The past week and a half has been mostly filled with the biggest transfer of our mission to this point. We have had more come in at one time, and more leave at one time, but we have never had to integrate the coming and going with another 40 from the Modesto mission closure, that we needed to get in the mix.
The day we do the transfer board is always a wonderful and long day. Scott and I do a lot of preparation before hand. We, along with our assistants fast and pray in anticipation of the process and seek for revelation. We know the sisters pretty well, and so we work on the sisters before hand. When the assistants come to give some input on what they have found during exchanges, etc, we always ask them if they have their ankles taped. Last transfer they came with their ankles taped, and this time they just brought the tape and taped them here.
This transfer we needed 7 new Zone Leaders, 10 new District Leaders, 6 new Sister Training Leaders, and 19 new trainers. We spent a good portion of the next week training new trainers and leaders. We made changes to 65 companionships, which meant about 130 missionaries transferring on transfer day. I have to give credit and kudos and anything else that is awesome to our assistants who organize the transfer process. The time and effort they put into running a smooth, efficient and quick transfer is amazing. We transferred all of those missionaries, which includes switching cars and belongings and people, with a little bit of time to say goodbye to beloved companions, in an hour and a half. It is a process to behold and has turned into one of my favorite parts of the transfer.
The transfer lineup
Another favorite part of the transfer process is when we get to pick up our new missionaries. They bring so much excitement with them. This time it was an interesting day, we had missionaries coming in from three different places at three different times. We have tried a lot of different ways to process with them the first night they get here, and we think this time worked about as well as any time. For a while we brought them up to our home, but we live so far away from the airport that it was wasting a lot of time to get them up here, so we have moved it back to the church. I have to also give kudos to our Senior office missionaries. I do dinner for them that night, but because we had to leave so early I had to take dinner to the office early. As we walked in around 1:00 the office was a buzz. Elder and Sister Gunnell got everything set up and set out for the dinner, she also cooked the rice for dinner, along with organizing all of the mail that comes in each week to have ready for the new missionaries and for the next day at transfers, in addition to all of their regular duties. Elder Gunnell gets all of the apartments ready, Sister Scott was working on driving documents they all have to sign, Elder and Sister Goodwin were getting ready to interview them all about their medical history, and Sister Skank was putting together bags for each of them, while at the same time putting together going home packets for the departing missionaries, and organizing an interview schedule so things would run smoothly once they got there. As we dropped off our food and were headed off to the airport I had to go back and profusely thank them for all they do. I told them that I had sent four missionaries on missions, and NO ONE in the church understands what goes on behind the scenes to make a mission run smoothly. I don't know what we would do without them all.
Our first missionary to arrive was Elder Primero from the Philippines. He was supposed to come in May but didn't get his visa until now. Second up was Hermana Sutherland. She came straight from Maryland because she had served in Chile for 10 months but had some issues with her feet she had to come home and get taken care of and was reassigned to our mission. Finally, we got the 13 from the MTC. What a great group this is going to be.
It was off to the church for dinner, interviews and business. While they were filing through their various interviews we had Sister Ellsworth and Sister Kackstaetter come and do some finding and role playing games and activities. They were lifesavers.
Tuesday morning it was back to the church for more training, for transfers and finally, matching the new missionaries up with their trainers after we finished up the transfer line up
New missionaries being sung to by a very large group of trainers and departing missionaries prior to the match up.
After lunch we took the new missionaries and their trainers to the temple for pictures.
Sister Eliason training Sister Stillwell Elder Bennie training Elder Draper
Sisters Ellsworth and Kackstaetter training Sister Stephens, Sister Wallentine training Sister McCurdy
Sister Workman training Sister Haggard Sister Tenney training Sister Hummel
Elder Lybbert training Elder Primero Sisters Leavitt and Rose training Sister Baldwin
Elder Brown training Elder Barrows Elder Whiting training Elder Nevitt
Sister Tatafu training Sister Gray and Hermana Quizon with her new companion, Hermana Sutherland
Elder Wadley training Elder Passey Elder Anderson training Elder Southam
Sisters Coombs and Bustos training Sister Vang
After pictures they were off to work in their new areas. Generally at this point in the day we go to the temple with our departing missionaries but the temple is closed for the next two weeks and so we went with the departing missionaries last week.
So instead we sent them downtown to do one last day of missionary contacting. They loved it. They then returned to our house for their farewell dinner and testimony meeting
This is one powerful group of missionaries. I told the incoming missionaries the night before that they would be having lunch with the missionaries they are replacing and that they should observe them carefully, because they were standing on the shoulders of giants. The spirit was strong during the bearing of their testimonies. We feel honored and blessed that have them in our home and are grateful for the spirit they always bring with them. We have sat in council with almost every one of these missionaries in this very room for Mission Leadership Council and it has been a room of revelation. This departing meeting was no different and was one I will always cherish.
