Yesterday was such an emotional day. The whole mission got together for President Maurer's final transfer meeting and it was so good. We got to the chapel and 10 and didn't leave until about 3:30 or so. Usually those meetings only last about an hour and a half or less. But this one was special. After President read the transfers out (and no, I didn't get transferred, nor did my companion) we had some activities and the prizes were some of President Maurer's ties. I wasn't good enough to win though, the activity was a scripture chase and when you found the scripture you had to recite it from memory. I never really did that in seminary, but oh well, it was still fun. Then the longest part of the meeting was a time for us all to ask President and Sister Maurer any question we wanted. There were some really good questions asked, and some pretty funny ones. We found out a lot of things about President that we never knew before. For example, he got to be Gordon B. Hinkly's chauffeur while he drove him around to look at temple sites for the Brisbane temple. He was a stake president at the time and the stake he was over was the one where they wanted the temple to be because I guess it's a really nice part of Brisbane. So that was pretty cool. Someone asked him what his greatest accomplishment was on his mission and his answer was building a model boat with his 11 year old son Liam. He said with the busy schedule of a mission president, making time for his family still had to be a priority for him. What a great example he is for everyone. I think the whole state of WA looks up to him.
After the transfer meeting itself, we all went into the cultural hall and had some of the best chili. You don't get chili that often down here, but it was made by the senior couples from America. And we had time to take pictures with President and his wife. The highlight though was the 20 litre ice cream cake. I'll try to upload some pictures with this email, or maybe send them in a separate email. I got a picture with them along with my MTC companion Elder Neibaur who just spent 5 months up in Karratha, so I haven't seen him in awhile. It was good to see him again though. Oh yeah, another highlight was the hug that I got from Sister Maurer. It was just like hugging my mom. I'm going to miss them.
On Saturday night we had a ward farewell party for him, one of the perks of serving in the mission president's ward. Since Sister Berryman was mostly in charge of it and she loves Elder Hunt and I, we got to sing for President and Sister Maurer with the Berryman family. I didn't get a video of it sadly, but Sister Maurer came up to us in church on Sunday and told us how proud of us she was. The Party was good because all the stake leaders in WA came and got to say a few words about President's family. It was about a 3 hour party too.
President Cahoon and his wife are in New Zealand right now receiving training from the area presidency. Their flight gets in at 6:10 on Wednesday night. President Maurer and the APs will pick them up from the airport, take them back to the mission home, show them around, give them the keys to the car and house and the phone and then President Maurer is gone. He said he will probably only spend about 2 hours with President Cahoon, wow. Then we get to meet President Cahoon on Friday. So this should be a very busy week. Just like any other week lol.
We've finally found someone solid that we've started teaching. The mom was less active before but she's been coming to church for 2 weeks now, and she has 2 unbaptised kids that's we're going to hopefully be teaching and baptising this transfer. They seem like a pretty cool family, which means they are from New Zealand lol. Not that Aussies aren't cool, I just love Polynesians.
Well times almost up for this week. I love you all. Have an amazing week.
Love,
Elder Tanner
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