TRANSFERS, P~DAYS, ROBBERIES OH MY!

Transfers, pdays, robberies oh my... What a crazy filled week it has been, and it will continue to get busier as we are now preparing for our Mission Tour next week!

To start the week we had transfers. We have a love hate relationship with this day (haha), we love getting our new missionaries but we hate losing those whom we dearly love. These Elders and Hermanas are like our children and they all hold a special place in our hearts! On Monday we gained 5 (4 Elders and 1 Hermana) new missionaries this time around and 2 Hermanas went home. And YES we got back one of our Elders who went home for medical reasons ~ OH HAPPY DAY! Welcome back Elder we missed you!! What an exciting day this is! There is a lot of movements going on in the mission this day with119 missionaries moving from one area to another, new missionaries arriving and receiving their first companion and area and those we dearly love returning home. Sometimes I wonder how we accomplish such a big change without a glitch and by the time our heads hit the pillow we are so relieved that everyone is in their homes safe and sound! Overall it is a wonderful day filled with excitement, nervousness and joy! We also had a change in the office as we have a new assistant, Elder Duran. We are excited to be able to work closely with him and he will be an amazing assistant. Welcome Elder Duran.

We had a fun pday with our 3 Cancun zones and we played soccer! To start the morning off, we were able to do a little service and we cleaned the soccer field. When you have many hands it makes for light work! What an amazing group of Elders and Hermanas we have who are so willing to jump in and help a sweet man out.

Many have asked if Cancun is safe. I guess they have heard of all the riots going on here but to be honest we are clueless! We live in our own bubble and don't even know what is going on in the outside world. With that said we have had a few missionaries get robbed recently, luckily they are all fine!

We are coming up on our year mark and I wonder how that is even possible. We feel like we finally have a normal routine (repeated every 6 weeks) but there is always something new and different situations to manage that keep us on our toes.  Never a dull moment with 120 missionaries! We are eternally grateful for this opportunity to serve and are so grateful to know that the Lord is always there inspiring, leading and guiding us as we lead this mission.

Our family back home continues to keep busy with work, school, church, sports and all that fun stuff! Our son Derek and his family will be coming to visit in a few weeks and we can hardly wait. We also are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our 12th grandchild (a little boy)! We miss our family terribly, and there are days that it is more difficult being away than others. I was so grateful for the words of Elder Palmer, who said at our Mission President Seminar, "God has your family in his hands, he is aware of what you are doing" I needed to hear this and it has comforted and sustained me.