Getting Transferred

 I am getting transferred to Stayton. My new companion will be Elder Pinkston. I will meet him on Thursday at the New Missionary meeting. I am definitely a little anxious. I am excited to be training and to be going into a new area at the same, but the situation will definitely present some challenges that I didn't have as a trainee missionary in Madras. I know that the Lord will qualify me as I work to do my best and to help Elder Pinkston the best I can. I think it is going to help me continue to grow as a leader and speak up, because I am going to have to take charge more in correlating with the ward and starting the work up. I will leave tomorrow and go to Stayton and then I will have a temporary companion for the two days. It will actually be one of my MTC companions, Elder Fisk because he is going to be training too! It will be a lot different going back over the mountains into the valley. The zones are a lot bigger out there in terms of the amount of missionaries, but it should be exciting. I am still trying to find my address and then I will let you know. Like I said earlier, Elder Hala will be staying here in Madras. Everyone was kind of shocked that I was leaving instead of him. I'm definitely going to miss Madras and the people here. 

We had a good weekend after thanksgiving. We had a couple of cool experiences. One was with the man that I met on the second day of my mission, who rode up on his bike and told us that he knew the Book of Mormon was true. He had been struggling with some word of wisdom problems, so he disappeared for about 10 weeks and we had no clue what happened to him. Well, on Friday we were walking to go contact some people. We were going to cross the street to go talk to some lady, but she changed directions so we continued to walk down the street that we were on. A minute later, we saw a guy walking toward us.. And it was that same man! He had been going through some classes out of town to help him with his struggles. He looked like a totally different person! It was amazing. He said that he was going to start meeting wit us again and start going to a class that the stake has at the church every week that helps people with that stuff. It was really cool. Definitely another testimony builder that Heavenly Father is watching over us and guiding us and others into each other's paths so that we can all have the chance to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our talks on Sunday went well! Shane talked as the youth speaker before us as his first time speaking in church after his baptism. He did awesome. 

  

It is so essential to gain that testimony of Christ from a young age, especially during today's times with all of the distractions and deceptions that have been placed before us in all different forms.  We need to all ask God first. In the missionary handbook it says a few times, your loyalty is first to Heavenly Father, second your Mission President, and third your companion. That is true about all of us. Our loyalty should always be first to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. With any questions we have or challenges we are facing or temptations that we are faced with, we need to put our Heavenly Father and our Savior at the front of our minds. Prayer is something that is so important and truly is essential for us finding happiness and guidance. 

The church came out with a media campaign called "Light the World" on Mormon.org. It's 25 days of service in 25 ways that Christ provided service to others. There are 25 videos, one for each day in December leading up to Christmas. I'd invite you guys to watch the videos each day for that specific day and find a way to serve in the way that it suggest! I know that it will make the Christmas season even more meaningful because you'll be serving like Christ did! I know that you already do a ton, but there can never be too much service!