Elder Jorgenson!

What a great week!

So as you all know, Elder Jack got transferred and my new companion wasn't going to be here until Thursday. So since Elder Jack left I got to go with Elder Blair who is the other district leader in the zone and work in his area with him on Wednesday night. It was really good because even though he has a car, we rode bikes for most of the night. It made me excited and made me want to ride bikes more, because I think Elder Jack and I only rode bikes 2 or 3 times the entire time we were together. Also on Thursday I was talking to Sister Cahoon and she said something that hit me as well. She said that more missionary work gets done when you're on bikes; and isn't that the truth. So on Thursday morning Elder Blair and I drove back to the mission office and waited to get our new companions (along with the other 2 missionaries that were training). My companion's name is Elder Jorgenson. He's from Seattle, Washington and he's been serving in the Alabama Montgomery Mission for 6 months. He said that the reason it took so long for him to get his visa was that when he got the FBI clearance in the mail, his dad didn't know what it was or what it was for and he just threw it away so he had to apply for it again and that alone can take 4 months. So he ended up serving a quarter of his mission in Alabama. I think that must be a huge culture shock, I mean, going from a mission where everybody is somewhat religious to a mission where over half the doors you knock on the people tell you that they don't even believe in God. But he's doing really well. I'm glad that the only thing that I have to train him in is the Aussie ways. I've been getting to teach him all the Aussie slang words they use, teaching him what to say and not say, even trying to help him with his accent as well. I can't believe how heavy his American accent is. It's weird to me. He told me that I have a bit of an Aussie accent as well. Which is understandable since his accent just sounded so American to me. Whenever we've talked to people this week they've been like "you're obviously American," but then turned to me and asked me where I'm from. haha, I guess I just don't notice that my accent has changed. It's been funny teaching him about all the different Aussie things and sayings. It's weird to think that I was in his same spot just a year ago. The one thing that I haven't taught him yet is how to drive on the left side of the road. He just says he's not ready for that yet, but it will come.

But like I was saying, when I was with Elder Blair, I got really motivated to get on the bikes more. So Elder Jorgenson and I have only used the car to get to Rockingham for church and morning exercise and stuff like that. But on Saturday we spent 7 hours on the bikes. We were only able to see 3 people, but it was really good to be able to get out there and talk to people that we passed by on the street. You can't really do that when you're in the car. So it's been a really good week in that sense. I'm definitely going to stick with it, even when it gets up to the high 30's next month, I'll just be drinking heaps and heaps of water, that's all. I'm sure I can do it though.

My first week as a district leader has been great as well. I was nervous to run my first district meeting on Friday, but it actually went really well. Everything ran smooth and it actually lasted as long as it was supposed to. It actually went a bit longer than it was supposed to. I gave them some training on the importance of getting investigators to come to church and how they can receive revelations and spiritual truths through church attendance. It was a lot easier to give training to the whole district than I thought it would be. Everybody was participating and all that, it was good. Afterwards, the zone leaders evaluated me and said it was really good for being my first time. I just have one or two things that I need to improve for my next time around, so we'll see how that goes in two weeks. We don't have a district meeting this week because of Zone Conference which is happening on Wednesday. Also tomorrow I get to go to a leadership training meeting in Dianella. I'm pretty excited for that. Lots of firsts for me this week and last week. There seems to be a lot of things that you can only learn as a district leader or zone leader. I've been learning a lot more from everything i do. My studying, meetings, correlating, everything. Correlating with everybody in my district was a different experience as well. It seems like everybody talks to me with more respect than they all have in the past, but I guess that just comes with the calling. I'm just going to have to work to keep that respect. And the best way to do that is just to lead by example, which so far isn't as hard as I thought it would be.

I'm so excited for the new experiences that I'm going to have this transfer. It is looking way promising. Angela got up in testimony meeting yesterday to bare her testimony and it was fantastic. I was worried she might say something that we didnt' teach her, but she bore a great testimony on the living God, the Book of Mormon, and the great work the missionaries are doing. It made me smile heaps. She's progressing very well in the gospel. She also working really hard to get her husband to come to Church with her. He has actually sat in with on on our past two lessons which is amazing.

Evelyn is doing really well right now too. Arturo says "she's ready to be baptised, she's just procrastinating". She says she wants to be baptised in the Philippines, or she wants to learn English better first. I think it will just be a matter of time. We're getting excited though, and I think Arturo is as well. Her English is so much better than it used to be. It's so good to see the spirit working in action on her. Even though she doesn't understand much of what we say, she is liking our messages more and more. It's great.

I think that's about it for this week! Have a superally fantastic week!

much love,

Elder Tanner