So hey everyone this last week and a bit has been awesome. Unfortunately it was my last week in the Redland Bay area because Saturday I got transferred to the mission office as an "office elder." So there's already a few senior missionaries working at the office but they also have a couple full time missionaries serve as office elders to help with setting up technology for zone conferences and things like that, basically helping the mission run. My last week in Redland Bay wasn't too exciting. It was really sad to go though. I was only there for one transfer. I didn't even get to say goodbye to anyone because I got the call Friday night and transferred Saturday morning. Elder Hymas and I were pretty bummed I was leaving already but I was super excited about being in the office. What's cool though is the missionary I trained, Elder Bullock will be his new companion in Redland Bay.
Since Saturday things have been a blur. Because we do heaps more than just sitting in the office all day. Saturday we went with the assistants to different baptisms around the mission to support. On Sunday President McSwain (mission president), the temple president, an area authority seventy and all the stake presidents in QLD had a council meeting. We had to set up microphones and video to broadcast to the district presidents in the far north like Townsville and Cairns and the like.
Monday is generally p day but us and the assistants get to do p day stuff whenever we can find the time since a lot of Mondays we don't get around to shopping and emailing. But Monday was transfers, so we had to be at the Kangaroo Point chapel/temple/base of operations to make sure everything went smoothly in terms of getting bikes and cars and supplies to all the right places. Then the rest of the day we spent at the mission home with the missionaries going home the next day. One of those was Elder Adams, who's from Herriman too. So that makes me the last missionary repping Herriman in the ABM! We filmed each of them giving some departing counsel and things that we put together in a video.
Tuesday was district meeting. I was in the same district only two transfers ago and yet almost everyone has changed except for Elder Iufoni, one of my previous companions who's still in Bunya Forest (where I was with him a couple transfers ago). It was also the day I finally got to unpack my stuff since getting there on Saturday!! Man, it is a busy life now. The days just blur together.
Wednesday was equally busy because we got...new missionaries! Now THAT was an interesting experience because it brought back a lot of memories from my first day in Australia. The routine is the office elders, assistants, and President and his wife pick up the new missionaries from the airport. Then, we take them to the mission office, the whole way answering their questions about what Australia's like, how many baptisms there are, how big the spiders are, what the slang is etc etc. It was just so funny because it hasn't changed a bit since when I came in 17 months ago. Then they have a light lunch and interviews with the mission president at the office. Then we take them to the bank just down the road to withdraw cash for their bikes. Then we drive them to the mission home where we hang out for a bit and have a big meal and the goldens (new missionaries) have a "golden transfer meeting" with President and Sister McSwain. The whole time we are making sure all the cars and luggage and bikes are arranged, setting up the computer and projector for the meeting, and being ready for anything. Then they are called up one by one to meet their trainers. After which they drive off to their assigned areas though. It was so funny though, because this intake of missionaries were mostly from the States, and the look on their faces when they were told that all but one of them would start driving right away was priceless (with driving being on the other side of the road here). Soooo funny.
The last couple days have been a lot of preparing for zone conferences next week. It's been a blast so far. Getting to be around the assistants and the mission president on a daily basis is really cool. Plus being in a trio is nice, especially because one of my companions is Elder Banks, who was actually my second companion! Who gets to serve with one of their favourite companions twice?! Sorry its a big email, honestly I'm not even sure if I'll be able to email regularly anymore, it might be a week or two weeks in between emails. Either way, love you all!
Elder Cummings
1. Touch rugby w/ the boys
2. da office elders
3. the internet went out at the office so this is Elder banks trying to find the network box in the ceiling
4. next day the internet was still out so we were studying tongan until it was fixed
5. The internet was taking longer than we thought so we went to the mission home to work and talked with President McSwain about zone conf.
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