News

Hey Everyone,

Well so this week was transfer week, and as predicted I got transferred. It was kind of surreal these past two days saying my goodbyes and leaving everyone with whom I've worked for the past 8 1/2 months. It was really heart-wrenching. I got to say goodbye and take pictures with all of my recent converts and some of the other members that I'm close to. It was a really neat experience getting to see the differences in the ward from when I came in. I was pretty sad yesterday and I had a hard time believing that this was all real, but today I've been pretty much fine. I spent more than 1/3 of my mission there, and it had come to feel like home. But the Lord needed me in another area and called me to come to Gurnee. Gurnee is a suburb (or a series of suburbs) north of Chicago. Apparently on a good day I can see Chicago from the lakeshore that's near my house. That's cool I guess.

So this past week.... it's kinda hard to remember anything that happened before monday to be honest. I got to bear my testimony in church on sunday because the sunday before was stake conference. That was nice. And then Flor Ramirez went up and bore hers, which was awesome to see. It was funny, the Pajares's and the Ramirez's were sitting together, so it was like my hispanic family all united.. Then monday we went to Tania Perez's house with Hermano Barrientos. That was the first time that Hermano Barrientos admitted to me openly that he would like to marry Tania in the future, which was cool. We've all known that for a while now, but he hasn't ever admitted it. Then yesterday I got the call at about 7:20 while I was in the shower. It was funny, because in the shower I was thinking "maybe they'll send me to the Buffalo Grove zone because I've never been there." And then they did! It was weird. So I went and gave my bike to some elders so they could bring it to transfers for me, and then we went to take pictures with the Pajares's. We then passed by the Ramirez family, and I took pictures with all of them. Between those two families it was a real tear-jerker. I love those families a lot. I think my body kind of went in to shock right then. It kinda really hit me that I was actually going. Later that night we swung by Lucila Chavez and her daughter Mildred, who I baptized. Then we went over to visit the Cinta family. Imelda was there, which was cool, she was my first baptism in that area. However, Rafael, her husband, was working, so I didn't get to say bye to him. Then we went home, I packed the last of my stuff and we went to bed.

This morning was cool cause I got to see a bunch of missionaries that I haven't seen in a while. Elder Carroll went home, and Hermana Perez, Elder Cardenas, and many others. Also, I got to see Hermana Layton, who I came out on the mission with. She only has two transfers left! Plus I got to see Jen, who is now serving a mini mission for the next six weeks so she's now Sister Arce. That will be really cool, she'll be a great missionary.

My apartment for the first time is on the ground floor, which is nice. And oh I'm driving a Chevy Malibu, which feels really smooth, I like it a lot.

Wow sounds like Kelvin has been really affected by this whole tsunami and earthquake bit. I was afraid of that. I had worried that was his mission. I knew that there was a Japan Sendai and a Japan Saipei and I was hoping he was in the latter. But no. Well I'm glad that he's alive, and that all the missionaries are ok. Hopefully we will see good things come out of this. I had heard that the devastation from this is even worse than the atom bombs in WWII. I hope that everything goes well for him and I really hope to hear from him soon.

I've got to go now,

Con Amor,

Elder J.