Hello family and friends and all. Keeping the flame alive! It's been a good week (albeit very busy). I've decided to tell you some of the crisis that we've resolved in the office this week. Before, just talking about them made me stressed, but now I've adjusted to it to the point that I can describe it in gnarly detail and don't even sweat once! :)
This week was transfers. We spent last week preparing, making the sheets, updating the databases (which still isn't completely done) and making travel plans for every single one of the missionaries who would be moving. I think I heard President say that about 30% of the mission got moved this transfer. I don't doubt it.The real fun began Sunday night, when we went to the airport to pick up Elder Strickland who was flying in from the north. He was headed home the next day, so he was going to stay with the Assistants in Barrio 2. We drove him there and made a switch with the assistants, who had picked up Elder Woodland (also going home the next day).
Elder Woodland stayed with us that night, and I slept on the couch (quite soft, but a few inches too short).The next day, we took Elder Woodland to the Stake Center in Madrid and began doing the usual duties with departing missionaries (collecting extra money, collecting residency and credit cards, having them sign "dar de baja" documents, giving them temporary phones for the day, etc.) After that, we distributed letters, packages, and proselyting materials to the missionaries there, having planned ahead of time what to bring so that the largest portion of the mission got what they needed. After driving a few people around, we took the luggage of the departing missionaries to the mission home, dropped it off, went back to the office to take care of a few more miscellaneous things, then went to the mission home at night to try and print out the tickets for those flying the next day. That didn't end up working out, so we just gave up and went home for the night.
The next day, we woke up early again and headed to the office, then down to the Stake Center again to welcome in the incoming missionaries. Once again, we planned their trips and gave them all the tickets and information they would need to get to their destinations. It was refreshing to be in the presence of those new missionaries, all full of uncertainty, but also big dreams and desires. It reminded me how I was, and brought back those same feelings of wanting to conquer the world with the Gospel. Elder Porter, one of the new missionaries, wouldn't be leaving until a day later, so we decided to have him stay with us. We went and got something to eat at a turkish restaurant, then we went to the office so that I could get some work done.
After a few hours, we went out to pick up Freencky (a 19-year-old member who is awesome and helps us a lot) and then we worked in two companionships for the rest of the night. Elder Anderson and Elder Porter were able to find 3 new young investigators, and Freencky and I went back to the office to finish up references. We got them all done! :) Once again, we had 5 people in the piso that night, so I opted to sleep on the ground with several blankets under me. I slept quite well.Today at 12 we'll be going to the mission home to pick up some packages and then we'll be dropping Elder Porter off at 2 so he can catch his train, but after that, all of the transfer chaos should be over. It's been fun, and I'm quite satisfied with the amount of stuff we were able to accomplish this time around. We're slowly getting better at this whole thing.
As for proselyting, we managed to get quite a bit done this last week, despite the chaos of transfers. We set an aggressive goal for our district: 45 lessons and 500 contacts in total. At the end of the week, we got 51 lessons and about 470 contacts (just short of our goal) but I know that we definitely gave it our best. Also, last Saturday the other elders had a baptism. It worked out really well, it was one of the happiest baptisms that I've ever seen. I really enjoyed it.
Sorry, I'm already out of time! We've had to do a lot of running around during this hour and it's been sabotaged a bit. But I love you all and I hope all is going well!
-Elder Knorr
