September 10, 2012

Hey mom!

 

Okay, so I just spent the day at the Pittsburgh Zoo with Nick and Jessica, two of the people we are teaching. They are hoping to get baptized September 22nd. It was a lot of fun! But we got lost in Pittsburgh for like an hour and so it set us back and I don't have a lot of time to write. But today was a blast and it was totally worth it! Nick and Jess are amazing to me.

 

Well, Monday through Wednesday were pretty much super spiritual and uplifting. Monday we picked up 9 new elders. Elder Lozano is from New Jersey, and due to some special circumstances he couldn't go to the MTC for training and had to do a home study. So his parents just drove him to the mission office. It was tough seeing his parents start crying right at the last second. But he was strong and said goodbye, got in the van and said, "Elders, Let's get to work!" We drove to the airport and picked everyone up. It was crazy because in the van, as we were driving to the overlook where you can see all of pittsburgh, we were in a scetchy part of town. The 9 new elders were asking us questions about how "dangerous" it was serving out here (haha! Oh please!) and right as they were, we watched a drug deal go down! Classic! Right in front of us. Two kids just passed each other and made the swap. One was obviously less experienced than the other because he looked around and looked super scared and then ran into an electronics store! haha. The new elders were scared to death.

 

Tuesday was great. The logistics turned out fine and everyone got where they were supposed to. Monday night, Elder Mouritsen and Elder Brutinel stayed with us at our apartment. We had a lot of fun together. Elder Brutinel was my zone leader for a time while I was in Uniontown. One of my favorite Elders. We had a solid transfer meeting the next day. We had 3 hours of training with the trainers and new missionaries (Elder Wallentine is training again! So good to see him!) and then had lunch. Right after that we had to assign the new elders to their trainers. All of the decisions have to be unanimous in the church with regards to revelation, and it's crazy how that happens. Everything just falls into place and you know that's where the Elders are supposed to go. Its great when you hear back from elders and they say, "I just know me and my trainer were supposed to be together because of  (insert random "wow, what a small world moment" that we never could have known about in a million years)." It's really rewarding.

 

Wednesday we met with president and talked about the upcoming transfer: things we need to get done, missionaries we need to go see, and talk about the next round of incoming missionaries. Apparently our current ward is getting a set of walking elders! Elder Gerratt is going to be released and will be training a spanish speaking elder in this area. I'll get a new companion. This is the plan so far (of course, we have to pray about it and receive revelation to make sure it's right), but if it goes through it will help me out so much. I'll be able to focus more on training and on AP duties and Elder Gerratt will still be there for me to ask questions when I need help. haha! So I'm praying this will work out!

 

We had several miracles this week that I really want to tell you about but I forgot my planner at the apartment and so I can't... I actually have to get going, too. We have to drive to Franklin (which is 2 hours away) for an exchange. I won't be back until wednesday. Hopefully we can find some time to finish emails. If not, I'll just tell you all about everything next week!

 

in case you haven't noticed, I have kind of turned this email into my personal journal... haha I have no time to journal at night so I'm wholly dependent on this.

 

I'm loving everything about the mission! I miss you guys and I can't believe school has started again already! we're almost half way through september... yikes!

 

I love you all. Take care.

Zachary