Week 94 - The final transfer

Well, it´s finally here - my replacement in the office! His name is Elder Gustafson, from New Hampshire. He´s a good guy and it looks like he will also be finishing up his mission in the office. Now it will be harder than ever to not get trunky, as I slowly but surely give up all my responsabilities. It´ll be fun! It will be nice because as I shed my office work, I can get back in to actual missionary work as much as I can.

This week we´ll have a small transfer, with only six going home and seven coming in. Pretty normal as we move people, luggage, money, iPads, and all the other stuff that we deal with. 

Keep sending me the fotos from Rome! You´re seeing all the cultural stuff that for me is only a side-perk. This should be interesting as you inch closer and closer to España. (also, dont forget to send me the pictures of the Maxfield reunion in Florence that we talked about on Skype.)

Not much to do this last week, as we did transfers and I filled out more completely my spreadsheet on inventories for the pisos. Trying to keep track of what the missionaries buy and where it ends up. 

I had my quarterly interview with President last week. He asked me what my goals were for the transfer - and I told him I don´t want to die and I want to hoe to the end of the row. We suggested that I make a goal to talk to at least 10 people a day - something that will be quite hard. To be honest, it will require finding interesting ways to bring up the gospel in situations where it´s not as comforatble to do so. But that´s o.k. I think it will be good practice for home, when stopping someone with an enthusiastic "We´re missionaries!" will be less than appropriate and won´t make any sense. I like the opportunities I have to find to share the gospel in a way that will be great practice for back home - with people like cashiers, security guards, random guy in the store. Just strike up a conversation, and worse case scenario is that you have an awkward moment. It´s the sort of thing that the Lord looks for from the non-full-time missionary folk (which I´ll be in two short months) - taking advantage of every small opportunity given to us. 

Love,

Elder Maxfield