Service is where you find it

Looks like he's enjoying working with his hands as much as he enjoys working with the spirit.  The elders got the chance to build more than a simple acquaintance.  Just a reminder that until Ryan's next email, probably on Monday, February 6th, letters should be sent through the mission office.  There's a pretty good chance that he will be transferred to another area this next weekend.

Transfer time again

Elder Irvine has indicated that a new round of transfers will occur next week.  Letters mailed to him in the week beginning January 30th should be sent to him through the mission office.  If he's transferred next week, an updated address will be posted here as quickly as possible.

Growing through change. . .and a little excitement!

It's really been a humbling experience to see just how much I relied on Elder Mickelson to know the area while he was training me. Elder Stuart and I are working hard to go through the area book of records, to organize and clean it out. This involves a lot of visiting 'potential' investigators, members in the ward that we don't know personally but are on the records, and visiting former investigators that previous missionaries have recorded and worked with. It's exciting to be able to have so much work to do and just start cracking at it as each day goes by.

Re-meeting with the auxiliaries, members, and nonmembers we work with for Elder Stuart's sake as being new to the area has been a cool experience as well. Elder Stuart has a lot of experience being a missionary in general and so he has been teaching me well how to adapt to different methods of finding and teaching people. But since I've been in the area for longer than he has, I am given the responsibility of 'training' him in the area and people we work with. It's obviously an inspired activity to 'be transferred' to a new companion and area, because it's not just one or the other missionary learning in every companionship, but both learning at the same time. I love it. I'm grateful President Morby is inspired by God to make those decisions for our mission. I am loving getting to know and working with Elder Stuart.

As far as other recent exciting events go - I had to drive Elder Stuart to the emergency room on Friday night around 11:30pm because he couldn’t sleep and was feeling severe pain in his groin. He told me about his hunch that he's had for a while that he may have a hernia, and the visit to the hospital confirmed that. It was quite an adventure and we've been in the process of getting his surgery scheduled and worked out. We had to go to see doctor today and now it's just a matter of scheduling the appointment between the doctor, Sister Morby (the mission president's wife and nurse), and Elder Stuart. While it has been a new experience for the two of us, it has slowed the work quite a lot. The Woodburn Elders were kind enough to allow us to have the car for a few week since Elder Stuart isn't allowed to do a lot of physical labor, including riding bikes and walking a lot. It is still hard cause we can't do a lot of door to door contacting or visiting people without using a lot of miles in the car since our area is so spread out - and part of my responsibility as driver is being frugal with the miles. I know the Lord will help us, though, and I know it's for our learning and growth that this is happening right now, so I'm grateful for it.