Being transferred

First news of the day, I am indeed being transferred. It's true that this was completely expected, but I still am having a rough time stomaching the fact that I have to leave these people that I've grown to love. Along with that, several missionaries in my zone are being white-washed out. Every companionship in the district here is getting a new companion. So, it's going to be a big change throughout the mission. I'm nervous about where I'll be put next. I have a few places that I'm hoping for, but I know that the Lord knows best. Everyone says it, but it's true. I'll go wherever I'm put. Second bit of news, everyone is quite relieved now that some missionaries have gone home. I'm really hoping that the new missionaries that come in will have a good influence on the members and lift them up.

On Wednesday, we spent the whole day, I repeat, the WHOLE DAY, we worked on that truck that Elder M is so familiar with. We tore into it, got the part fixed, put everything back together, and started it up. This horrible clacking sound started happening, and we weren't sure why. We opened a few things, and realized that the tension rod on the timing belt had gone slack, and that we needed to tear back into the engine to change it. So we spent the rest of that day fixing stuff, the next day, and the day after in 3-4 hour sets of fixing the truck. We never managed to get it to start back up, however, so the member just called a friend of his to get it all put together. Elder McKinney was pretty bummed about not being able to have more time to work on it.

Friday, we ended up having to spend the whole day with Elder A, one of the zone leaders, whilst Elder W was at departure activities. Let me just say, that was a really rough day. We found out later that they had been called by the AP's telling them to go with another companionship on Friday, but they disregarded it and told us to take them around that day. Then, that night, we went to get Elder W, arrived on time at the mission home at 8:30, and their departure activities weren't over yet. So we waited. And waited. And waited. Until 11:00. And THEN they came out. Because Elder W was last for interviews, everyone left before us, so President S walked us down the driveway to our car to say goodbye. So we got home pretty late on Friday.

Last night we had a family home evening with the branch, and we watched some pioneer videos, and afterwards, played some pioneer games. (reindeer games...) It went really well, and we had a lot of fun doing the games with all of the members.

I'm sad to see this time in Ramona end. This place really has become like home to me. I know so many people here, and they're all like my family. It's going to be hard saying goodbye to the V's tonight. Along with that, we visited the less-active C family yesterday. We talked about a lot of things, but at the end, they told us that they wanted to visit us after the mission. They told us about how so many missionaries come and go without leaving anything, but that they wanted to remember us, because Elder M and I were different from any other missionaries that they'd met. So we gave them our contact information, and tonight, I'll go and visit them as well.

Not much else has happened this week, so I'll close my letter, and leave you all to wonder where I'm going next. It sounds like anything is go, so I'm pretty nervous to hear about where I'm going.

I'll talk to you next week!

-Love, Elder Crook