Chris’ Mission–Assistant to the President with Elder Christofferson and Elder Eric Johnsen

Well, all my dreams have come true. I am being transferred down to the office to serve as an Assistant to the President with Elder Christofferson and Elder Eric Johnsen. I am so excited. I have had the desire to serve with both Christofferson and Johnsen my entire mission. And now I get them both at the same time. And I get to serve around President and Sister Waite, and in the office, and at Michigan State University, and greet the new greenies as well as say goodbye to the departing missionaries. I get to travel around the mission to all the Zone Conferences and other meetings, work with transfers, and so many other awesome things. I didn’t think I could ever be so blessed. I have the two best missionaries in the mission as companions and things are going to be so awesome. I can’t wait to get there tomorrow.

This was a sweet area here in Midland, though. The members here are so cool, and I have really enjoyed it. There are a lot of people that I will miss. And the area is also a good one. We have just finally gotten this place really rocking. We are teaching a lot of good people. We went around and said goodbye to a lot of people today. Trisha and Stefan Sezenias and Emmitt Jenkins. He was so fun to teach. I am worried about him because he is getting some anti-Mormon stuff thrown at him. We talked about a bunch of things tonight. I just pray that he will follow the truth. We also visited many others including Bishop Jensen and his family, the Masons, etc. And we also called a bunch of others. It is always so hard to say goodbye. Elder Moon is also getting transferred, down to Saginaw so this area is being whitewashed. Elder McMorrow and Ostler are coming in so I need to make sure it is a smooth transition. Ostler won’t get here until Friday night or Saturday, so I am having Elder Moon stay here with McMorrow to show him around the next few days and hit our appointments while Saginaw will be in a threesome for a couple of days. This AP authority is already coming in handy.

Well, I’m outta here, but I'm so excited about my new calling and responsibilities. It is going to be so awesome. Also, I get to see Johanson again before and while he boards the plane. Sweet. Plus I will still get to come up for Stake Conference to Midland to see the General Authority, F. Enzio Busche; and to say goodbye to more Midland members and to see everyone from Cheboygan. I am psyched. Things could not be better. Wednesday, May 18

This was the sweetest day. I got on the bus in Midland at 11:40 and arrived in East Lansing at 3:15. It was a pretty uneventful bus ride. Elder Christofferson and Johanson and Foote picked me up. We had an awesome departing dinner prepared by Sister Waite. Only three are departing, but they will be so missed, especially Johanson. After our dinner, me and Christofferson ran around Lansing in the Action Van trying to care of some missionaries who were stranded throughout the town. We had one bus that broke down on the freeway and fouled up 3 missionaries travel arrangements. Since we had to take care of that, we were late to the testimony meeting but it was an awesome meeting. Olga and Sister Jane Weiss and Eve Oneal were all there and it was great to see them of course. We didn’t have time to unpack or anything tonight, so just pulled out our night stuff and got some sleep. What a day. Thursday, May 19

Holy Cow! What a sensational day. It was definitely the longest but most productive day I have ever had. We woke up at 4:50 getting ready for the airport scene this morning. We met at the mission home at 5:45, had some juice and doughnuts, and headed to the airport. It was so weird to be there and to see those guys getting on the plane. I was so choked up as I hugged Johanson and watched him walk away. I couldn't believe they were going home, but it was a neat experience to be a part of. When we got back to the Mission Home, President just talked to us in the Van for a long time about the mission and about our calling and responsibilities. I just get so excited talking to him. We helped them in the house for quite a while this morning, moving furniture around for Presidents new desk. Plus Sister Waite fed us the sweetest breakfast. I already see many of those motherly benefits that the APs get from Sister Waite. She is wonderful. We cruised home and cleaned our apartment spotless and unpacked and stuff. This place looks sweet. I’m sure it is the cleanest apartment in the mission. It is located in the living center at MSU campus and is great. It already feels like home. Then we headed to the office at 12:30 and started figuring out some of our office duties. We went over the “AP Responsibilities” sheet and made some assignments for the month on who was going to do what. Boy, we have a lot to do. I worked on the (scoop sheet) Master Zone Car list for most of the day and got all of that set up. It will be pretty cool working on a computer a lot. I just want to figure out everything fast so that I can be a good Assistant. We finally got out of the office at about 8:00 and grabbed a quick dinner at Burger King so we could get out and do some proselyting. We got to proselyte from about 8:30 until 10:00 and we had a good time. We found some really good people that we will start teaching this next week. The Lord led us to some choice people. So basically we worked for 17 hours today. That is definitely my longest day in the mission field, but it feels so good to just be in the service of the Lord and to serve with all my time and energy and strength. Nothing feels better than knowing that I have accomplished the tasks assigned to me by the Lord this day. I am going to love serving here in the office.  Friday, May 20

