2/11/12 - Conferences and Transfers

Hey!
So this week was a pretty busy week. We had to get ready for 3 conferences and the transfers that we are going to announce later on tonight. Monday and Tuesday we had some meetings and we were just preparing for the conferences on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Wednesday we had the Vision 2012 conference with all of the missionaries from Calama down to Vallenar. We had about 90 missionaries in the conference and that is pretty big for a conference in our mission. On Thursday we had a conference from Elder Zeballos of the seventy. He is in our area presidency and listening to him and his wife was awesome. He asked President to have the assistants prepare a presentation of “el estado de la misión” which means the state of the mission. We prepared a presentation of our progress and what our vision was for this year and shared some graphs and statistics with him. It went really well and he was impressed so we were happy about that.

Elder Zeballos is awesome. I really enjoyed listening to him and he helped me realize a lot of things that I can do better. He talked about keeping up with Spanish after the mission and how we can avoid forgetting what we have learned, he talked about diligence and grace and he talked about rising to our potential. He really inspired me and it was just awesome to be able to have that experience with him. He and his wife are so nice. They are great.

On Friday we had another conference with Elder Zeballos but this one was in Iquique. I got to go on a little road trip with Elder Fowkes and it was pretty much one of the greatest things ever. Elder Fowkes got an internship at Disneyland and he is going to continue to work there after the mission. Ever since he was little he wanted to design the fireworks and shows and he is well on his way to doing that. He is stud and I love him to death. It was fun driving with him to Iquique and just being able to talk and have a good time.

So the other day I got to practice a little bit of driving a stick. Since we never had a car to practice with back home I thought that I would take advantage of the opportunity to learn. I only got to practice for like a half hour and I think I did alright for my first time. Tragically I won’t be able to keep practicing because somebody had a little accident. I know what you are all thinking… and no it wasn’t me. One of the elders was driving it down the parking garage and on the turn to one of the down ramps the back tire hit the wall and it pulled the axel back all the way so the tire was rubbing up against the tire well. Oops. So I won’t be practicing anymore and it sounds like we are going to get two new vans in the mission. We are just gonna be driving around three mini vans now in the mission. Yesssss.

By the way, I got an international drivers license the other day. That’s fun.

A few hours ago we were over at President’s house and we finished up the transfers. It was pretty awesome to be able to look at all of the transfers and give input on what wasn’t quite right and what we could do to help the missionaries and the mission to progress. It was a really neat experience. I am way excited for this next transfer.

We are getting two new assistants this transfer. Elder Johnson is going to open up Freirina and he is going to train and be a district leader there. Elder Deck is going to Alto Hospicio and he is going to train and be a district leader as well. Elder Leaño and Elder Ricks are coming into the office. We are also getting a new financer. Elder Hall is leaving the office and going to Vallenar to train and be a district leader. Elder Zufelt is the new Financer and he is so hilarious and awesome. Elder Leaño is from our group and he is a great friend of mine so it will be great to have him as an assistant. He is going to be Elder Relei´s companion and I am getting Elder Ricks. Elder Ricks is also a stud and just a really great guy. He will be an awesome companion. The office is going to be the best place in the world. I´m sad to see Elder Deck and Johnson leave. Elder Johnson is one of my best friends and it will be different without him around but I am very excited to have Elder Ricks as my companion. It´s going to be great.

Well that is all I've got for you folks. Love you all. Until next week!

Elder Stone