Elder Nathan S Moser: Transferstransferstransferstransfers

April 24, 2017

Hello!

Our investigators are all doing incredibly well! Nothing has really changed since last week, though, because Tuesday was our temple trip to the Columbia River Temple, and the rest of the week can be summed up in 2 word:

Transfer planning.

From Wednesday to Saturday, we spent several hours a day helping President Lewis with transfer planning. Usually from 10 to 5. It has been pretty exhausting helping President decide where each missionary in the mission should move, but it has been amazing. When we first started, there were several people on the transfer board that I did not know, but after staring at it for literally hours, I feel like I know everyone's name, area, life story... it's pretty great! Working with President Lewis is intriguing. He is so thorough. He takes every factor into account about each missionary, and I can tell that he really cares. If he didn't, it wouldn't take 5000 hours. But it does. :) It has also helped me and Elder King appreciate the simple joys of life. Like when Sister Lewis offered to have us come with her to take a break as she walked outside to get the mail. What was supposed to be a 5 minute walk turned into a 30 minute tour of the really nice subdivisions near their house. It was actually really fun.

Saturday night was the night of transfer calls. Showtime. Long story short, we had to type up a bunch of sheets with information regarding where each person would be transferred, and then stressed out as we sent voicemails to every zone with the information for each of the missionaries in that zone. However, the mission has 2 different types of phones throughout all of the areas, and only like phones can receive forwarded voicemails. To put this into perspective, imaging being on a stage in front of 170 people who all have hearing aids and want you to tell them what they need to hear. Now imagine that half of those hearing aids are broken, some people don't even have hearing aids, and that you have to talk to all of them all at once. And some of those people are coming up onto the stage because they thought you already told them their information when you actually haven't. That was how transfer calls were. Insane.

Sunday was the day that we organized the transfer -- Where and how missionaries, cars, phones, and apartments are moving. It was also insane, since Elder King has only done this once with experienced help and I have never even witnessed the process. To put this into perspective, imagine the CEO of Microsoft asking two 4 year-olds to do everything while he is on vacation. I walked into transfer organizing thinking I was on top of everything, and left barely knowing how to put together a peanut butter and jelly. After several hours, we finally finished. During our planning, we were feeling especially stressed when we got a long text from Evelyn telling us about how much she appreciates everything we do for her and everyone else. She's only 12, but she definitely follows the spirit.

Sorry this email was probably kind of boring. Transfers is just life right now. But it's been cool to see President Lewis work with the spirit this week. He is definitely inspired.

Love you all!

Peace and blessin's,

Elder Moser