The past two days have been great. Saturday we spent some time in the morning at the office and ran some errands for Sister Waite in the afternoon. She is expecting her mother and a few others from her family today so we were helping her prepare for that. Then we had to head to Midland for Stake Conference. We almost drove up about 45 minutes early, but instead we decided to do a bit of tracting to fill that extra time and I’m sure glad we did. We found an awesome guy named Bryan. We visited with him for about 20 minutes and have an appointment for the 1st discussion on Tuesday. It showed me once more how important that extra mile is in proselyting. When we do more than is expected of us, the Lord really helps us out in our work. Elder Busche shared a story about that in our missionary meeting this morning. He told about a city of about 40,000 in Germany that had been tracted out for 3 full years. Finally they were pulling the missionaries out of that city. The missionaries were in the train station and had about 30 minutes before the train left. The one missionary said, “let’s go tracting”. Well, the other one thought he was crazy and didn’t want to. The great missionary said, “lets do it anyway”. So they crossed the tracks and tracted out about 4 houses. On the last house, there was a man relaxing, tired from work, not wanting to be bothered when a knock came at the door. He told his wife to send whoever it was away. As she was doing this, the man heard an audible voice in the room which said, “This is the most important message you’ll ever hear in your life.” When his wife came back, he told her to call them back in. She did and he asked them what they had. And the missionary in tune with the spirit said, “This is the most important message you’ll ever hear in your life.” They had to run and grab their train so they couldn’t teach them, but soon that man was taught and baptized and became the leader of a good sized branch in that hard-hearted city. This teaches me that we must always go the extra mile and follow the spirit. There are angels on the other side that want to help us, but first we must be spiritual enough and committed enough to deserve that help and then it will come.

Now back to Saturday afternoon. We headed up to Midland and attended the 7:00 adult session. It was really good. A lot of Cheboygan people were there. Over the weekend, I visited with the Weiss’, Debbie Weiss, Jane Dewitt, Suzy Mercer, Truesdales, Volz, Williamstons, Eve Oneal, and Diane Bourrie. It was so great to see everyone. They are the greatest people. After the session, Olga took us all out to the Sweet Onion for dinner. She is such a loving and giving person. We had a fun dinner and then stayed over in Bay City. Sunday morning began with our missionary meeting at 8:30, and then the general session at 10:00. This was a landmark day for Midland. They split the Stake into the Midland Stake and now the Traverse City District. Also, Sault Ste. Marie was added to the Milwaukee District to strengthen the Upper Peninsula. President John D. Hoover is the Traverse City District President. I knew it would be him. HE is one of the most enthusiastic, spiritual, and loving men I have ever met. He will do a great job, but there is a lot of work to do in that district to prepare it to be a Stake. It was an exciting conference with all the changes being made. Plus it was great to hear from a General Authority. He taught me so much about love and power and the gospel. He started out saying, “I rejoice in Jesus Christ”. He did a fantastic job. After conference, we visited for a long time with everyone and got invited over to have dinner with the Ryders. They are a cool family. We also got the extra car from Sault Ste. Marie because they gave that area to the other mission and so we had to drive it over to Grand Rapids. Eric Johnsen drove all alone behind us in that car. We finally got back to East Lansing at 7:45. Our 8:00 appointment cancelled on us so we went and visited with Sister Waite’s family. We had a great time talking with them. It was a lot of fun. Her mother is 94 years old but she looks great. We finally started totals at 10:15, way too late, so we didn’t get done until midnight. This office schedule is crazy, but it feels good to be anxiously engaged in the Lords work. Sunday, May 22

AP life sure keeps me moving. P-day yesterday was pretty alright. We played some basketball, my first in 2 months. We also had to work in the office for a while as well even got some sweet proselyting in tonight. It was a fun day, but I am way sore from ball. Today we had the trial of our faith for this week. We did teach one guy the 2nd discussion. That went well, but the rest of the proselyting was pretty fruitless. Tuesday, May 24

