Crazy week this week with transfers and everything. We only taught 4 lessons because literally every waking minute was spent with transfers.
Monday we made preparations for the meetings on Tuesday and typed up the schedule for transfer week which includes the flight times, the meeting times, and everything else that happens. We also updated and finalized travel plans. We got to meet up with 3 missionaries who came in from Saskatchewan as well that night because 2 of them were visa waiters and they needed to fly to their new missions. The other was being transferred into Winnipeg so it worked out nicely. Elders Schmaultz and Royal stayed the night with us. Elder Schamaultz flew out the next morning at 7:00. We tried to get to bed at a reasonable time so that those two could sleep.
Tuesday started early around 5:20 when we had to take Elder Schmaultz out to meet President Craig who then took him to the airport. After dropping elder Schmaultz off we just got changed and went to go play ball. We go ball almost every morning with the Zl's. We had elder royal with us that day so we were in a tripan. Lucky for him we had meetings all day. We had the seniors meeting at noon where we went over the transfer week schedule and then at 1:00 we had the meeting for new trainers which lasted for 2 hours. Elder Birchall is training again do he was there. Kind of weird to give training to him because he trained me haha. President Craig made an interesting point, he was saying how the trainers are the best missionaries in the mission (because honestly when we transfer planned we chose trainers right after ZL's.) and he made his point by showing that there were 3 generations in that meeting. Elder Birchall, myself and Elder Low. His point was that if we have the right trainer then the rest falls into place because that is the missionary you will be the most like. After the trainers meeting we had like 4 minutes to get ready for the new leaders meeting. This is where we train the new District Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, and Zone Leaders. There were no new Zone Leaders this transfer though. That training went well. I should mention that all the while we were training, Elder Royal was with Elder Smith (a senior missionary) doing a bunch of heavy labour moving a storage unit by hand. We felt kind of bad but it was better than sitting in the office all day I guess. That night we taught the Hamiltons, Randy is still working on getting baptized.
Wednesday we got started early by dropping Elder Royal off with President Craig at 5:20 am. Then the had a bunch of stuff to do in preparation for the new missionaries arriving that afternoon. We were in charge of all of the mail for the mission as well. We got to the airport just in time to welcome the new missionaries. Elders Sheen and Black were the first ones through the gate. I got to take a picture of each missionary alone and then with President and Sister Craig on the iPad and then I sent them to Sister Meldrum (missions secretary) and she sends them to all of the missionaries parents. I think that that is super nice! After picking up the new missionaries we went to go back to the mission home for dinner. Sister Craig calls me her "Valet Parker" because it is cold so I always get to go get her van and pull it up. I have probably driven it more than I have our truck this week. The dinner was SO good. We were in charge of all of the legal documents for all 12 new missionaries so I became good friends with the photocopier that evening. We then had a testimony meeting and all of the poor new missionaries were just wiped out and nodding off. I remember that day. They have it easy though, I had to catch the night bus to Thompson haha. We were at the mission home way later than planned just dealing with luggage and stuff so that was just the beginning of a very late night. That night we had to go set up for the new missionary orientation in Thursday. It takes way longer than you would think but finally at a time that will remain a mystery we got home and hit the sac.
Thursday is the transfer day where the train of cars comes from Regina and goes back in the same day. We had breakfast with the new missionaries at the mission home that morning. Poor sister Craig was cooking the bacon but the circuit blew so the fan wouldn't work and the whole house smoked up and smelled like bacon. It was pretty funny. We got to share the spiritual thought with the new missionaries over breakfast. It is so funny to see the new missionaries. They are only a year younger than us but they seem so much younger because they are in shock and they seem really innocent and scared. I was just the same way when I was green. It's pretty funny. We had the new missionary orientation and the technology stunk it up. I hate technology when it doesn't work. All is well though the meeting went on anyways. While we were doing this and introducing the trainers to their trainers the Zone Leaders were organizing everyone so that we could get the transfer train on the road back to Regina asap. It went pretty fast and the transfer train left only 20 minutes behind schedule. Problem was they started driving East. Now it does not take a geography major to know that Regina is West of Winnipeg. They got it worked out and it went ok. We then went to the church and tried to work on our MLC portion because as you will soon learn for the first time in recorded history we had MLC on Friday of transfer week because President had to leave Friday afternoon to Regina and Zone Conference is this week. We got like an hour of our portion in before we had to go to dinner at the mission home with the departing missionaries. It was delicious, Sister Craig made Russian chicken. It was heavenly! We had the departing missionary testimony meeting. Elder Omer who I replaced here in Waverley Ward was departing. He said it felt strange because he had been to so many of these meetings as an assistant that it didn't feel real like it was his turn to go home. It made me nervous. The Sisters that went home came out with me. That made it super real how old I am. The testimony meeting was so good! President called on Elder Griffin and I to bear our testimonies and said "let's make sure my assistants still have a testimony at the end of the busiest week of their lives". I bore my testimony of prayer and told the story of Elder Low and I getting stuck in the ditch in Lynn lake and getting saved. Sister Craig was really emotional because the sisters that went home are the first ones that Presidemt and Sister Craig picked up at the beginning of their mission. That night we had planned to make our portion for MLC but we were pooped so we went to bed on time instead. Friday morning we met at the airport at 5:30 to see the departing missionaries off. We then went with President to Cora's. Tat is usually when President has us go to take a nap but we had to plan our MLC portion so we did. Them we had MLC. Following MLC we went to take our "recovery nap". We went to sleep at 3:15 and set two alarms for 5:30. We BOTH slept through BOTH alarms. Needless to say 4 hours of sleep a night takes its toll on you.
Saturday we got back into the swing of things and Sunday was great because Ronke and her boys came to church again!
This week we are in the road. Currently I am somewhere between Brandon and Regina and we will be in Rehina and Saskatoon until Saturday.
Love you all!
Elder Stewart
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