Transferred...

Well, the call came last Monday night. I got transferred, BUT... only just the street. All of the rumors turned out to be true. Every single companionship in our district had a change. My new companion is Elder Jenne (from Washington) who I have been around a lot because he was in my district. I actually got transferred to the other half of the area I had with Elder Muniz (they split the area in half when Elder Cuevas came), but then they decided to give us the area of the hermanas who got moved out completely. Because of that, the apartment I just moved in to with Elder Jenne will no longer be my home. We're actually moving later today to where the sisters were living so that we can live in our area. It will be my third move in the last 1 1/2 weeks. All this has made for a very hectic last week or so, but after today things should finally settle down.

The new change is pretty exciting and I'm sure it will be a good growing experience. It is my first time in the field without a native speaker for my companion. Elder Jenne is pretty good at Spanish, but he's only been out a few months longer than me. I'm sure we'll do great and learn a lot! The other great thing about this transfer is that I'm in the same branch, which means I'll still be able to see Sandra get baptized! She is sooo ready and can't wait! The only hold-up is her new job, which requires her to work for the first half of church. Her date has been pushed to the 26th while she works to get it changed so that she can make it to sacrament meeting consistently. She's doing really well though!

Elder Cuevas is now training a native from Cuba named Elder Padron. He's lived in Kentucky for the last 11 years of his life though, so his Cuban/Kentucky accent is pretty funny. He's only been a member for 1 1/2 years and he's pretty crazy. We definitely get some good laughs out of him! As far as the new area is concerned, things are pretty tough. We don't have much to go on because one of the sisters had some health issues which really slowed them down. The other problem is, at the beginning of the next year the branch is moving to a different building that's way up north. When that happens, the majority of the people we teach will live a good 45 minutes away from the church. It's going to be a project but we're going to work hard and exercise a lot of faith.

I guess that's about all there is to say this week. I hope you are all getting well and enjoying the holiday season!

Elder Olsen