Merry Christmas! This month is going by so fast - it needs to slow down. This was a great day out proselyting and in the office. We were in the office for most of it until about 5:00. Then we threw down some dinner and headed out among the people. We got about 19 Personal Contacts and found some good people to teach. We said prayers a couple different times asking Heavenly Father to allow us to teach and he definitely answered our prayers. The last door of the complex we were working in, we came across a Sunday School dinner party from the Trinity church. They invited us in and just asked questions for over an hour. There were 3 couples - Jeff and Elisa; Bryan and Karen; Paul and Mary. They asked really good questions and we did our best to answer them and we bore powerful testimonies a lot because we had to hit them with the spirit. And the spirit was definitely present. It was a really good experience for me. They were so nice. They even fed us pie. I just know that some of them felt the spirit and are going to call us to teach and baptize them. I pray so much that they will see how much more the gospel of Jesus Christ has to offer. I love this work and I know that it is true. Wednesday, May 25

Another great day. This morning before we went to the office, we practiced a song which we are going to sing in sacrament meeting on Sunday. The song is “How Great Shall Be Your Joy”. We are singing it with the University sisters, Blank and Reher. We worked in the office for a few hours and then got a lot of proselyting in. It was awesome. We taught Justine the 1st discussion and the spirit was very strong. She is from Camaroon and has been duped by a religious leader before who stole a bunch of money from his followers. So she is hesitant to commit but I’m sure she will come around. We will keep teaching her when her husband gets home. Her children were adorable also, I got a picture with her and her boy.

We did a lot of door knocking and finally found someone who is golden. We tried to follow the spirit as we were driving to a place to door knock. We felt led to make specific turns and ended up at an apartment complex. We were kind of distracted while we were working, talking about sports in between doors. Then we decided to say a prayer and get refocused. On our next door, we met a young couple by the names of Dai Wei and Li Qing. They are awesome people. We taught them the first discussion and it went very well. They want to know what they can do to follow Jesus. Dai Wei, who speaks limited English, said our closing prayer by following the four steps that we taught him. As he began with “My Father in Heaven”, the spirit was just so strong. It was awesome to hear his very first prayer and how excited he was about it. I wanted to go and give him a hug. We are teaching them again on Saturday. It is awesome to be serving with Elder Johnsen and Christofferson. It is nice to teach with veterans because all the pressure is not on me. But I can rely on them to teach the correct way. Because we all know what we are doing, the discussions always go smoothly and the spirit is always very strong. I love both of those guys. Thursday, May 26

The Lord just continues to bless us so much each and every day. I spent most of the day in the office. Elder Christofferson and Johnsen left for about 2 hours to go to a couple appointments. So I got a lot of things done there. Tonight we got to teach the 1st discussion to the Jamil family. They are Raj, Celina, and Angshoo. They are a great family and it was an excellent first discussion. The spirit was so strong and they recognized it. They asked some of the best questions. I think the are well on their way to entering the waters of baptism. It is so great to see how much the Lord blesses us because of our obedience and hard work. He truly is keeping his part of the covenant. I just need to continue to keep my part. This work is the greatest. In the office, we prepared a lot for Zone Conference by determining what areas we are going to focus on. Our big focus is on Obedience. I also made up an Obedience checklist that we will share with everyone. We will have a good ZLC and Zone Conferences. Friday, May 27

This week definitely ranks as one of the best weeks of my mission. We got some proselyting in and the Lord truly poured out his blessings upon us. Today, we taught Li and Dai the 2nd discussion and projected them for June 12. It was a very spiritual discussion, we all felt it strong. And they both asked some great questions and answered our questions very well also. It was the sweetest. I already love them both so much. Their faith is growing fast. Then we did some office work all afternoon and got some good things done. In our goals for this week, we needed one more discussion at 5:00. And the Lord blessed us once more as we were able to teach one of our call backs the 1st discussion. It turned out really great.

At the first of this week, on Monday morning, we set some goals that were very reliant upon our Faith because we only had a couple appointments set up. But we exercise our faith and set those tough goals and then set out to achieve them. Ether 12:6 definitely applies to our week because we went through a total trial of our faith the first couple of days. Everything was looking pretty bleak after Tuesday as far as accomplishing our goals for the week. Plus we had to be in the office most of the time each day. It’s not like we could go out and proselyte for 10 hours a day because of the necessary office work we have to do. But, because we exercised our faith, and because we are 100% obedient, and focused on the work, and because this is the Lords work, he blessed us immensely and we accomplished or exceeded all of our goals. The goals we set were high and here is what we accomplished.

