Down in the Arkansas

Good day to yall.  This past week has been a good one in Arkansas. And also Memphis. Yeah, we got to go to Memphis! The MLC (mission leadership conference) got to meet in person for the first time since I have been a part of it. We socially distanced ourselves and wore masks..... We met in Bartlett and it was a great time. one of the things we discussed the importance of reaching out and inspiring the other missionaries in our zone to help them reach their goals.  Also, instead of getting 50 missionaries this week, we are only getting around 15. But to accommodate even more missionaries the mission is renting some cars. And we got a rental car! It's a Nissan Kicks. No Tiwi, and no limit on our miles. There's no telling how fast we'll be flying and where we'll go! (Except we will stay within the zone because we are obedient, and mostly within the speed limit because I'm usually a careful driver).  We had a cool lesson this week with someone we are teaching. It was a ...

Another week has come and gone, and it's been quite a trip.  We started off the week with an online training. The Hot Springs and Benton zones met together and we discussed for many hours how we could improve our Facebook page. Not something I expected to do on the mission, but it was good. We also had our interviews with President Hansen. Because of the large amount of missionaries now in the mission and because he finishes his tenure as Mission President on the first day of July, he is doing his final round of interviews, so this was my last time being interviewed personally by him. I really am going to miss him. He has been a very inspired leader over the mission. I got some good council and direction from him that I will treasure for the rest of my life.  We also had exchanges with the Assistants this week. I was with Elder Okland and Elder Probst was with Elder Phillips. We thought it would be great to go visit and minister to some missionaries in the zone so Elder Okland...

Over the course of these last few days, the mission has increased in size, gaining 60 or so missionaries that have been reassigned. Represented in our zone alone we have missionaries who served in Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, Mexico, and even Kiribati (which I learned is pronounced more like "kittybest," which is not even close to what it looks like. Before learning how to spell it we had a heck of a time looking it up on Google Maps). We're excited to work with them and see what cool things they can bring to the table of missionary work here in Arkansas.  Other than that significant change, our schedule has been pretty regular. We have, for the first time, been able to stick to an example self-isolation schedule since it was given. Usually zone leader stuff gets in the way, but this week it was surprisingly calm. For the first time in over 3 weeks we were able to do an hour of family history. I found out I am 1st cousins 8 times removed from Abraham Lincoln. Now I ask of yo...

This week, believe it or not, was the last week of the transfer. What a wild 6 weeks it has been. Elder Probst and I are staying in Hot Springs. But almost no one else is staying together. On Wednesday we will be receiving upwards to 65 missionaries who are being reassigned after having served abroad. A couple weeks later we will receive another 50 or so. Our mission will go from about 130 to to 245. To adjust for flood of missionaries, zone boundaries have gone wack, apartments are housing 2 sets of missionaries, and everything is in commotion. Luckily, Elder Probst and I are both staying in Hot Springs and because we only have one bathroom, are not going to be getting another set of missionaries (dodged that bullet).  So that's basically my life. As the zone leaders, we get a bunch of calls from basically everyone in the zone and we're just like 🤷‍♂️ most if the time.  We exchanged with Little Rock and Hope this week. The Hope Elders made us a good stir fry in a wok they bo...