Now to transfers. Pretty much every hour we've had where we didn't have something firm set up, we have had to spend working on transfers. It was really cool to see President receive the revelation about where missionaries should be and who with in order to come closer to Christ. I had always thought that transfers were either 1. President already has them figured out a few transfers ahead of time or, 2. President kneels down on the day of transfer calls and then knows exactly where each missionary needs to be. It's really not either of them though. How he really does it is by constantly having the missionaries on his mind, acting on the really strong promptings he has, then seeing what would make the most sense, and then seeking spiritual confirmation for what changes he made. It's really cool to see him do it. After all the transfers are finished and everybody is in the spot and with the companion that the lord wants for them President kind of hands it off to Elder Mackintosh and I and says "Well Elders, make it happen" and it becomes our responsibility to get everybody where they need to go.
It's kind of weird, before being in the office transfers was kind of just a thing that popped up over the weekend then happened. But dealing with all the details and craziness of it is a whole week long process. After Trainers were called Wednesday night, preparations began to have their training Friday. The rest of Friday was spent helping President as he makes transfers. He will sometimes ask us for information that he "uses to receive revelation". Sometimes it can be easy like "How much time has so and so spent in the Bronx?" or sometimes it can be hard like "How good is Elder so and so's Spanish?"
Saturday we were in the office for awhile to help President out then we were able to go to a dinner appointment with one of our members that we work with whose nonmember wife we had recently become friends with and talked her into making us some food from her native country, Ghana (talking about food is a great way to start growing a relationship with people who aren't interested in the church). She made us fufu with Peanut Butter soup, which is this dough made out of powdered plantain and this soup made out of peanut butter, oil and a chicken that she had bought and killed that day. It was super weird but actually tasted pretty good. Warning though. Fufu is not a good meal to eat when it is hot and humid, it is heavy.
After the fufu we went and put all the transfers into the computer, met up with President and his family and called everyone to call or release them from positions and to give the zone leaders their zone's transfers.
Church was great Sunday, after a great missionary themed sacrament meeting it was back to the office to schedule out the next 3 days and make sure that we could coordinate all 200 missionaries on Transfer Tuesday. We welcomed a great group of new missionaries Monday. Tuesday went almost flawlessly. And this morning we said goodbye to 12 missionaries. They left from JFK so we got some awesome views of the city, I'll include the pictures. All in all I have a much stronger testimony of revelation and preparation.
The Lord has really been helping me these last few days even though the focus has shifted a little bit away from my investigators towards the other missionaries and their investigators. President Smith holds priesthood keys that give him the right and duty to receive revelation for this mission, I have seen those keys in action. It's super cool.
Sorry about this rambly email. I'm super tired (I actually fell asleep while writing it). I love you! You're such a great, supportive family. Thanks for your prayers.
Con Amor,
Elder Sam McBride
P.S. Elder Mackintosh and I are both staying together for this 7 week transfer which means we will have been companions for 5 transfers total up to this point. He's great.
 |
| Beautiful View of the Mission |
 |
| Sam Driving Home from the Airport |
 |
| City Field where the Mets Play. Photo Cred: Elder Mackintosh |
No comments:
Post a Comment