Transfer to Missouri

It was great to hear from Elder Goodale today. This week he is transferring to Ava, Missouri; check out his new snail mail address, below. Michelle thinks that "shotgunning" is where he's transferred in to a new area as the senior companion. But perhaps somebody can help us out with the lingo...

Happy Fathers Day!!! How was your Fathers Day? It's too bad you have to be travelling again. But it sounds like you all had a pretty good week at home! And it sounds like every one had some great experiences at EFY this week, which is awesome.

Bro. Gibson, E. Goodale

E. Kowalk, E. Goodale

Things here have been going really well, too. The area is just exploding! We had 8 more new investigators this week (but that's mainly because of this family of 6 that we just started teaching. Well, 7, but 6 of them are over 8. They were a referral from our Ward Mission Leader and they are amazing!) and we saw alot of other miracles this week as well. We worked our butts off and were able to jump 6 feet again! 40 lessons and 144 OTM's. We also had 8 investigators at sacrament meeting! That's the most I've had so far. It was an amazing week. We have set a goal of having 7 baptisms here in Miami over the next 2 months, and we've asked all of the members here to include that in their prayers to help us accomplish it. We're also getting alot better at using the members and getting them to help us out, so I know that that goal will be acheived. To be honest, it's very likely that the ward could surpass it and have 8 or 9 baptisms between July and August. The field is white here, it really is. The Lord has really been blessing us. But there is one unfortunate thing... I won't get to see the harvest! Transfer calls came Saturday, and I'm going to be getting transfered to Ava, Missouri. It's in the Springfield South stake, in south central Missouri. My new mailing address will be:

Rt. 1 Box 499-C
Ava, MO 65608

Starting today, just send my mail there. I can't believe I'm getting transfered already! I kind of saw it coming though. It'll be good. It's kind of funny because last week in my letter I was saying that I wish I could drive a truck, and now I'm going to one of just 3 or 4 areas in the whole mission that has one! So starting on Thursday I'll be driving a Chevy Colorado. I'm pretty pumped about that. Of course the reason for that is that Ava is a really rural, spread out area, and it's very mountainous as well. You pretty much need 4-wheel drive to get around there in some places. So that's going to be exciting. I'll be out in the backwoods again... Not to mention I'm being shotgunned in, so I'll have alot of fun trying to learn the area quickly. Pray for me! I love you!

Additionally, Elder Goodale wrote Michelle separately. Here is his e-mail to her:

Dear Mom,

How are you doing? How's summer going? Ours has been HOT! And from what we hear, this isn't even bad yet. It's going to be getting even hotter, though. Luckily I'm getting transfered to Missouri, where it will be a little cooler. This week their highs are only about 99, as opposed to 102 in Oklahoma. So it's a little better there... It'll be interesting to go to another really small town, though. From what I here this one is really, really small. Everywhere I've served so far has been small, with the biggest town I've served in so far being here in Miami (about 15,000), but Ava is the most rural one yet from what I'm told. I love small towns though. The only bad thing is that after you've been there awhile it feels like you've already talked to everyone. But the people are always great, I love the small town feel, plus I'm going to be training so there's very little chance I'll be there more than 3 months. That's the other exciting thing about all this - shotgun training. It will be tough, but exciting too. I'm really grateful for this opportunity because I know I will grow a TON. It will definitely force me to be even more obedient and work harder than ever before, and most importantly to rely on the Lord even more and turn it all over to Him. I've felt him carrying me many times before throughout my mission (especially at the beginning of this last transfer), so I know he will help me now too. It's going to be alot of fun. And of course I can't complain when I'm driving a truck. :) Please pray for me, I need all the prayers I can get. Continue to pray for success in Miami as well. It'll be sad leaving before all of these amazing people get baptized, but I know that everything will work out if we just leave it in the Lord's hands. I love you! Have an awesome week!

President and Sister Seal at their last zone conference.

Joplin Zone top (l to r) Paget, Smith, Anderson, Mellies, Dill, David, Babbit, Pack Bottom Taylor, Madsen, Ritshard, Dunkley, Richins, ?, me, Kowalk, Otterstrom. Front Wilsons, sister serving in Nevada, MO, Pres. and Sister Seal, 2 sisters serving in Nevada, MO and Elder Josephson