March 10, 2014

Hi everyone!
Time is going by way too fast! Transfers are coming up this week and it feels like February just completely flew by. Last week went super well. We started off the week last Monday with going to lunch with the Gwilliams and the Stuckis! It was so much fun! The Gwilliams left this last week and they wanted to have lunch with Elder Belnap and me since we knew them from our very first days, so the Stuckis took all of us out to Chili's for a great lunch. It was great being able to serve with them, especially since I got to serve with them for super long! I love them so much! We had a new trainers meeting this last week for all the missionaries that are going to be training new missionaries next transfer. There are only 6 trainers so it was a tiny meeting but it went well. It was cool because it was my first time ever attending that meeting. I never got to attend one when I trained because I was on Palawan ad so that was a cool experience. These new trainers are going to be great! I love how President Stucki just puts so much trust in trainers. He says they are one of the most important companions that missionaries have. They just have such a big lasting influence on new missionaries. And lastly, with all this transfer stuff coming up we have been working closely with President Stucki to make sure everything is going to go well. Tracsfers are super crazy I guess. Last week we had a transfer meeting with all the office couple and President and Sister Stucki. It was alright. Kind of boring at some points when everyone talked about assignments in the office. It was alright though. As for the proselyting efforts. We had a baptism last Saturday!! Shamir, who is from Iran, was baptized. He is the funniest person I think I have ever met. I don't think he stops laughing, ever. Either he laughs out loud or he is laughing on the inside. Basically he is just the happiest and nicest person. Anyway, he is doing super well and he is loving the gospel. His baptismal service went well and there was so much support for him. he enjoyed it a lot and I can't wait to continue to see him just grow in the gospel. One of our investigators, Christopher, passed his baptismal interview so this next week he will be getting baptized. He is just doing super great. He talked in our gospel principles class about following the commandments and receiving a lot of blessings for it. He is great. I will let you know how to baptismal service goes. With all the new changes in our ward, we are really seeing a lot more emphasis on missionary work! Bishop Espi, our new Bishop, invited us to ward council, a first in years for this ward and he just fixed all the visiting and home teaching in the ward so it actually gets done! I am super excited to see this ward just grow so much.

Elder Stephens