As normal,
transfer week was crazy. Monday
we got a call at 2:00 that we had a missionary who was going home sitting by
himself at the mission home and no one was there. Of course it was Elder
Williams haha. We went over and spent a couple hours with him and all the other
departing missionaries started to trickle in throughout the night. We got to
spend a good last night with all of them and it was a really good night. Elder
Williams was one of my really good friends out here so it was sad to see him go
but I’m excited to see him again sometime.
Tuesday we took the departing missionaries to
the airport and sent them all off then stopped by to get some lunch in the
airport waiting for the next set of new missionaries to come in. While we were
sitting there waiting a guy wearing a Utah Utes jacket came over and started
talking to us and it turned out to be Elder Petersen’s dad. Elder Petersen is
one of our really good friends who we spent a ton of time with this last
transfer so it was fun to get to meet his dad and take pictures with him. It
was even more fun to get to show Elder Petersen after. We spent the rest of the
day with the new missionaries and it was a normal fun day with them.
Wednesday we had transfer meeting and it was
the most exhausting one ever. Something we didn’t realize is that with the way
the office elders were set up this transfer neither one of them had ever
prepared for a transfer meeting before. So pretty much nothing was ready with
phones and cars and new areas. The meeting ended and we just ran around like
crazy trying to figure out how to do a bunch of stuff that none of us had ever
done before. It was crazy but it worked out. It made me extra thankful that I
never have to go to one of those again. After transfer meeting we helped the
sisters in our ward move cause their apartment pretty much exploded with water
damage and that took forever moving an apartment with only a minivan. That was
pretty much the rest of our day.
Thursday and Friday were really normal days of
missionary work with nothing too spectacular happening. We had a few good
lessons and everything is going really well.
Jasmina and
Husein Todorovic were by far the highlight of the week for us. At the beginning
of the week we weren’t sure if they were going to get baptized or not and we
met with them and asked them if we could move their baptism date back a week or
so and they said absolutely not. They were so excited to get baptized and had
been studying so hard they wanted it this weekend. It took a lot of work and meeting
every day but we were able to get everything done in time and they were both
baptized on
Saturday. One cool thing about it was that neither me or Elder
Wunderli had ever actually been the person down in the water to baptize someone
before and we both got to do that this weekend. Elder Wunderli baptized Jasmina
and I got to baptize Husein. It was a lot of work getting that baptism ready
for the few days before and the few hours before. We spent about 3 hours
boiling water on the stove and bringing it over to the font to fill it up. Our
little building doesn’t have the greatest water heater in the world. But
with all the work and stress that came with the baptism it was so worth it. It
was one of the coolest days of my mission. Jasmina has 2 more sons that we are
teaching now who will hopefully getting baptized soon. It’s been amazing to see
over the last 2 weeks two families get baptized and completely change their
lives and their family’s lives. Husein always talks about going on a mission
and how excited he is. They’re just going to have an amazing future.
Jasmina got
to bear her testimony at the baptism and it was amazing. She isn’t much of a
talker in front of groups of people so I didn’t think she was going to get up
given the option. But she stood up and started by her best friend who
introduced her to the gospel. She continued on through all her tears to explain
how crazy her life had been recently and how she used to make fun of her friend
all the time for becoming a Mormon. But when things got really tough she asked
if she could come to church with her. She couldn’t even control her emotions
when she parked at the church for the first time because she knew she was home.
She knew before she even got into the building that this was the right place for
her to be. Three weeks later she and her son got baptized. I am so thankful for
the opportunity that I had to be a part of that process and hopefully the rest
of her family will be joining her soon. I couldn’t ask for more my last
transfer as a missionary. I love this time of year and I love the people that I
get to serve. Merry Christmas!
-Elder Banks
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