I won't write a super long email this time, I'll just highlight the couple biggest events- ah what the heck it'll probably end up being a super long email anyways. Major event of last week was the big mission Christmas conference. It was on Thursday, but you could also say it was also Monday-Wednesday since we were preparing for it all those days. I wish I had my planner with me so I could remember what else we did but honestly the conference just absorbs my whole memory of last week. It went really well. The night before we moved all the Christmas packages from the office to Karawatha chapel, about a half hour drive. We looked like Santa delivering Christmas presents, except it was a van instead of reindeer, a trailer instead of a sleigh, and garbage bags instead of a red velvet one. And missionaries instead of santa, but they're close enough.
Thursday morning we had to go to the chapel super early to set up, divide up the packages we had brought the previous night into zones. The first part of the conference was a devotional. There was a lot of singing Christmas hymns and readings of the Savior's birth. A couple musical performances too. Then we shared our favorite scriptures from the BoM reading challenge our mission has been doing the last couple months, which was to read the whole BOM highlighting all references to the Lord or to "the word." Then we had lunch in the cultural hall and more of the "fun" part of the conference. My companion Elder Morris played a fictional Elder Rudolf who would get "transferred" to different parts of the mission (different zones) and each zone had a Christmas song reflecting one of the cultures of that zone. So one was Aussie Jingle Bells, another was Christmas in the Islands, the Chinese zone sung "let it go" in Chinese, stuff like that. Mostly it went ok but none of the zones had much practice so the performances weren't stellar, but they were a lot of fun and made everyone laugh. And then....it was over. We were there til 6 or so cleaning everything up. I'll share a folder of vlogs I made throughout the day.
Friday/Saturday were sad days. Transfers arrived and a pretty big group of missionaries finished their missions, many of which were good friends I had made, a couple of which were ones I had known since the beginning of my mission. In fact now that I think about it, none of the missionaries I've known my whole mission (besides the ones who came out with me) are still in the field. They've all gone home with this last outtake. Elder Banks, who I was companions with twice, went home, as well as Elder Ray, who I had shared a flat with and we got to be really good friends, Elder Smoot (my distant cousin) and Fukofuka, who were both my ZLs at one point or another and then both were the assistants when I came into the office. Then there was Elder Tonga, who I've served in the same zone with a couple times, Elder Tenney who was one of my ZLs, Elder Campbell who was my DL up north and then later my ZL, Elder Foster who I served in the same district with my second and third transfers, anyways, a lot of good Elders went home. We had dinner with them at the mission home and we got to see them off at the airport the next morning. I'll share a folder with pictures of me and those I knew at the mission home combined with a picture of some other point of my mission. I don't have a picture with Elder Foster from the beginning of my mission and I didn't get a picture with Elder Fukofuka at the mission home but all the same, they were good friends.
We didn't get a break though because Monday was not only transfers, but the goldens also flew in, instead of Wednesday, I assume because of the Christmas season. Elder Morris, who I was companions with in the office for 3 transfers, got transferred to the Chinese zone as a ZL/Trainer for one of the goldens. So now it's just me and Elder Sharma. We tried a new thing President McSwain wanted to do where the Elders and Sisters would meet at the KP chapel at different times to transfer, to avoid things getting too loud and/or YSA. It worked out great, so much less chaotic although we inevitably had a few bikes left behind, like every transfer, haha. The new goldens are great. Everything's great. So just as a recap,
It's now my 16th transfer. My SIXTEENTH. SIXTEENTH OUT OF SEVENTEEN. I HAVE TWO TRANSFERS LEFT.
It's my 4th transfer in the Office/Enoggera ward. It's my 2nd transfer being companions with Elder Sharma (last transfer we were in a trio).
And would you look at that, it was a still a long email, lol. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night (even though it will be day here) and also a very hot Christmas. Cheers!
Elder Cummings
BANKS
CAMPBELL
FUKOFUKA
RAY
SMOOT
TENNEY
TONGA
No comments:
Post a Comment