We had another ridiculously fast week this week, but I have a few other things to talk about first or my mom will kill me. I haven’t really talked about my companions at all so I’ll talk about them real fast. Elder Bean is my official companion. He is 20 and from Rexburg Idaho and could not be more Mormon haha. He has the picture perfect Mormon family and the reason I know that is because his blanket, pillow, and everything else is giant pictures of his family so I see them every day. He is super big into drama and singing. He is by far the best singer I have ever met and he has tons of scholarships and stuff for that. He goes home in 8 weeks and he is leaving the office in 3ish weeks so we have spent a lot of time trying to figure out who we could pick to bring in to replace him. Elder Bean is the bubbliest happiest person I have ever met and we have pretty much 0 in common but it works out great and we get along really well so everything is going great.
We also work really closely with the office elders and we see them every day so I count them as my companions. Elder Facer is from Kaysville Utah and he is just a giant goof. He broke his ankle earlier in his mission and had to get surgery and he has been the office elder even since (7.5 months). It’s great having him around because he knows exactly how to do everything with the computers and the system. He will probably be leaving at the end of this transfer too and we are really going to miss him. Elder Melton is the other office elder and he is probably the one I get along with the best. He is from North Carolina and has had an insane life. He had to overcome a lot to make it on his mission. I look up to him a lot because of it. Elder Melton goes home in 2 transfers and Elder Facer goes home in 3. So, there’s my companions. By the time President Morgan comes in they will probably all be gone so changes are coming. But for now it’s amazing to have them all here.
This week was big time nuts (quote from Austin Chamberlain). Tuesday we drove down to Cape Girardeau and it’s about 2 and a half hours south. It was such a pretty drive. It is the most southern part of our mission and it is insanely green down there. We had interviews from 8am to 8pm so that was a crazy day. We drove home and the next day we had interviews with the ST Louis zone so that was a lot closer. They were both really full but really fun days. Thursday was the craziest day ever. We were supposed to be preparing MLC that day. Just a little background on that. It used to be called ZLC, but there is an entirely new system of sister leadership in the church so we had to make a new meeting. We had an hour long meeting at 9 on Friday to train the 4 sisters on how to do their job. They were all super excited when they walked in and super overwhelmed when they walked out haha. They have a big job. But because it was the first MLC ever we had a ton of planning to do for it. We were planning on doing it in a few hours, but no. Everyone decided to go insane that day! We had like 7 missionaries coming into the office all with problems and wanting to talk to president. In short, 3 people got transferred and one went home that day all before we could plan our meeting at all. It was pretty crazy. But in the end it all worked out and the meeting on Friday went great. The whole idea of having tons of new sisters in the mission has made things interesting. Elder Bean and I got the opportunity to completely rewrite all of the rules for interaction between Elder and Sisters and it was actually really fun. It was fun to know that the things being decided on were going to be in place in this mission for a really, really long time.
After MLC on Friday we drove down to Cape again and we stopped by a place called Lamberts. It’s a place to eat and there are only 3 in the world. It’s a lot like a Cracker Barrel when it comes to the food, but it’s famous for its "throwed rolls." It’s so fun. You just sit there and eat and whenever you want a new roll you just stick your hand up in the air and they will chuck one to you. There were rolls flyin everywhere! It was a blast.
After that we went on our exchange with the Cape Zone leaders. Elder Williams, who I served with in Fairview Heights, was there so it was fun to get to be with him again. Then yesterday we went to Oakville and did our exchange with them. So I got to hang out with Elder Williams and Elder Anderson over the weekend and that was great. I got to go to church in Oakville again and that was super fun and I got good updates on all the investigators there.
Steve was someone we were teaching in Oakville and last I had heard he broke up with his girlfriend and wasn’t seeing the missionaries any more. Then I got an update that he was at church on Sunday and he is still doing great. It’s kinda complicated on which ward he is going to join and things like that, but I am sure he will get baptized soon. Pam Ranzini was also at church so it was good to see her again and she is doing great. The Oakville ward had 5 people at church on Sunday so that was really exciting to see that they are still doing so well.
We have another crazy week coming up and we will be sleeping in our beds once or maybe twice. We are headed up to Springfield for our exchange tomorrow and then on Wednesday we have the Springfield interviews which means I get to go to Jacksonville!! I am so excited. Me and Elder Anderson have plans to try to sneak away and go and see a few people before we have to leave. I am hoping to get to see some of my good friends again. We have like 2 other exchanges and 1 more set of interviews later on in the week so hopefully that goes well. I LOVE being so busy and getting to do all of these new things. Being on a mission is so great. There is nothing that could ever compare to this. I hope that you can all experience some of the same happiness that I have been able to experience on my mission. I love you all and will talk to you all again soon!
-Elder Banks
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