Week 22

 I was able to weed out my Elder Johnson from the crowd. I'd like to say that I felt the tug of Destiny tethering us together or that he had a special sparkle in his eye and we were just drawn to eachother from across the transfer chapel parking lot, but the truth is a little anticlimactic. I was just talking to Elder Cook and Elder Johnson came up with his companion to greet him since he was their temporary district leader for a week last transfer. Sadly there was no lineup. Maybe next transfer, when I get paired up to an Elder Smith or something. 

Elder David E. Johnson is a native of Wooster, Ohio. He's the oldest of nine siblings, he enjoys programming and reading books, and he worked in IT before his mission. His family raised goats and chickens, and grew their own vegetables. He is very quiet and mild-mannered but also very obedient to mission rules. I'm sure he'll find a way to whip me into shape. (He's got his work cut out for him).

Last week was transfer week, which as usual was pretty hectic. Elder Christensen went home to Logan, Utah, to prepare for his first semester at Utah State University (not BYU, how embarrassing). We tried to meet with Richelle about 17 times, and she kept confirming in the morning that we were fine to stop by that evening, and then canceling right before it was supposed to start. This is what usually ends up happening with Richelle, but she said she really wanted to see Elder Christensen before he left so she kept rescheduling for the next day. As a result we got canceled on four days in a row, a new record. 

We also had lunch with a lady named Tatia that we've been meeting with for the past several weeks. She had met with missionaries before and had lots of questions about out church and its teachings. She was really invested, we had some great spiritual discussions and she even watched general conference. Buuuut it turns out she already decided the BoM isn't true a long time ago, and this time she spent the meeting trying to convince us that our religion is false and we're all going to outer darkness. She tried to be really careful and polite about it but she made her feelings clear. It was very sad but it's her choice.

On the bright side though, that same day we were able to meet with Jason, who works nights and is really busy. He let us in and we talked about Jesus Christ and the peace/support his gospel brings into our lives. We shared Helman 5:12 and he really liked it. He didn't take a BoM but he did take a picture of that verse with his phone. 

We have a zoom call on the Tuesday of every transfer week where the mission president announces the changes in area boundaries, if people are moving or staying etc. If you're training or a young mission leader (like a district or zone leader) then you're supposed to get a call from the APs earlier in the day so you have a little forewarning. Unfortunately for Elder Levy, our dashing and debonair district leader, the APs forgot to call him. So he learned he was going to be training in the middle of the zoom call. He unmuted our mic and squeaked out in the middle of the call, "WAIT, I'M TRAINING?!?!" It was quite amusing. For me, not for Elder Levy. 

While we waited for Elder Levy's trainee to arrive from the MTC, he was in a trio with Elder Johnson and I for a bit. We spent a good amount of time in Sun City, which I still can't believe is a real place. A lot of people drive golf carts around instead of cars. They can't go on roads where the speed limit is more than 35 miles per hour... unless you soup them up, which a lot of people do. The streets are wide and open with palm trees and flowers everywhere. The entrance sign by the side of the road says it's the "City of Volunteers," which I learned actually means that most of the civil services are run by volunteers who actually live in the city. There's no police force, but the city is protected by the Sun City Posse, who are a bunch of retired cops who patrol around as a public service, free of charge. They have specially decaled cars and everything. I guess they probably don't have anything better to do than drive around all day.

As we were leaving a visit with this one older sister in Sun City we were stopped in the road by this old guy in a tank top who was riding his bicycle around. He asked if we were those blankety-blank Jehovah's witnesses and we said no. He asked if we were those "other guys in white shirts" and we said we were missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He didn't seem to understand what that meant. We tried to explain but he saw a bag of chips in Elder Johnson's hand that the sister we were visiting had given him and suddenly went off about how the FDA is conspiring with the government to put poison in our food so we'll get sick. Honestly compared to Paul the Flat-Earther, this guy was pretty tame. He didn't even try to convince us that the Nazis faked the moon landing or that Grand Central Station was built by the Ancient Egyptians. 

Over the past 6 weeks Elder Christensen and I have been going through the records of everyone in the ward, trying to figure out who's active, who's moved, who needs ministering etc. We finally finished it last week, so yesterday we had a meeting with the Relief Society Pres and EQ Pres to present our findings and compare records.  Our ward mission leader kinda seemed to think it was a waste of time, but it was actually a really cool and useful meeting. We were able to determine that a lot of people have moved, and that some people who they thought had moved were actually still around. The ward is in the midst of restructuring ministering assignments so us undertaking the project was pretty good timing. 

My study of the Old Testament has halted for a little while, but I finished listening to all the Joseph Smith Papers Podcasts and just recently finished listening to all three volumes of Saints as well. With the sudden dearth of musical entertainment in the mission, I've been utilizing audio books and podcasts on the gospel library app pretty regularly. It's amazing how quickly you can burn through everything when you're listening at 2x speed. Next I think I'll relisten to all the conference talks we heard at this latest conference. Anything to avoid more bland description of the EXACT borders of the inheritances of each of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Also, we did another purge of the apartment and found more hidden treasures. We found about 20 dvds, which is weird because this apartment has never had a TV or a DVD player. We also found a glass chess set and a fall-themed doormat welcoming people to the Smith family home (I really wanted to keep that and put It in front of our door but Elder Levy said no). As for me, I now own a lovely fishing pole. It has line and a bobber, but no hooks. I'll just put it in the closet with my full set of golf clubs for now.

Thanks for all your emails over the last several weeks. It's been kind of a tough time, but I've been feeling much better lately and I'm ready to get to work. I think Elder Johnson and I can make this a great transfer. 

Until next week, I am,

Yours Faithfully,

Elder C. Calder

I've been getting some requests to show what my area looks like. We have two different wards in two different stakes, which is a little strange. The result is this long, skinny monstrosity that follows the highway. We also don't live in our area (and neither of our church buildings are in it). It sure makes me glad we have a car!

Another stake was having Stake conference in our normal church building, so we were temporarily relocated to the building right next to the Phoenix temple. My young enterprising photographer spirit felt the tug of inspiration, and here we are.

For Elder Christensen's last p-day we went bowling with the other district. I scored an impressive 74, probably my best game yet. 

 

District photo

I realized I hadn't actually taken a photo with my new companion, so I called him over in the middle of writing this email and took one real quick. Ladies and gentleman, the man himself.