Jessie has continued with a fever, lethargic and now to add to the mix……throwing up! Yeah me. What a way to start transfers. Transfer week as of late is always an adventure. No two are alike. It was an eventful drive to the mission home with the new missionaries; all sisters. While Aaron was driving his vehicle, a seven passenger SUV crossover, his tire blew out as we were heading down the road at 70 mph. He was able to get us to the side of the road and prepared to work on the tire in his suit and tie. I quickly said a prayer in my heart asking for a roadside assistant truck to come by. The assistants saw what had happened so they circled back in the transfer van on the frontage road. The sisters and I hopped the wall barrier as well as one can in a skirt to run across the frontage road to get to the van while the assistants and president started to work on the tire. We watched from the van as cars are flying past them at 70 mph and out of nowhere a large utility truck pulls up to help. A Hispanic man jumps out, takes over, and within minutes had the tire changed. My simple prayer was answered! The Lord looks after us as it wasn’t roadside assistant truck but a member from the south part of our mission who just happened to see a bunch of white shirts and missionary skirts stranded on the side of the road. That wasn’t the only difficulty we had on the way to the house. One of our newly arrived sisters had so much anxiety that we had to pull over on the way to the house to let her throw up. ;) Heck of a welcome to the Great THSM.
This was probably the largest transfer we’ve had since arriving, not because of the number of missionaries coming in, but because of the number of changes within companionships. Aaron released one of my long-term assistants. He also added three new areas and called two new Burmese speaking missionaries. Imagine arriving as a new English speaking elder only to be told that you are now going to be learning a language where there is no Book of Mormon, little training, and one area for your entire mission. Needless to say, there is a lot of shock and even greater feelings of inadequacy, but it always works out and he accepted the challenge. The ten new missionaries are settling in with their new companions and assigned areas. As expected a few are struggling but we are hopeful that they’ll hang in there.
We had our usual transfer activities with lunches, interviews, temple trip, and farewells at the airport. All of our first group of sisters that arrived with us have gone home now and the English sisters that arrived today will actually finish with the new mission president which is crazy to even think about. Our transfers are so much more enjoyable now and we get so much of our week back to focus on the work. It is two straight days of controlled chaos, but all the missionaries are in the field and working by Monday night and all the hassle of the past has disappeared.
Jessie was bummed about not being as involved in transfers this week due to being sick both Monday and Tuesday but she really hasn’t had the energy for it. Luckily for me, while I have been going to and from the airport and temple, Veronica, my house attendant has helped Jessie with what she needs. Although she has slept like I have never seen her sleep before so she hasn’t needed much. Jessie finally felt up to going to school on Wednesday since she was fever free since Tuesday morning. Still not much of an appetite and though she is a small girl naturally she was so frail looking. Think a little girl version of Mr. Burns from the Simpson’s.
Bode wrapped up his basketball season on Monday night. Although there weren’t many W’s, he had a good time. He would like to do private training with Coach Whitaker from Clements to actually work on his basketball skills. His only complaint was that his coach didn’t teach them skills that would help them become better players. The coach is a football coach with little basketball experience, which was evident in watching the games. Once the high school season is over I see if we can arrange something with him.
I attended one of our district meetings at the Dairy Ashford meetinghouse on Wednesday morning. In the process of getting there I made a couple of wrong turns making me late. When I got there I slipped in the meeting and was so confused because it was ending instead of beginning. Also it seemed like an oversized district. I quickly found out I was in a zone meeting and was early to the district meeting. I enjoy these meetings because I am involved in helping our missionaries in their work and helping investigators progress too as we discuss how to meet their needs as a council.
We held our new missionary Atonement training meeting on Friday and then raced to the airport to pick up Elder and Sister Zwick. He served as a mission president in Santiago, Chile while Aaron served in Orsorno. He actually picked Aaron up when he was stranded at the airport in Santiago. Elder Zwick and his wife headed to Bay City to get ready for Stake Conferences tomorrow and Sunday.
Zac’s team lost a close one on Friday night. He’s playing well and is on the floor a lot. He does come home on occasion frustrated with the coach. Like the nights he doesn’t get home from practice until almost 6:30…..5 hours of practice after being up at 5:15 can make a long day and then add the homework on top of that. He is a great kid. Love him.
On Saturday, Elder Zwick had Aaron participate in all of the stake meetings. When that is the case and I’m invited to speak in the evening sessions I drive separately. Aaron and I spoke on member missionary work, something we know that needs a great deal of work throughout our mission. We had several of the members of the stake share how much they appreciated our message and felt inspired to do more to help the missionaries. We love to hear that! A great way to end the week.