35 Personal Contacts

7 Discussions

8 New Finds

2 Projected for Baptism

These were the exact goals we set except for New Finds, where we only set 5 as a goal. This was definitely one of the greatest weeks of my entire life. I have truly never been happier in my whole life because I am doing what the Lord would have be do and his spirit is with me all the time. I love my mission and the sweet experiences I have been blessed with. There is no place I’d rather be. (Even St. George, where my family is right now) Saturday, May 28

We had a good P-day today. We got to play some basketball, a game of softball, and we had a sweet barbecue over at President Waites house. It was a good Memorial Day. We had some of the Zone Leaders here tonight and me and Christofferson took Elder Howell out. Our appointment dogged us so we prayerfully went door knocking. We tried to go by the spirit where the Lord wanted us and we said an extra prayer asking him to help us teach. And on about the 6th door we got in and taught a 1st discussion to a very nice family. It was really awesome. Sunday was a good day also. Li and Dai attended church and really enjoyed it. All of us missionaries sang the song “How Great Shall Be Your Joy”. I think we did a good job. The student ward here at the Institute Building is pretty nice. I am going to enjoy it here. The whole day was pretty good. We got all ready for Zone Leader Conference and for Wednesday’s Grand Rapids/Muskegon Zone Conference. And we fulfilled our goal of proselyting every day and got some good PC’s as well. Monday, May 30

Today was Zone Leader Conference and it was a great one. We have some awesome leaders in the mission right now, some very powerful Zone Leaders. Our focus today was on Obedience and it went very well. We fixed up a sheet which set the Obedience standard as missionaries. So now every missionary will know what it means to be 100% obedient, and it will be much easier to find out where they need to improve. It is all laid out in front of them. President Waite talked for a long time about obedience and how if a missionary won’t be obedient, he will go home. It is the missionary’s choice, be obedient or go home. This is really going to help the mission so much. I feel good about this approach, and it is backed by the General Authorities. A few missionaries might go home, but many will straighten up and the mission as a whole will be much stronger. The spirit was very strong today and my testimony grew as did my knowledge and desire to serve and my love for the work. Also, President Ezra Taft Benson died yesterday at 2:45 SLC time. He was a great prophet and I love him a lot. He was really the only prophet that I have known because of my age when he became the prophet. But I know that he was a true prophet and I am grateful for all that he has done for the building up of the kingdom here on Earth. He is now back with his wife and all the prophets and with Jesus Christ himself. He has served our master well and will be greatly rewarded. I love and appreciate him. But work in the Lords kingdom will go on, because it is his work. Tuesday, May 31

It is already June, the time is going by way too fast. This was a pretty good day. We were in the office the entire day until evening. President and Sister Waite and Eric Johnsen were over at Grand Rapids for Zone Conference so it was just me and Christofferson. We had 3 appointments set up but none of them were home. We taught a new lady though, Shannon Major. She is way prepared for the gospel. It ended up being a good day. Wednesday, June 1

This was one of the longest days of my mission but it was sweet. I got up at 4:00 and got all ready for the day. President and Sister Waite picked me up at 4:45 and we headed up to Traverse City for Zone Conference. It was a fun trip. Sister Waite is just like Grandma Polson. She had a big sack of goodies for us to all snack on as we went. We got there at about 8:00 and had an excellent Zone Conference. There are only 14 missionaries up there, but they are some powerful ones. Elder Tuckfield is the Zone Leader and he is doing a great job. And the District Leaders are very powerful ones, Elder Stoker and Elder R. Wright. Elder R. Warren went to Alta, graduating in 1992, and is Tuckfield’s companion. He is awesome as well. It was good to be up North again and to be with a powerful zone. President Hoover was there, the new District President for Traverse City. He is truly one of my heroes. He spoke to us for about 45 minutes and he got me all pumped up. I love to hear him speak. He talked a lot about attitude and how vital our attitude is. We also heard talks from the 2 district leaders and of course President Waite took a long time on Obedience and other things. The spirit was with us all the day long. After Zone Conference, we had our Traverse City District Correlation meeting which went very well. President Hoover is not wasting any time but wants to get this District moving immediately. He has a lot of goals and plans and faith that they will come to pass. He is a man that I want to be like because he is like Jesus Christ. What a righteous man. Our drive home was long. We left at about 8:00 and stopped in Clare at the Big Boy for some dinner. It was good. A short time after we left Clare, President pulled over and I took over in the drivers seat. It was wonderful to just be with President and Sister Waite. They are so loving and caring. And so fun to be around. I got to know them a lot better because we were together all day. I love them both very much. They are doing an excellent job in their position and I am glad to be helping as an Assistant. Friday, June 3

