Wednesday was a blast! We
had transfer meeting which is always super fun and there was a huge group there
for us to see. The meeting is always a really fun experience and President Morgan
did great his first time.
After
that we went to the temple with the new missionaries which is always fun. I sat
in the Celestial room with Elder Christensen and Sister Crandall and we just
talked for a few minutes about the temple and how great of a blessing it is and
it was a really cool experience to have.
Then
we headed to the mission home and spent the rest of the night there having another
BBQ and just having fun. The rule the last night is that the departing
missionaries can stay up as late as they want. We sat in the living room while
Elder Anderson played the guitar until about 1:30 and then President Morgan
headed off to bed. At that point about half the group had gone to bed but most
of my best friends from the mission were all sitting in that room with us and
we knew it was our last night together so we were going to make it count. 5
hours and a lot of random activities later we had spent the whole night being
stupid high school kids again. Real life set in a little bit when we realized
that we had to get in the van and head to the airport. Saying goodbye to that
group was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I felt like trash
after the airport but I held myself together pretty well. One of my really good
friends, Sister Crandall, stayed with us for a few hours and then her parents
came to the mission home to pick her up. That was a cool experience to see but
it was so dang hard to say goodbye again and by time that was over I was
physically exhausted from staying up all night and mentally exhausted from
losing so many of my friends all at once.
Seeing
that I was in absolutely no shape to function the Morgan’s let me go in their
basement and sleep for a couple hours. Laying alone in a bed with nothing to do
but think was probably the worst idea ever after sending all those missionaries
home. It finally just hit me and for the first time in a really long time on my
mission I just layed there and cried. It was pretty awful at the time but I
have learned a lot from it and it has really helped me to relearn why I’m out
here. I’m not out here for me at all but I’m out here to serve other people and
to help them as much as I can. I am so thankful for those friends and
companions that I had and how much they each helped me learn. My body and mind
are finally starting to recover from those few days and now I’m excited to get
out and have a good full weeks work this week.
A few other things happened
this week that were both good and not so good. We spent a day working up in
Linn which is a little tiny area that just barely opened up and that was fun. It’s
up in the Columbia zone and there was a wedding reception that night in
Columbia for Cameron Marshall. It’s probably been about a year since I talked
about him but me and Elder Marshall used to hang out almost every p-day when he
was an assistant and I was in Fairview Heights. We became really good friends
and he was companions with Elder Facer. He met the stake president daughter
from one of his old areas when he got back to Utah and next thing ya know they’re
married! It was really cool to get to see him again after 9 months and see him
taking the next step in his life. That was a super cool experience.
One
thing I learned this week that was some interesting news was that Booker who I
taught in Jacksonville died this week. He struggled with some health issues so
it was his time to go but it’s always tough to hear about all these people that
I knew so well at the beginning of my mission dying.
One really cool thing that
has happened over the last few weeks has been the switch to member missionary
work. We currently have 2 zones in the mission that are no tracting zones.
Instead of tracting they just go visit members and ask for referrals. We haven’t
had enough time to see how it’s going to work yet, but hopefully this is a
glimpse of the future of our mission! I am so thankful to get to be right in
the thick of missionary work as it is making all of these amazing changes. I am
so thankful for the blessings that it brings me and the people around me and wouldn’t
trade these experiences for anything!
-Elder Banks
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