First off I will say that my little sisters sound like legends!! I'm calling it right now, Maddie and Kenzie are going to be on the Cougarettes together! No doubt! It sounds like everyone is getting excited and ready for summer. I remember May was always just the biggest joke ever! We never did anything the last month! I'm glad that no one recorded transfer meeting and posted it online this time because this one came as a surprise!!
To answer just a couple of your questions about transfers, 1st about how much stuff do I leave. This past transfer I didn't mean to leave anything in my last apartment, but I ended up accidentally leaving a bunch of things because I procrastinated and packed everything @ 10 o'clock the night before. Haha also about our Mission President. He's not "super" strict, but usually things like the Miami Seaquarium don't get approved to do, but since our zone was doing so well, he gave us permission to go. Alright and now to answer everyone's questions about where I am. At transfer meeting as were sitting there before usually I can get some kind of feeling about where I'm going to go, but this time nothing came. But I ended up going the furthest north I have ever been to an area called Fort Lauderdale West. My companion is E. Burgoyne. He is a creole missionary. And we are the Assistants to the President!! Biggest surprise of my life right now!! I honestly have no idea what to think about it, I definitely wasn't expecting to serve as an AP because at the time there were 3, and none of them were dying (a.k.a. going home) so usually they just wait to call someone new until they go home. But 2 of them ended up going to a zone that split into 2 zones and they were opening up new areas as zone leaders. Pretty crazy!
So yeah, basically as an Assistant we're here to help President Richardson in whatever he needs us to do. We have to help him prepare training's for the whole mission. We help him plan transfers and who goes where to what area. We also have to help out the senior missionaries that serve in the office with whatever random jobs that they need. Also we have to go on exchanges with all the zone leaders in the mission and train them how to help their zones. And occasionally we do exchanges with Trainers and trainees just to make sure that everything is good with them. And then on top of all of that were expected to run the best area in the mission and set a perfect example of how to do missionary work. WOW it's a lot!! Basically these past few days have just been a complete blur! Our first full day together we had to wake up @ like 4:30 in the morning to take the missionaries that were going home to the airport and drop them off. Just so much random stuff! haha it's a lot of fun though. So far I think my favorite part has been just getting to work with closely with President Richardson. I always knew he was a funny guy, but I didn't realize how hilarious he actually is!! We had a meeting with him this week and I just could not stop laughing because he kept making so many goofy jokes!!
Another great part is our area. The area of Fort Lauderdale West is the "Promised Land"! Holy cow there are so many prepared people here in our area! We actually had a baptism this past week! I will send you a picture. It's an amazing woman named Pascaline. She was born in Haiti but raised in the Bahamas. She has 2 little kids that are the crazies little rugrats I've ever seen! You'll see in the picture! ;) Our area is amazing because there are a lot of families!! We actually had 2 other families at church on sunday so hopefully they will be getting baptized this month as well. One of them is this couple from the Marshall islands that will be getting married this week. So please pray for them! Their names are Mary & Ghandi. I told them about winston in the Marshall Islands and they got really excited. I don't know how Winston is speaking their language, but it sounds so weird!
That's about all I have time to say! I'm sure you will have plenty of questions for me on Sunday. But I would just love to say that I know that he whom the Lord calls He qualifies. I don't think I've ever felt so overwhelmed in my life. But at the same time I don't think I've ever had such strong faith and confidence in the Lord that He will help me. I'm grateful for the chances that He gives us to stretch ourselves and sacrifice on His behalf. I know that God gives us challenges and difficulties to help us grow and become the people He wants us to become. God knows each and everyone of us by name and He knows exactly what we need. Have an amazing week and I will probably skype on sunday around 1 o'clock utah time.
Love,
Elder Nielsen
No comments:
Post a Comment