This was a good day. It was President Benson’s funeral and we watched it by satellite here at the Stake Center. It was a very nice service. Elder Packer, Monson, Hinckley, and Hunter all spoke and did a fantastic job. It was very spiritual and reverent. We will miss that great prophet of the Lord. We did a lot of office work today and did some teaching. We read from the Book of Mormon with Li and Dai. They are so awesome. They are still progressing right along, and it is neat to watch that. The spirit there was very strong and we expressed our love to them after which Li said, “We love you too”. The spirit hit me so strong when she said that. Tears welled up. Everything still looks great for their baptism on June 12. Saturday, June 4

Church was great today. Li and Dai came again and stayed for the entire block of meetings. They met a lot of the members and I think they feel much more comfortable today. It was great. Sunday evening we taught them the 3rd discussion and that was sweet. They continue to soak the gospel right up. We have to teach them all the rest of the discussions this week, so the spirit has to be present to help them understand. But it is going well so far. We also watched “On the Way Home” and they enjoyed it. Especially when it showed them getting baptized. Their faces just lit up, their eyes got big, and they were intent on that screen. I love that show. Sunday, June 5

This was a great P-day. We had meeting at the office this morning and got our stuff done. Then we rented some rollerblades for the afternoon. It was so fun. The entire Lansing zone all rented them and we cruised around MSU campus jumping stairs, shooting down the ramps in the stadium, and having a blast. Tonight, Christofferson taught Li and Dai the 4th discussion with the Tufts. They said it went well. And Johnsen and I went to see the Jamils. Celina and Angshoo were there so we shoed them the Joseph Smith story cartoon. They both liked it and learned a lot. So we had a great evening. Monday, June 6

I don’t think I’ve had a bad day since I came to the office. We had to do a lot of work in the office the past 2 days. On Wednesday, we got talking to President about transfers and stuff and that took forever. But it is so cool to sit and talk with him. I don’t mind the office work much, as long as we continue to get out and teach in the evenings. We have been doing that and teaching some great people. The highlight, of course, was teaching Dai and Ching (she wants us to call her Ching and not Li from now on). We taught the fifth discussion and they totally loved it. We were kind of worried about their financial situation and tithing, but even if we asked for 50% of their income, I think they would agree to pay it. They are the greatest and they continue to just soak up the gospel. It is so fun to teach them. Our area continues to do well. We just need to get some more people into the baptizing and fellowshipping pool. Wednesday, June 8

Today was the Midland Zone Conference. President and Sister Waite picked me up at 7:00 and we headed to Midland. It is so fun traveling with them. Sister Waite had her goodies and President Waite had his jokes. We had a great day together. The Midland Zone needs to repent. There are a lot of goof offs up there and they distracted a lot from the meeting. But despite them, we had a good conference. Elder McMorrow is the Zone Leader. He was very nervous but he did a great job. Stake President Pulsipher spoke to us for about 90 minutes and talked about the plan of our Heavenly Father and how it has developed and continued since the creation of the earth. There really is a plan for all the things that have happened. And we also have individual plans for our own lives meaning that we are where we are for a specific purpose. I have been called to Michigan for special reasons, I must be worthy to always have the spirit so that I will find those reasons and fulfill my purposes. This is true while on my mission and throughout my life. Our whole purpose is to “Align with the spirit”. He challenged us to write a mission statement to determine why I am here. And also a vision statement to determine where I am going to be. He taught us many great principles. And the rest of conference was good also. It was a long one, but spirit filled. I also had to get up and wing a talk on Joseph Smith again, but I like to do that because it helps me to get better at speaking. We also had a good Stake Correlation meeting. I drove home again. What a sweet car. I listened to a tape for Mission Presidents with President Hinckley and Elder Packer on it. It was a great day. Thursday, June 9

