Transfers

Hi All,

Well here is the news you've all been waiting for. Okay maybe not, but we've sure had a week of lots of speculation. Everyone knew there were 4 Spanish sisters coming in this transfer so there were a lot of people wondering what would happen. At about 9am this morning we got a phone call from President Beck. On transfer Monday, President only calls for one reason. He only calls if someone has been called to be a trainer. I've been called to train a missionary straight out of the MTC. I'm super nervous, but also really really excited. We'll be in a trio here in Agua Fria which will be interesting, but I think is actually a huge blessing. The work here has really really picked up and we've been needing a way to go on splits, and this makes it easy since we'll only need one more sister who can come with us. Both Hermana Aydelotte and I were very happy to hear that we would be staying here in Agua Fria. It's always really hard leaving an area, and I know I wasn't ready to leave, and Hna Aydelotte only has 6 weeks left, so she didn't want to go anywhere either. Tomorrow at 1pm I have to go to a trainers meeting, and then tomorrow evening I will meet the hermana that I get to train. I guess you'll all have to wait until next week to hear anything about her.

This week was a really good week. We've spent a lot of time teaching. We spend almost all of our days running from one appointment to the next, which has made getting out and contacting quite interesting, because we simply don't have time for it. We're working on that though, and hopefully we'll start making things work a little better. I think the thing that has been most interesting here in Agua Fria is how much time we've spent working with couples with marital problems. Of the people we visit the most about 3/4 are really struggling. Sometimes as we're over working with them I feel like the blind leading the blind. We've had some really cool experiences though, and it's been so amazing to see the changes in lives. We have one couple who we are working with where she was making plans to leave him and go back to Mexico. After a lot of work, and a whole lot of prayer things are doing better with them. And, the exciting part is that they're getting married. We're pretty excited, although the wedding won't be until at least July at this rate, which Hna Aydelotte is pretty bummed about, because she really would have loved to be there. Oh well.

(I forgot my journal and in the craziness of this morning didn't think to put a list of things to write about together like normal, so sorry if this letter is all over the place)

Friday we had a mission conference. Well, a half mission conference. There are 200 missionaries here in Phoenix, and that's just too many to cram into one conference effectively, so they split us in half, and all those outside of the valley meet in the morning and then those of us here in the valley meet in the afternoon. It was a very exciting conference. We're at count down time right now, because in 2 months we will be getting a new mission president. President Beck is determined to have the mission in the best shape it has ever been before President Taylor gets here. He's been talking to him on the phone regularly and they've decided what things we're going to focus on in the next 2 months. A lot of what is happening is President is trying to make sure everything is clean and very orderly. We got a lot of instruction about being organized in our work. We also got instruction on a new baptismal calendar we are using, which was really cool. I guess a mission down in Texas has been using it to great success, and so they are starting it here. We've not had much time to try it out, but from what I've seen I really really like it.

Saturday was also a really good day. Hna Aydelotte and I got permission to go to the temple down in Mesa. Unlike Trent, we don't have a temple in our mission (although it's only about 40 minutes outside of the mission) and so we have to get special permission to go, and then we can only go every 3 months. We had a lovely trip down with one of the sisters from the ward. I thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent there, and to my great excitement Hna Ayala and her companions had also recieved permission to go at the exact same time. I was so excited to get to see her again. She goes home tomorrow, so I probably won't see her again until after my mission. Also, I ran into two friends from college. That was a little bizzare. One lived near me my freshman year, and the other was a vocal performance major who I had taken classes with. It was like two worlds were colliding. But it was cool to see them, and I really enjoyed telling them that I am a missionary. I think that was the best part, was telling them I'm a missionary and just how much I love this.

I think that's about all for this week. Sorry I'm a little frazzled. I'm sure I'll have lots and lots to tell you about next week.

Have a wonderful week all!

Hermana Okeson