Now Go, And Be Golden: The Conclusion of Yet Another Transfer

This has certainly been one of the more interesting weeks since I have been on my mission.

Firstly, William R. Walker from the Seventy came to our mission and spoke to us. That was spectacular. It was really neat having a General Authority come speak to us about how to be better missionaries. He just talked about things that will help us improve and do better work in our areas.

There was a day this week, Wednesday, actually, that was totally legiticus. It was very much unlike most any day on my mission. Before Wednesday Elder Barker and I set up four lessons. What was cool about that day is that we actually taught all four lessons! None of them fell through. Miracle? 100%! We taught a recent convert family, found a new investigator, got Donnie, who got baptized a couple months ago, to go to a lesson with us and taught a returning-to-activity member. It was a pretty above average day to say the least.

There were a couple of days this week that were totally slow. Man, that was brutal. Going from and absolutely awesome day, then having nothing really bites. I mean, that's the times where "you grow the most," right? Elder Barker and I really had good times just walking around and talking with each other. We weren't able to get a lot done, but we sure became better friends.

Saturday was kind of a silly day. Starting at 7 AM we did some service in an affluent part of Redlands. We helped set up some over-the-top Halloween decorations for three houses on Cajon Street. One house is a "Pirate Ship." One is a maze/ gallows kinds of thing. The last is just a fun house with giant spiders and Jack Skellington. It was way fun, too. This guy with the "fun" house called himself Papa Baer and was super cool. It was a great way to start a day.

That night we had Stake Conference. Normally missionaries don't go to the Adult Session of Stake Conference, but this time we were invited to for a special occasion. The occasion? We were a missionary choir! But it was totally different than a regular choir. We started singing Called to Serve and we purposely did it very terribly. The stake president stopped us and asked the Bishops and Ward Mission Leaders to join us. Still, it was pretty dismal. They stopped us again and had the whole congregation stand and sing it with us. Then it was freaking awesome! It was a pretty cool visual to show how members can't do missionary work alone. We need the support of all the members. That session of conference was also way better than the general session, so I was glad to go.

And here's some pretty big news, at least for me, anyway. Elder Barker is getting transferred. That stinks. But the cool part is that I'm getting Elder Bushman as my companion! Yup, the same guy I was companions with in the MTC. What's even better is that we are going to be Zone Leaders together. And even better than that is that we get a truck! No more biking here for me. I'm pretty much super excited. These next six weeks are going a pretty good six weeks.

Now go, and be Golden,

Elder R. Sage Taylor