Feb 10, 2014

This last week has been Great. I got transferred to a new area and am having a fun time in a small town.

Monday we had p-day. We found out about transfers in our weekly email from the Aps. I found out that I was going to Great Bend and my new Companion would be Elder Nelson. Then we had dinner with the Hollingsworth family and the Landrum family. We had dinner and then us missionaries taught family home evening. We talked about the Restoration and how it has changed our lives and how we need to share this with everyone that doesn't know about the church.

Tuesday it snowed all day. We ended up with 13 inches of snow. We spent the day packing and helping Brother Homewood. The cars were all parked and we were not allowed to drive them. This was a fun day. I shoved Brother Homewood’s driveway twice during the day.

Wednesday was the day of transfers. We need to be at the Jewell Building at 8 am to get paired up with the missionary going to the same area as you were. This was fun because they only plowed the roads by our house an hour before we left. If they had not plowed the road we would of not have gotten out all day. This was nice to be able to get out and drive to the church building. When we got to the church building we got stuck in the snow because they had not plowed the road. This was fun to get unstuck out of the snow. We ended up meeting at Wal-Mart parking lot. All of the missionaries that were training were asked to come down to the meeting with the new missionaries.  So Elder Arend was training and was asked to go down with a set of missionaries down to Wichita. I was told to get on the Gray Hound bus in Topeka at 1:30 and arrive in Salina at 4pm but the Busses were not running because of the snow. This made all of the plans wrong. I ended up driving down to Wichita with Elder Neld and Elder McDaniel. All of the missionary from Topeka drove the two hours to Wichita and meet with all of the other missionaries at the mission office. This was a lot of missionaries all in the church building not knowing how they were getting to their new areas. So I arrived at the mission office at 12pm and ended on waiting for the Mission Bus to drive up to Salina, which left Wichita a 4pm.   This mission bus was going to Salina and then out to Garden City and a few other towns in the mission.

The old missionaries in the Great Bend ward locked the keys to the car in the car on Tuesday at the home of a member with all of the luggage and stuff in the car. So these missionaries had no way to get up to Salina from a small town outside of Great Bend so the Mission Bus had to drive to Great Bend and drop Elder Nelson and I off and pick up the other missionaries and take them to there new area. So this was a long bus ride from Wichita to Salina And then to Great Bend. This took to till about 8 pm. Then Elder Nelson and I had to unpack and have dinner. One long day.

 

Elder Allen and Elder Nelson

Thursday we had to go shopping and then we meet the Spanish Elders in Great Bend and talked about the ward. Then we had dinner with the Sheffields. Sister Sheffield is the seminary teacher and Brother Sheffield is in the bishopric. Then we were also able to plan for the next week.

Friday we had district meeting in Hays. This is an hour from Great Bend. We rode with the Spanish Elders because we share the car with them. Our District is the Great Bend Elders, English, and Great Bend Elders, Spanish, and The Hays Elders and The Hays Sisters and the senior sisters in Hays.  This was the first district meeting from Elder Walton. This is his first time as a district leader. Then we drove back to Great Bend. Then Elder Nelson and I went to the trailer park and went tracking to find the investigator of the old missionaries. They didn't leave a house number for us to find Sam. We finally found Sam after dinner when we went back. In the process of tracking we found a referral for the Spanish elders and found 2 less active families that said we could come back a visit with them. This was a great day.

elder Nelson, Elder Acosta, and Elder Farnsworth

Saturday we stayed in sided for most of the day because Elder Nelson was sick and we wanted him to get better. We had dinner with the Berkheimers, the ward mission leader and his wife. Then we were able to talk with Sam and talk about baptism.

Sunday we had Church. The church is located in Great Bend but includes all of the small towns around Great Bend. We first had correlation meeting with the ward then ward council and then Church. There were 80 people at church. This was a lot this Sunday. There is about an average of 60 people each Sunday. Then we had lunch with the Spanish Elders. Sunday night we went tracking a few houses next to ours because we don't have a lot of people to teach. We went down the street and had a prompting to knock a door at the end of the street. We were able to meet Edwin Roberts. He had talked to the missionaries the week before and had a few questions for the missionaries. We were able to have a great lesson with him. This was a great week.

This week was Great. It has been different working an area when neither Missionary knows the area. I am liking the area and having fun with Elder Nelson. He is from Utah and has been out for 6 months.

Love,

Andrew