On Saturday I got a phone call from President. He told me I'd be training another new missionary this new transfer. He also joked about how I'd been in my area since the dinosaurs roamed the earth. Still, he didn't say anything about whether I'd be transferred, so I've had to live with that burden for the past three days or so.
I was pretty nervous about transfers. I really wanted a change and that's what most of the other missionaries said I needed. Still, there was a fair possibility that I would be left in my area to train. So this morning I was pretty anxious before the news arrived of who would be transferred. It came when we were in the car driving here to email. Let's just say that I might have screamed pretty loud out of excitement when I found out I was leaving.
I'm excited. The next couple of months are going to be challenging, but also will be very rewarding. It's a lot of responsibility to train a new missionary, and even more so when you're taking over an area that you know nothing about. I've felt humbled, especially knowing how hard it was to train last time. Now I've also got to take over an area that probably isn't doing too well (they don't often move both missionaries out of an area that's doing great). Still, it's nice to feel that President Taylor and the Lord trust me to do it.
Now I've just got to find out where I'm going and who my companion will be. I have to wait until tomorrow morning to find that out. It sounded like there's a native speaker coming in this transfer, and I've gotten a bit of a feeling that I might get to be with him. Still, the big thing is that I'll at least have a change of scenery. I've gotten a little bit of cabin fever in this little box. It's a good box, but it's kinda small and I've been here for a year of my life.
Other than that this week was both good and bad. The good is that we found an awesome family. It's a mom and a dad and two daughters. We found them on Saturday and they showed up at Church on Sunday. The daughters loved Church too. They just seem like such a great family and I can't believe that we found people like them. After months of knocking, they were definitely worth the effort. The mom told us that she's been to a lot of churches but she had only heard good things about our church and that she wanted to learn more.
The bad is that the husband of one of our recent converts has made some poor decisions. He's been looking for things to doubt and he's been reading a lot of things that he probably shouldn't. His wife was very sad when we talked with her. She said it seems like he's changed and she doesn't know why. I was sad too because we've been working with him for a while and he'd made good progress. We had a really good lesson with her about faith versus doubt and Elder Zeledon bore a very powerful testimony. She's still very solid in the Gospel, but you could see how much it hurt her that her husband didn't really want to keep learning. Hopefully he'll come back one of these days. I believe he will.
Well, goodbye Encanto. It's been fun. I've learned a lot of things. I've learned how to work hard. I've learned how to teach clearly and precisely. I've learned to love tracting. But now it's time for a change. I don't know where I'll be. Maybe tomorrow I'll be driving up north to Prescott or west to Buckeye. We'll see. Maybe I'll even get a car (hopefully). Still, I'll get the opportunity to train a new missionary and make an area great. I'm looking forward to it.
Love you all,
Elder Grasley
PS Make sure everyone knows that my address won't be at the apartment anymore. They can just send me mail at the mission office until I get you my new address.
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