Today, we taught 3 awesome discussions. This morning, we taught a new lady, Chris Bicknell. She has had a lot of contact with the church, good contact. And now she wants to get her life in order. She was taught a couple years back and almost joined, but a bunch of things got in her way. But now we will teach and baptize her. Christofferson was at the Lansing Zone Conference so me an Johnsen taught her. Then we did a bunch of work at the office until about 5:30. We worked on phone bills, they are the biggest pain to do. Some of the bills were outrageous. President is upset and a couple missionaries are in big time trouble. Tonight we got to teach Ching and Dai the 6th discussion and it went wonderful as usual. They are so fun to teach. Elder Miner then interviewed them for baptism and Johnsen and I went and taught the Jamil family. We only got through the first 3 principles of the 3rd discussion and it took us nearly 2 hours. They continue to progress slowly. They have developed testimonies of Joseph Smith and of the Book of Mormon, but they don’t want to limit themselves to one religion. But soon they will realize that their really is only one religion. Friday, June 10

I like it when I experience new things. Today we taught a man named Jim the first discussion in a coffee shop called Espresso Royale. When we called him a few days ago, he said to meet him there, so we did. He is a pretty cool guy and it was a pretty good discussion. With that discussion, we made it 10 for the week. That is one of the highest number I have ever taught in one week. That was our goal also, it sure felt good to accomplish it. Tonight we showed Ching and Dai the Joseph Smith Story cartoon. They really liked it. Then we showed them family pictures and just got better acquainted. They are so awesome. I can’t wait for their baptism tomorrow, and neither can they. They are learning so fast, they will be strong members. They cant wait to meet our parents when they come out either. That will be fun. Today we also had our transfer meeting. It was an awesome meeting. We begin with prayer and then just start moving people around on the board. As Aps, we have a lot more say that what I would expect. When I make a suggestion, it happens. President totally trusts us and our knowledge of the Elders and Sisters. So we just try to follow the spirit and give suggestions and everyone voices their opinion on it if they have one and if we are in agreement, the change is made. We are making a lot of changes this time. So we moved everyone around, wrote the changes down and then changed back. No we will all ponder and pray over the changes this weekend and finalize it all on Monday. Christofferson says that President Waite will come back with a lot of changes as he works it over . It was a neat experience to be a part of that meeting. Saturday, June 11

This was one of the sweetest days of my mission. It was the baptism of Ching Li and Dai Wei and it was so special. As I look back at how we met them and how their teaching went, it is obvious that the Lord has been preparing them for this day for a long time. We were totally led by the spirit in our initial finding of them. And it was one of the easiest teaching discussions I have been a part of. We first found them door knocking just 17 days ago, and now they are baptized. A 17 day conversion, and they went to church all 3 Sundays during that time, made some friends with the members, heard all the discussions, and most importantly developed a strong faith in Jesus Christ and a testimony of his restored gospel. It was such a privilege to teach them and to be a part of that conversion. And I had the opportunity to baptize Ching Li. It was so wonderful to watch their glowing faces as they came up out of the water. Ad as they received the Holy Ghost and were confirmed, they became even happier. The spirit was so strong and it was just a beautiful service. It is times like this that make it all worthwhile and give me a longing for it to never end. I do love this work with all my heart and wouldn’t trade my time as a missionary for anything in the world. And I have a great love for Ching and Dai. We have developed a friendship that will last forever throughout the eternities. And Dai will be a future leader of the church over in China. President Waite received that inspiration while in the circle confirming Dai. And then President took just a minute to talk about that. He was inspired I know because the Holy Ghost confirmed it to my heart. It was just a beautiful day, one I will never forget. After the baptism, we had a Priesthood meeting here in the Stake which was pretty good. Then we did totals over at the office. The mission is doing really well. We have had 20 baptisms in the first 2 weeks of June and the rest of the month is looking good as well. I thing we should get 50 baptisms this month. We need to get that many and then maintain it as a standard for the mission and then raise the standard again. But before all that, we just need to hit 50 baptisms this month. I think we can do it. Sunday, June 12

