Wait! What Was That? Was That Transfers??

Holy smokes this week has simultaneously flown and crawled by.

Transfers were this week, but I totally didn't even feel the

anticipation or excitement that I normally feel at this time. Sunday

was cool. We were getting ready and President calls everyone saying

that he's ready to pass out the transfers. We all ran to the office

and watched as everyone switched spots. I had a bunch of friends from

the MTC become leaders, which was super cool! I also gained a second

companion, as Elder Machado is now training a new Housing Secretary.

Should be fun! This transfer is actually going to be only 5 weeks

long, because of Church Travel deadlines before Christmas. It'll

compensate itself though on the next transfer, which will be 7 weeks

long! Woah!

We got to see all the new missionaries come in, sort of. We have like

all their information, we just don't get any time to meet them. With

transfers now being on Tuesdays, the newbies arrive at President's

house for lunch, and then we only see them for the training we give

right before they leave to their areas. We got 16 new missionaries,

and only 5 went home! It was a super crazy week though. We had to stay

in the office really late getting everything ready the week before.

Everyone got this cool binder that President bought and had the

secretaries put together, and it's full of awesome talks. I hope that

all the missionaries here appreciate my effort!! What was super weird

though was the day after transfers. 4 of the 5 missionaries going home

went and stopped by the temple one last time, except for one. They all

had to get to President's house though for lunch, so I got elected to

go with the single missionary to the temple to pick everyone up and

then go to President's house. I didn't have anyone to go back with

though, so I totally had to sit there and eat with everyone who was getting ready
to go home. SO AWKWARD. I'm totally not ready to eat at the "going home" table yet. I

still have another 8 months from today! I got to learn lots though

from President and Sister Farnes, as well as the veterans who were

going home, so it was cool to see it all.

It has been raining a little more, which has saved us for now. At

least it stops São Paulo's water reserves from getting any lower.

We're already sucking up tons of water from other places as well, but

we have no idea how long it's going to last. Oh well. We just keep on

moving and doing our work. We're not too worried about it, especially

with the backup supplies we've been instructing the mission to do.

Oh yeah! How could I forget!! One of the biggest changes this transfer

was with the assistants. First off, I got SO EXCITED! If anyone

remembers Elder Carney from Colorado with whom I lived in Itapetininga

almost a year ago, he got called as an assistant!!! So I'm living with

him!! Sort of! There are actually 4 assistants to the President now,

and they totally do nothing but travel. They go in pairs and they are

spending a week with each zone leader pair. The spend all week doing

splits and helping the leaders learn to plan and work better then come

home Sunday night to meet with President, have Monday off, and then go

back out on Tuesday! That'll be so crazy for them, but super fun as

well! I thought it was an awesome idea that President had. They'll only

be doing it for maybe two transfers though, so then it'll go back to

normal. It's super cool though!

Finally, we had a really cool experience this week. We didn't get to

do proselyting work like all week as we were stuck in the office. Our

one appointment even fell through. Finally, Sunday night we got to go

back to that canceled appointment and it was super spiritual. We

talked with them and were super sad to find that they hadn't read much

of the Book of Mormon. We talked with them about it, and one of them

said that they'd read a little. We asked here what she'd read and how

she felt. She just kind of paused and then turned to a page we had

marked. She had read all of Alma chapter 32, which says a lot about

faith. She almost teared up while she was talking. She explained it

super well and said that she'd just felt this peace in life. She

explained the difference it had made in her life and she asked to be

baptized, saying that she knew that the Book of Mormon was true and

that this church was the right one. We almost didn't now how to

respond. I felt so happy. We marked a baptism date with her, and she

should be baptize in a week from tomorrow. YAY!!! I'm super excited.

We lose so much time in our area taking care of the missionaries here

in São Paulo North, but God truly blesses us with miracles. I love how

Moroni talks to us at the end of the book how God is a god of miracles

and that He hasn't changed. It's true, and He continues to show his

love through modern revelation by living prophets and the many

scriptures that we have. It's so great! Christ lives and loves us and

is so merciful. We can decide our own fates and choose who we want to

be. We were given that power through God's plan and the atonement of

Christ. It's marvelous! I hope that everyone studies more to truly

understand the sacrifice that Jesus Christ suffered for us. It's truly

something amazing and worthwhile. I love y'all! Have a great week!!

Elder Ashford