After a night of, I'm sure not much sleep, it was off to the airport. I feel so bad that I'm always so selfishly sad to send them off, when I know their families on the other end are thrilled beyond words. It's the only thing that makes it kind of ok to say goodbye.
Lots of missionaries means lots of luggage and waiting in long lines.
We had to say goodbye to...
Elder Pitcher Elder Howlett
Elder Cook Elder Yazzie
Elder Damon Elder Carper
Elder Anderson Elder Pierson
Elder Doughtery Elder Edgington
Elder Field Elder Duncan
Elder Forte Elder Carling
Sister Van Valkenburg Hermana Alexander
And Hermana Clark
The hugs are our favorite part of the morning
Elder Forte's family traveled from Hong Kong to pick him up so we were able to meet them and express our gratitude for all their son has done for us personally and for the mission. I wish we could do the same with every set of parents.
A few other highlights from the past week.
Sister Tenney and Sister Simpson invited me to learn how to decorate cupcakes with one of their members for p-day. It was a fun and informative, and delicious afternoon!
I love this picture. Elder Carper had wanted to go to dinner with us before he left for home, and so of course we couldn't pass up that opportunity. We were walking in to the restaurant and all of a sudden, he and Elder Lybbert were gone. They had seen this family unloading some boxes from the back of their car into another car and like lightning, they were off to help. I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of them unloading the boxes, but I did get one of them contacting afterwards.
We were able to meet up with Sister Baird and her wonderful family for breakfast last Saturday morning. They had come to town to meet the people near and dear to Sister Baird. We saw the schedule she had put together and let me tell you, she had a lot of people near and dear to her and this was definitely not a resting trip. She had them hopping. We were just grateful we had a spot on their itinerary. Have I mentioned we LOVE having our returned missionaries come back to visit? We love it.
We had one last dinner with Sister Leavitt and Sister Lund, our Silva Valley Ward missionaries before Sister Leavitt got transferred. We had to do one more Sunday Selfie with them. We love signing up on the ward dinner calendar to feed our ward missionaries.
This picture exemplifies what can happen when missionaries and members are equally yolked in missionary work. This is the Cordova Zone. They are the zone that fasted for miracles the last week of the transfer and miracles they got. At the bottom of the picture is the Cordova Stake President, President Langford, and peeking out in the back, the only one without a tie, is the High Counselor over missionary work, Brother Cutting. They are so incredibly supportive of the missionaries and missionary work, and their example flows down to all the members of their stake. The Cordova Zone set a goal to have 7 baptisms this transfer and, with the help of the members, they got 10. To celebrate working together, Brother Cutting had the zone over for dinner and President Langford cooked all the bar b qued meat. It was a privilege to be invited and to hear each companionship tell of the miracles they saw in the last week of the transfer.
This week, the highs have been high and the lows have been very low. We got word on Sunday morning that one of our former Elders, Elder Kaaumoana Zoller was killed in a car accident near his home in Hawaii. Elder Zoller came into the mission field last November and served here for six months. At the time of his death he had gone home to work through some pre mission things and it was his greatest desire to return to Sacramento to finish his mission. We had talked to him about a month ago and the first thing he asked was "President, when can I come back?" He told us the happiest he had ever been was when he was serving as a missionary. We will never forget the morning we took him to the airport and just before he left to go through security he stopped us and asked us if he could bear his testimony to us before he left. He bore a strong testimony of the gospel, the atonement and the love he had for our Savior Jesus Christ. He loved the Lord, he loved the people of Sacramento and he loved all of the missionaries with whom he was blessed to serve.
The memory of him bearing his testimony to us in the Sacramento airport, just before he walked away and looked back and told us he would be back, will be a memory we will cherish for the rest of our lives. We loved Elder Zoller with all of our hearts. He made a huge impact on our lives and the lives of all of his fellow missionaries and the people he met and served here.
As heartbroken as we have been, we are also so very grateful for the wonderful plan of happiness. We know where he is, and that he is now with our Savior, whom he knew and loved. As Elder Holdaway, his last companion said "We didn't lose a shepherd, he's not lost, It's just time for transfers."
Thank you so much for posting all of the pictures. My son, Elder Passey, just got to your mission and at times I'm beside myself with worry. Reading your blog has brought me so much peace. Thank you so much! Marilee Passey
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