I’m sorry to say that my chances of seeing snow this year were greatly decreased this past week. I was sitting in my apartment with my good old companion there when we received a call. Now, usually that’s not abnormal. As missionaries, our phones ring quite often. I picked up the phone and was rather surprised to hear the voice of our Mission President. Now mind you, this was the day after transfers, so I supposed that I’d be perfectly safe in Payson for the next 6 weeks, at the very least.
Now, what Pres. Watson said really did scare me. He said, “Elder, we have a situation that we NEVER like to have happen…” Now, at this point, I sincerely believed that he was going to tell me that my Dad had died, or something of similar magnitude. Luckily, he just asked me next if I was willing to be transferred. Well, what could I say? “No, President, I’d really like to stay here. But thanks anyway for the offer!” Truthfully, I don’t think that would work very well.
Anyway, the thing is that they had one more Spanish-speaking missionary come from the MTC this past transfer than they had expected. So, they had to find a trainer for him. They decided that Elder Barrios (My companion there in Payson) was the one to do the job. So, I got moved to a threesome down here in wonderful, unnaturally hot Phoenix. I’m not joking, either. It’s unnaturally hot here. It’s the first place that I’ve ever been where we have the Air Conditioning running at the end of November.
Anyway, that’s really exciting. We’re here in the Paradise Valley area of Phoenix, which is actually pretty nice. We have a massive area here, so we have a car. We actually have an almost brand-new Toyota Corolla, which isn’t a bad car. Anyway, good stuff. I still miss Kami, though.
I did get to spend Thanksgiving there in Payson, though. That was good stuff. We had dinner at the homes of three different families – two of which were English-speaking. It was a good day, though I also had to spend most of it packing and saying goodbye to people. We left early on Friday morning to make the transfer.
As far as life here goes, it’s really packed in our apartment. I went from completely having my own bathroom to sharing with two other people. The worst part is that the past missionaries (including my companions now) aren’t the cleanest people. So, I’ve been working on cleaning up the apartment whenever I have a minute to do so. The Branch here has round about 80 active members, so we actually meet in the Chapel, not the Relief Society room. They’re a good branch, though I hear that we’ve got work to do as far as getting them to help us.
Anyway, that’s most of what’s been going on here. There’s a ton of work to do here, so we’ve got to work hard.
Oh, yeah… I have one companion directly from the heart of Mexico City, who is nearly done with his mission. He goes home in February. My other companion is 6 weeks behind me. He’s from the Seattle area, and he’s a good guy. He has more trouble with Spanish, but I feel that we’ll both be able to help each other.
So, yeah. That’s the update. Super-long this week.
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