So transfer P-Day was plenty interesting. I love to try and figure everything out ahead of time so there's always plenty of calling around the mission and discussing possibilities for the impending transfer. On Saturday morning around 8:30 I received the call from President Mullen about being called as a Zone Leader, which I was kind of surprised about (but so many people had been saying it would happen so it didn't come as a total surprise). But that meant that I got to spend the whole day wondering about where I might go and who might be my new companion. As I called around the mission I realized that President was doing an overhaul of the entire mission; he called 7 new Zone Leaders, and we only have 10 zones in the mission. So there will be a lot of new faces at Mission Leadership Council next month. But there will be some familiar faces. Some of the other people who got ZL calls are Elder Murphy and Elder Smith here in Moreno Valley, as well as Elder Frost and Elder Drebot from Corona.
So now for the big news... I'm transferring to the Mt. Rubidoux Zone, which means that I will be covering half the Arlington Heights Ward and... the Riverside YSA Ward at UC-Riverside! I'm so pumped to be back on a college campus, and the work was always good there according to what Elder Camper told me. It will be so much fun. I've always told people it was my goal to serve in this area at some point on my mission! It is a dream come true.
My new companion is someone I came out with from the MTC, named Elder Young. He's had an interesting mission experience, due to some people going home and emergency transfers and such. He was in a trio with some Zone Leaders for a while early in his mission, and then he became a Zone Leader pretty quickly. I've heard he is a super hard worker. Elder Hale, who is my current ZL, served in that Ward with him and he said that was one of the most productive times of his mission, so I'm looking forward to that.
I'm not exactly sure what it means to be a Zone Leader yet. I know that means you have weekly meetings with the District Leaders before DDM, you organize zone activities and blitz, and report to the AP's on the work in your zone. Your area is supposed to be an example for your zone and the mission. You also go to MLC (Mission Leadership Council) every month with President and the AP's, ZL's, and STL's. And you do exchanges with each DL in your zone, as well as the AP's. So it should be a great learning opportunity for me.
We were able to have some good teaching experiences this week. We have met with Joseph pretty regularly for a couple weeks. Joseph is a guy in his 30's, he has 5 kids and is very well versed in the Bible. He is very willing to talk with us and always asks a lot of questions, and he likes when we go to the Bible, which is refreshing because recently we've had some people who think scriptures are hard to read so we kind of shy away from them. He also likes to talk about some crazy conspiracy theories, mostly about how the world is flat, so we have to try and keep him on topic. It reminds me of teaching Mitch in Corona. But anyway, this Friday, we went over there with Ken and we talked a lot about the priesthood, that was something he was struggling with, and I think we were able to address some of his concerns and answer his questions, though not all of them. The best part though was when Ken got involved. For one thing it gave me a break, Joseph is very intense and talks very quickly and he was just locked into me the whole time, so when Ken stepped in, it was a little relief. But he was also able to relate and share his experience learning about the Gospel, and also not sound so presumptuous or condescending when he says things like "Well how can you know about the Book of Mormon if you won't read it?" So member involvement is still super important and it's always good to hear a little bit of people's testimonies when they share them with non-members instead of in sacrament meeting because different things are explained.
That pretty much sums up the significant events of the week. I spent most of last night packing and today I'll be leaving my area around 2 PM with Ken. My new area is mostly in East Riverside, so I'm actually only going to be 15 or 20 minutes away from where I have been for the last 4 months. Weird how the mission seems so big sometimes. Those zone boundaries seem like impassable barriers until transfer day rolls around.
See you soon,
Elder Cornaby
"Get on your knees and pray, then get on your feet and work."
P.S. The high for today is 113, so I think summer has officially arrived, though I don't even want to think about what August and September will be like.