So for all the transfer news; I am going to the Perris Ward in the Menifee Zone. The ward is split, and I'm in the half that has a car whereas the other half is a bike area. Apparently it is one of the largest wards geographically in the whole mission. So that will be pretty exciting, but we will probably have to budget miles more carefully than we did driving around Corona. I'm also going to be in a trio again, with Elder Herald and Elder Haltli. Elder Herald has been out for 3 months and Elder Haltli has been out for 4 1/2 months. It will be interesting to be with young missionaries again, because it seems like once you've hit about 9 months, most missionaries are pretty much at the same level, but before that everybody has their strengths and weaknesses.
I am going to be a District Leader now and I am excited about that. Ever since the beginning of my mission I thought that seemed like the best of both worlds. You get to do training at DDM every week and you get to go on exchanges a lot, but you don't have quite as much pressure from the AP's or the other missionaries, as you do when you are a ZL.
In some ways the transfer was expected, in other ways it wasn't. Because Elder Anderson had been in the area for so long, I felt like it was pretty likely for him to leave and be a ZL somewhere else. But I also remembered that there were quite a few missionaries like Elder Chapman and Elder Mercado who did 3 transfers in one area, and then only one more as a ZL. The transfer wasn't likely enough that I could get a jump start on packing, so after all our Sunday services and the Christmas Devotional it was a little bit of a rush to start laundry and get packed up. It's kind of bittersweet to leave Norco because there were a couple of families and investigators I'd gotten close to. But at the same time, I don't really feel like I knew most of the ward members at all since I was only here for 6 weeks.
This last week was alright. I'll say it was quality over quantity, which is what I prefer anyway. We had Stake meetings Tuesday night and MLC all day Thursday, plus the Christmas Devotional, so a lot of our days were kind of chopped up. But we did have a couple good teaching appointments this week. On Saturday we met with a guy named Dave, who also has a pretty extensive background in theology and scriptures and it was pretty cool to talk with him. He kind of gets lost in his own rants, so they'll have to figure out how to curb his enthusiasm for talking, but other than that he seems like he has a lot of real intent. He referred himself after having read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and saying he thinks it's probably true. It was interesting though because he understood and accepted the idea of apostasy and priesthood, but when we invited him to baptism he went back to saying "I'm Catholic", but if that stopped people from getting baptized, no one would ever get baptized.
The Sisters that arrived in the mission when I did are starting to go home. This transfer is when the Spanish-speaking Sisters leave, and the English-speaking Sisters leave next transfer. It's kind of weird to see them leaving, but it'll be worse next transfer because I was a lot closer with Sister McCulloch and Sister Bradshaw than I was with the Sisters from the Mexico MTC. I was looking at the mission directory and realized that in 6 weeks there will be about 10 missionaries going home, and besides them, there are only about 5 missionaries who have been out for longer than I have. So that's kind of crazy to think I'm basically one of the oldest missionaries in the mission, even though I haven't even hit 18 months yet!
So we've still got some packing to do before transfers so that will have to be it for this week. I'll let you know more about the area, my companions, my district, etc. when I actually get there later today. Hope everything is going well and you're getting ready for Christmas!
From the West Side . . . .
Elder Cornaby
In some ways the transfer was expected, in other ways it wasn't. Because Elder Anderson had been in the area for so long, I felt like it was pretty likely for him to leave and be a ZL somewhere else. But I also remembered that there were quite a few missionaries like Elder Chapman and Elder Mercado who did 3 transfers in one area, and then only one more as a ZL. The transfer wasn't likely enough that I could get a jump start on packing, so after all our Sunday services and the Christmas Devotional it was a little bit of a rush to start laundry and get packed up. It's kind of bittersweet to leave Norco because there were a couple of families and investigators I'd gotten close to. But at the same time, I don't really feel like I knew most of the ward members at all since I was only here for 6 weeks.
This last week was alright. I'll say it was quality over quantity, which is what I prefer anyway. We had Stake meetings Tuesday night and MLC all day Thursday, plus the Christmas Devotional, so a lot of our days were kind of chopped up. But we did have a couple good teaching appointments this week. On Saturday we met with a guy named Dave, who also has a pretty extensive background in theology and scriptures and it was pretty cool to talk with him. He kind of gets lost in his own rants, so they'll have to figure out how to curb his enthusiasm for talking, but other than that he seems like he has a lot of real intent. He referred himself after having read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and saying he thinks it's probably true. It was interesting though because he understood and accepted the idea of apostasy and priesthood, but when we invited him to baptism he went back to saying "I'm Catholic", but if that stopped people from getting baptized, no one would ever get baptized.
The Sisters that arrived in the mission when I did are starting to go home. This transfer is when the Spanish-speaking Sisters leave, and the English-speaking Sisters leave next transfer. It's kind of weird to see them leaving, but it'll be worse next transfer because I was a lot closer with Sister McCulloch and Sister Bradshaw than I was with the Sisters from the Mexico MTC. I was looking at the mission directory and realized that in 6 weeks there will be about 10 missionaries going home, and besides them, there are only about 5 missionaries who have been out for longer than I have. So that's kind of crazy to think I'm basically one of the oldest missionaries in the mission, even though I haven't even hit 18 months yet!
So we've still got some packing to do before transfers so that will have to be it for this week. I'll let you know more about the area, my companions, my district, etc. when I actually get there later today. Hope everything is going well and you're getting ready for Christmas!
From the West Side . . . .
Elder Cornaby