Transfers Before Christmas

LOTS to say! Because it was transfers, I will no longer be serving at Welfare Square. It was a great transfer there with LOTS of memories! Onto other exciting assignments. This transfer conference was pretty nerve-racking because 3rd transfers just KNOW their life will be totally changed: no trainer anymore, no same assignment. This is my fate: my new companion is Sister Park, from the US, not sure which state, and my new assignment is fleet. Sister Park is so sweet. I feel so lucky! Only one companionship is in charge of this, and it is a huge job! We are in charge of the sign-ups for the mission cars on P-day, GPSs, whenever sisters have local baptisms to go to, mission-wide events not at Temple Square, sisters returning from outbound that need to be picked up from the airport, sisters going on their outbound to be driven to the airport, maintenance of the vehicles, what to do if a sister gets into an accident, passing off sisters to drive the vehicles, etc! Apparently a perk of fleet is washing President's car every week (celestial car wash!). Tomorrow, Sister Park and I supposedly have to be in the parking garage starting at 4 am for the whole day to make sure the outbound sisters are leaving on time with the right car.

Sister Thacker, my companion for my 1st and 2nd transfer (my lovely trainer) is going outbound! This was so unexpected because she will only be in her 5th transfer. I know she will do great things though!

Since she is leaving, I take over all of our investigators and less-actives. We will have LOTS of work to do!

Sister Thacker and I talked with one of our less-actives, Rob, last night. He asked our last names, and we told him. He is mentally slower, but he is a very sweet soul! I told him and he said, "Steamhook?" "Uh, yeah!" "Hahah. That is funny. You must have a hook with steam coming out of it!" Hah we went with it. He's a funny one.

This morning, we called Jacqui, a new investigator in Surrey, England. She is the CUTEST thing ever. SO prepared. She has a son with autism and a husband with severe MS. We taught her the first half of the Plan of Salvation and then committed her to baptism. On chat today, we picked up another woman from England who we are going to call! I think they are drawn to us.

Our investigator, Gui, in Brazil, went to church this past Sunday! He went to all of Priesthood, where they were talking about Holland's GC talk, Sunday School, and then left after the passing of the Sacrament. He said he talked with missionaries there, and they asked, "Did you come with someone?" He told them no. He came on his own. Hahah he said they were very shocked. Not many people voluntarily walk into church like that! Well he liked it, and wants to return. It is challenging teaching people when you're thousands of miles away, but I know this work is true and will go forward with haste.

I am still in awe at how much Heavenly Father trusts us to care for his precious souls. While we were sitting in the Visitor's Center at Welfare Square, this 56 year old woman named Ema came in with a transient services bishop and asked us if we would help her return to the gospel. She had been homeless for a few days now, and has no where to turn. We talked with her for 2 hours about faith, as well as going back to church. We wrote out goals that she would like to accomplish (career, home, spiritual, exercise) in a year's time. We wrote down scriptures to go with quite a few of them, and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. When you have and idea of where you want to be in a year etc, you find a way to get there. A HUGE change was seen in her countenance. She was smiling when she left and truly had a determination to change her life around and to come closer to God. We then sent her to the Employment Resource Center, where they helped her out. We gave her our phone number, and I hope she calls! I care about her sooo much!

I want to end with a quote that a sister's dad would tell her all the time:

"The work is bigger than we are. We are blessed to be a part of it. The work isn't better because of us. We are better because of the work. We didn't do anyone a favor by going on a mission, the favors were done to us by allowing us to go."

Sister Angelique Steenhoek