Monday, September 21, 2009

Great Week / Transfer

Following is the e-mail we received from Elder Goodale today. Interesting that he's getting transferred to yet another small town; I'll post his new snail mail address when we get it. I added the links in Justin's text below.
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Hey everybody! We had an awesome week! Thursday we went to Joplin for Mission Tour (when a General Authority comes to visit the mission). Elder Marlin K. Jensen from the First Quorum of the Seventy came to speak to us. He's been a Seventy for like 20-something years, he's pretty awesome. We had to leave Ava at 5:30 in the morning so we could get to Joplin on time, but it was worth it. I learned a ton and the Spirit was very strong the entire meeting too. It was especially cool because Elder Davis and I were asked to sing for it. We sang Be Still, My Soul (this link cannot be played due to copyright restrictions) and it went very very well. So that was really cool. I also got to see Elder Johnson again which is always fun, and I was able to talk to Elder Anderson, who replaced me in Miami. He came over to let me know that Jared, Carrie, and Chance Mountford, a family that I was teaching back in Miami, were just baptized on Saturday. That was really exciting to hear. Then on Sunday Donald was baptized! There were a ton of people there and it was a really good service, definitely one that he'll remember. Danny Mackey got the priesthood yesterday, too. It was a very good Sunday.
Donald and Brother Peery




Then one other piece of news - I'm getting transfered. Transfer calls were Saturday night and they're sending me to Stockton, MO (map here; Wikipedia page here; local newspaper here). It's not too far from here (at least based on how huge and spread out our mission is), just a couple hours north. I don't know a ton about it other than that it's about the size of Ava, it's really tiny. There are a bunch of polygamists up there, which should be really fun, and a couple years ago Stockton was wiped out by a tornado. That's about all I know about it so far. Should be alot of fun. :) I don't even know who my new companion is yet because I'm training again! Kind of crazy though, I'm going to be shotgunned in AGAIN. Shotgunning (or what alot of other missions call whitewashing) an area is when they pull both missionaries out at the same time and send 2 new ones in. Usually it doesn't happen a whole lot, except to me... This is my 4th area, and the 3rd time I'm being shotgunned in. I think the Lord is really trying to compel me to be humble because this will be my second time in a row shotgun training and now I'm going to be the District Leader as well. I'm pretty nervous, but it should work out alright. Please pray for me though. Also any mail you want to send this week just send it to the mission office since I don't know my new address yet. I'll send that to you next Monday. But that's it for this week, we don't have a ton of time because we've got a bunch to do to get ready for me leaving plus in a little bit we have a meeting with the Elders Quorum President to go over some stuff. Hope you all have a great week! I love you!
Me with a snake



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