As always, transfers
is a time of guessing and wonderment, but we definitely did not have any notion
of what would be going on.
Saturday night we got
a call from the assistants that we were being flushed, or in other words, that
we were both being transferred. That is relatively uncommon for zone leader
areas, although we assumed that when our assistant was released he wanted to train
up a new zone leader in our area (which is what ended up happening).
What was really
surprising was the call that we got from President Hewlett the next day. Not
only were we both being transferred, but we were also both being released from
our assignments as zone leaders. After six months, my release came as no
surprise, but Elder Carraway had only served for 3 months, so his was a little
more shocking.
In any case, I am now
serving a bi-state mission! I am being transferred to Welsh, Louisiana, as part
of the Jennings Branch. My new companion is Elder Hancock, who I have never
served around before.
Now for the week! It
was a wild one as well. On Tuesday we had our Mission Leadership Training,
where we discussed consecration of the heart and mind as well as the might and
strength. It was a very good discussion.
Whenever we have such
meetings, we get to prepare a training to teach the districts in the zone, so
Thursday and Friday we were teaching District Trainings all day. It actually
went super well, encouraged a lot of introspection from the different
missionaries. It was probably, at least in my opinion, the best district
training I taught in my time as a zone leader, so it was a good one to leave
off on.
Friday we drove with
T__ to the Temple for Faith Meets Family. It was awesome because I saw so many
other people I knew from other areas, including one of the people I baptized in
Cleveland! It made me a little sad because I know I won't be able to serve in
all of those areas again, and I would sure like to! It was really cool to see
them, though. There were some of my favorite members from every one of my
areas!
Saturday was when we
heard the news about the flush, so Sunday morning we notified our branch. It
was definitely a sad day, for us and for them. They asked us to give our
testimonies, and we sang hymn 152 (God Be with You Till We Meet Again) for our
closing hymn. It almost felt like we were going home, not just getting
transferred! But I really do love the people here, so I am sad. I was hoping to
have at least a little more time in this area.
Best of luck to y'all,
prayers are always appreciated!
Elder DeFord
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