We hardly had any time to do anything today on our P-day, but it was still a good one. We played basketball over at the church and it was so fun. Most of our day was spent in the office. We had our office meeting at 8:30, then we finalized transfers with President until about 12:00. We made a few changes from Saturday, and we all feel better about them now. We are making about 30 transfers or so. I think they are all good. At 12:30, we went and taught Chris Bicknell the 2nd discussion. It went so well. The spirit was strong and she is just golden. We projected her for June 26 so we will have another baptism in June. I am excited as heck. She has been prepared well to join the church at this point in her life. There was no hesitation when I invited her to be baptized. I love it when we sacrifice a little bit and then see the blessings that come. The discussion just made my day. Sweet, another baptism coming up. Monday, June 13

I only have 4 months from today left on my mission. That is crazy. It is going so fast. Today was the Kalamazoo Zone Conference so President and Sister Waite and Elder Christofferson were there. Me and Johnsen had to just get ready for transfers tomorrow. Much of my day was spent figuring out the transportation schedule for the Action Van as well as those that will have to ride the bus. I think I’ve got it worked out pretty good. We decided to use the Action Van to complete as many transfers as possible by driving around the mission. It is going to save us a ton of money. Tonight we stopped by to see Dai and Qing and showed them a Book of Mormon cartoon video. They are still doing awesome. Everything is going good here. The next few days are going to be hectic. Transfers, here we go. Tuesday, June 14

Transfer call day. We were up at 5:30 and at the office by 6:50. We had our prayer, finished up a couple of transfer moves and then started making calls. President calls them and announces the transfer and then we get on and tell them the travel plans. It took us about 2 hours to make all the calls. I think everyone sounded pretty happy about the changes and I feel good about them all. After we got them all done, Christofferson and Johnsen went and picked up the 2 new mission cars from Campus Ford. They are Ford Escorts, both with about 10 miles on them. We get to keep the blue one. It is awesome driving around a brand new car. While they were gone, I was bombarded with phone calls. I constantly had someone on the phone and someone on hold for me. So as soon as they got back, we got out of the office and headed over to President’s house. He cooked us waffles there, I ate about 8 of them. It was awesome, and then we took a little 30 minute nap. Then we headed home and Christofferson started to pack until 3:45. We cruised out to the airport to pick up the greenies at 4:10. It was cool to pick them up and to spend the rest of the day with them. We took them back to the office and Elder Jenks and Elder Wilson gave them some orientation. Then I went through the New Missionary packet with them and got all the necessary paperwork take care of. And by that time, they were starving so we got them over to Sister Waite for dinner. It was an awesome dinner, of course. Then we had a sweet testimony meeting and after that we had a little meeting with President and made the assignments of where they will go tomorrow. It was a wonderful day, but very tiring. And tomorrow will be the same. It was really neat to watch the greenies and to see their insecurity yet excitement about the work. It seems like just yesterday when I was in their shoes. It was weird to be on the other side of that process this time with the new missionaries and with the transfer calls. I love being an assistant, so many choice opportunities are ours. It was awesome. Wednesday, June 15

Today was definitely an experience. This was our transfer day and I was the driver of the Action Van for moving people around. It was pretty cool but it was a long day. The van’s air conditioning wasn’t working, so it was a hot and muggy day also. I started out at 7:15am after a quick breakfast at Sister Waites. We first went up to Saginaw where I dropped off Jenkins and picked up Harman. Then in Midland, I dropped off Christofferson and 3 greenies and picked up Hunsaker, Izatt, and Adam. Then I picked up Moore in Mt. Pleasant. Then we cruised over to Muskegon and dropped off Hunker and Adam, and picked up Hall. Then to Grand Rapids where Harman got off and B. Johnson, Powell, and Calhoun got on. In Kalamazoo, I dropped off Sister Walker, Powell and Moore. Then over to Battle Creek where I left Izatt. Then it was back to Lansing. The Jackson Elders met me there to pick up their new guys because I was running short on time. And all the other companions met me there at the office also to get their new companions. Overall, I drove 450 miles today. It was quite the road trip but it save the mission tons of money. It cut out 22 bus tickets. So it was definitely a worth while trip. I was glad to do it. Tonight was the departing missionaries evening. I missed the dinner because of all the other things I was taking care of. But I was there for the testimony meeting. The missionaries who departed are Biehler, Larsen, B. Johnson, and Butterfield. None of them were powerful missionaries and it was a weak meeting. The spirit wasn’t anything like last months meeting. Also, there were only like 5 people there to support them. I guess, by their fruits shall ye know them. Thursday, June 16