Palmer went and the people who went are either

Training (high possibility)
Going leadership and training (good possibility)
Going leadership but not training (small possibility)

So here's my prediction for transfers, after crunching the numbers and doing a math dance

80% chance Elder Palmer stays and trains and I go somewhere...probably Springs or Parker
10% Elder Palmer is made District Leader in Sanford and I stay with him as well
10% I stay, and Elder Palmer gets flushed-trained up in springs somewhere

So i'm thinking I'm gone. I really hope not. I love it here and we're FINALLY starting to really see things happen. President told me I'd "baptize like I never baptized before" in Sanford, so I'm hoping that rings true, but anything could happen. The only thing I don't like is Elder Palmer is really confident he's staying and rubbing it in a lot like "Elder, you should probably pack" and "oh that stinks, looks like me and my new missionary gets lots of success and you go somewhere else haha"...so I hope he gets his parade rained on.

But ya. That's the week. Wish me luck that I stay here.

Elder Gibb