We got news that Elder
Nonu will be transferred to Turner in the Salem stake. It is really close to
Stayton. We were definitely not expecting that, but that is obviously where the
Lord has need for him at this time. The last 6 weeks really flew by. My new
companion will be Elder Gutierrez. He has been out for about a year I think. I
am excited to be staying here in High Desert. I am getting a little nervous
about this being my last six weeks though. It just feels weird. Our entire
district is getting pretty shaken up. One of the Sisters goes home, another is
getting transferred, and then we have 5 other elders getting transferred. So it
is going to be pretty crazy. Elder Greenwood, who lived with me in Newberg and
was trained by Elder Bills & Patterson, is going to be one of our zone
leaders out here now so that will be fun.
The week was pretty good. I honestly don't remember a lot of
what happened. It is really hard for me to remember on Monday what happened the
rest of the week. We have one sister we are teaching, Lynne. She is in her 60s.
She had a good amount of exposure to the church growing up. She is very
prepared to be baptized. She has a really hard health trial, which makes things
hard. On Friday, she had a really hard day with other things as well, so after
our lesson we gave her a blessing. She showed up to church on Sunday glowing.
She was so happy and she did not even have her walker! She loves church and
loves the feelings that she is feeling. It has been really amazing to see how
far she has been coming.
This week we were also able to help a sister move. She is
not a member, but we have met her a bunch of times since I have been here. When
Elder Nonu got here, she finally started opening up and being willing to talk
with us! She apparently lived with Tongans in California, one of which being
one that Elder Nonu knows. So that really softened her heart. She reached out
to us this week because she was moving to Idaho and really needed some help. We
were able to contact the Elder's Quorum and they did a great job of showing up
to help. Overall, I think that there were 12 of us there. As she pulled in with
the Uhaul, she was in tears. Originally, she was supposed to be waiting for us
with the Uhaul ready at noon. Well, the owner of the Uhaul had a flat tire, so
he was not able to get it to her until near 1215 and she didn't show up until
12:30. As a missionary, this is kind of nerve-ra
cking because you have a bunch
of members who are just standing around waiting. But now as I am typing this
up, I think that it is important that she was late, because she was able to see
this force of people standing there ready to help her when she pulled in. I
think that is pretty cool.
We had a good fourth of July. The ward had a breakfast and
we had 4 people that we are teaching show up to participate! One miracle on
that day was that we went by with Stan to pick up Brother Beaver, a man we are
teaching. He lives right next to Crystil and her family. Right when we pulled
up, Angelica (Crystil's daughter) texted us saying that she did not have to
work. It was just a blessing because we were able to go see if she needed a
ride to the breakfast, which she did, and she was able to attend.