Gah!

It is incredibly frustrating. It's annoying. It's depressing. I absolutely cannot STAND it. But I do it anyway. Why? Because the Lord knows a heck of a lot more than I do about what is best. That's right, its transfer time again, and this time, both mean AND my companion are leaving. We're being doubled out, or, as it is more commonly known in other missions, whitewashing the area. But we're doing more than just that. They're actually closing the area, and another set of missionaries will be covering this area as well as there own. It can be a little scary when that happens, because of a natural tendency, those missionaries will most likely focus on their original area more than they will ours, and some of our members or investigators have the potential of being neglected. BUT, as was said before, the Lord knows best. I'm just a soldier on the front lines, and don't see the big picture nearly as well as the General over us. Where am I going you ask?

I am being transferred to Riverside ward. I don't know how many times I'm going to screw that up, seeing as I'm going from Riverview ward to Riverside ward, but it is about 5 miles from where I'm currently sitting, and borders the Fig Garden ward, where I've previously served. My new companion will be Elder Seulamalu (I think). I don't know too much about him (other than he's big. Like, football player big), but I'm positive we'll get along great. I'm sad to see Elder Willman go. We got along much better than I ever thought we would (not that I thought we wouldn't).

It's interesting; no matter how many times I make the resolve to not get attached to people in a ward, or to an area, or to a companion, they still managed to sneak their way into my heart like a wide eyed little puppy, and then they're violently ripped out of my heart. I know it's coming. I know it has to happen. But it never seems to make it any easier.

This last weekend we had the wonderful privilege of hearing from Elder Snow of the Presidency of the Seventy, and H. David Burton, the presiding Bishop over the church. We had a mission wide conference (the first in this mission that anyone is aware of) while these two great men spoke to us. Elder Snow stressed the importance of "hearing the words not spoken" and listening to the Holy Ghost, and it's true. One thing I noticed in General conference was that most of the things I learned or felt had very little to do with what the speaker was saying. I also learned what it is a Presiding Bishop does! Had no idea about that. He is responsible for all things temporal in the church. Meeting houses, Temples, finances, the fun stuff. They then opened it to questions, but told us that they have "no idea where the sword of Laban is" and "haven't seen the three Nephites in a long time", then told us to direct our doctrinal questions to our High Priest group. It was great. I feel as if I learned a lot from these men, and hope I'm able to apply it, not just to my mission life, but to my eternal one.

My goal for the week: Be more enthusiastic!

I love and miss you all!

Elder Keenan Monnett

P.S. Holy cow this was flipping long for me.

P.P.S. I'm inlcuding a link to my mission map! So instead of you just hearing about the areas I'm serving in, you can see them! Enjoy! My Mission Map