Greetings Family!
This past week has flown by! I can't believe I'm already emailing you guys again! We finished up interviews with all of the companionships in the Des Moines and Ankeny areas Wednesday and then we went on exchanges with the ZL's in Ankeny. It was so cool for me to go back to my old area and work there for the day.
I think I told you about Amber Buekema in Ankeny,(the single mom we were teaching up there) well anyway, she got baptized April 10 so I got to see her and she is doing good. We all had a cook out at her apartment complex Wednesday and it was a gas. She was pretty much the only investigator we had though so now they are doing a lot of finding. For most of the exchange we knocked a lot of doors. The other highlight of the exchange was having dinner with the Collett's on Thursday. They are moving to Georgia next week so this was the last time I could see them so I'm really glad it worked out.
After our Ankeny exchange we got home Thursday night and then went to the temple yesterday! There is a mission tradition where President Talbot takes every group of missionaries to Nauvoo to the temple the transfer before the group goes home. Since this was Elder Blanchard's going home temple trip I went ahead and weasled my way in and got to spend yesterday in Nauvoo! I hadn't been to Nauvoo since I was serving in Muscatine so it was sweet to go through the temple there again. President also has it worked out so we get a tour from a temple worker who takes us all over the temple. We even got to climb up in the tower right under where the Angel Moroni stands. We all go up in the tower and sing the mission song which is a very cool experience.
Those were pretty much the highlights of my week. Exchanges are always fun. I love being able to get to know all the missionaries in the mission. Normally when we are on exchanges we just eat out unless we are in an area that Elder Blanchard or I served in and we can find some tight members to feed us. Don't worry about me and the food situation though. I have more food then I know what to do with. We get an extra $75 per month because we eat out a lot more but that is so much more money then I need. Normally we get $150 per month so with $225 I'm just rollin' in the dough. Since it's so much more then we need we like to take other missionaries out a lot and have fun with it.
To answer mom's question about the mission split in July, we just barely now know all the info on that. You might want to pull out a map to follow along with this. As soon as President Jergensen arrives in Iowa we will loose the Sioux City stake to the Omaha mission and pick up the Peoria, Quad Cities and Nauvoo stakes from Illinois. I would kill to serve in the Quad Cities (Bentendorf, Moline, Rock Island and Davenport). The Sioux City stake includes areas like Spencer, Storm Lake and our South Dakota and Nebraska areas. The city of Nauvoo itself is it's own mission but we will have everything surrounding it. The Nauvoo mission is just the visitor center and church sites because proselyting isn't allowed in the city as part of the temple deal the church made with the city.
We currently have about 110 missionaries in the mission. When the Sioux City zone leaves we will loose 20 but we will pick up 60 from the Illinois mission. So basically it's going to be mass chaos. The big gossip in the mission now is who is going to get sent to Sioux City and have to finish their mission in the Omaha mission. Nobody wants to switch missions. Luckily I'll be sitting pretty here in Des Moines so no worries for me. We really have no idea who will actually get transfered there until the transfer meeting at the end of this transfer. Either way no matter which state you are serving in it's all the Lord's work. I love the mission and love you all!
Love
Elder Jergensen
No comments:
Post a Comment