November 4

Hello family!

Wow. What a long week! One of the longest on my mission. haha. It feels like so much has happened and yet so little at the same time. And it definitely doesn't feel like I'm 21! Goodness. I'll take the binky mom. haha.

 

So we've spent a lot of time in the office and running around trying to fix errors and mistakes from transfers. Some cars needed to be swapped around and we've picked up/dropped off bikes as well. Besides swapping out a few other old cars for new ones we're done with most of that fix-it work.

Two of the senior missionaries in the office will be leaving at the end of the month and we're going to be taking over their positions. One is in charge of vehicles and the other is the main secretary. Their real replacements come in December so we're supposed to in turn teach them what we just learned. Fun huh? So far it's actually been fairly fun. Elder Houser, the one over vehicles, mentioned that we've learned in only a few days what usually takes others a month to learn. Some of the stuff we've been doing is similar to the work I did for Dad's tax practice.

 

The ward is interesting. I haven't served in a YSA ward before so it's weird to be with so many people close to my age. We haven't been able to teach a lot of lessons yet but we should have quite a few lined up. Our ward mission leader returned from his mission only 3 months ago so he's super gung-ho about missionary work and wants to come to and set up as many lessons for us as he can. He wants to get it to the point where we always have appointments and lessons to fill the time, especially in the evenings when we're not in the office. We've been in the office most of the day from 9 to 5 but with the rate we're learning things that may taper off. Also, since the office is closed saturday but open Monday, when we start to train the new senior couple we won't have much of a pday anymore... haha. We'll probably have to email Saturday, shop and clean whenever we can, and spend an hour or two with our zone during the day on monday. I guess we'll see what happens.

 

Redlands had its 125th anniversary on Saturday and had a big lunch/dinner even thingy that a lot of the missionaries served at. We served food to a total of about 1200 people so it was good to get our faces out there to so many people, showing them that we are in fact polite and normal people. haha

 

Hmm what else... being a zone leader isn't much different. Except sometimes our phone blows up with messages. Like last night. Stressful... haha. I'm not used to being asked for permission to do things or go places. But so far it's good. There are only 4 missionaries going home this transfer and 4 going home next transfer including me. So I'm a pretty old missionary. Out of roughly 225 missionaries, I'm one of the 8 oldest. It's so weird. People keep asking me if I'm trunky! I don't like it. haha. Recently someone in the store asked how long I'd been out and I told him and he said "wow congratulations on finishing strong." I was just like what? Finish? I still have 3 months left! okay maybe 2 1/2... haha.

 

While going through the bike shed where all the extra bikes are kept, I noticed that mine wasn't there and it wasn't on the list of checked in bikes. Uh oh. We thought maybe it had stayed in Rancho and was in the other mission. However, on closer inspection of the records I noticed a red and black diamondback bike that apparently had no owner or name attached to it had been checked out to another missionary. Hmmm... so I called up that missionary and was like "hey does the bike you have have a hole in the back of the seat?" "uhh.. yep" "mkay... and does it have a broken odometer?" "yeah" "and does it have a G.I. Joe sticker on the frame?" "mmm yup" "bingo!" haha found it! Somehow my name had fallen off and they just gave it to another missionary. I got it back though! I gave that missionary another bike that for sure no longer had an owner.

 

Well I gotta skidaddle soon. There are only a few computers at this library and other missionaries need to email.

Thanks for the birthday package :) You guys are awesome. I assume the candles mean theres a cake mix in there? I'll have to bake it and take another birthday song video like last year :)

After jeren's birthday I won't miss another birthday on my mission! Wahoo! :)

Love you guys!

Elder Nelson Browning