Transfers

So I jinxed it. I said I wouldn't get transferred but we definitely got a call from good ol' President Campbell this morning! It was a late call too, we thought we were safe! But you're never safe in the world of a missionary. So I'm being transferred for my birthday! On Wednesday I head out to Spruce Grove! Which is basically like a suburb of Edmonton. Think of the difference (and the distance too, actually) between Portland and Beaverton. I'm actually really excited for a number of reasons. Elder Wood was trained there, and so he's told me all of the cool things about it. I'll miss that guy. We were hoping for another transfer together, but oh well! My new companion is Elder Fufita (Fuh-Feet-Uh), and he's from Tonga! He is also the former captain of the Tongan National Rugby Team. He's a very large missionary. I'm a little intimidated to tell you the truth haha he might eat me. But he's a super cool guy it'll be awesome. I've been hoping to get out of the city soon, and so this will be a cool change. Plus we have a car! Which isn't surprising considering every other area in the mission besides ours pretty much have cars. So that'll be cool. Other than that I don't know much about it, but I'm excited for Wednesday! You're right! Wednesday is my birthday! I wish I could say that I'm super excited for all of the festivities and everything haha.....but honestly missionary birthdays are pretty low-key. Plus Wednesday will be hectic enough! But that's okay we got donairs on Thursday after District Meeting because we had a feeling it might be my last week. So now the next two days are going to be full of packing and saying goodbyes. Honestly I wish we had a moving service. I hate packing! I liked when Elder Merrell had to pack and I got to sit around and putt in the living room. Speaking of which, I now hold the record in our district for most putts out of 10. But anyways, life is good here. It was a pretty average week. We went on more exchanges, and it stayed pretty warm. The groundhog saw his shadow! This is turning out to be a sweet winter. Only one more to go! Elder Wood and I went running this morning actually in -13 weather. It was surprisingly nice actually. We had planned on doing it every morning this transfer but plans have changed now! Haha. So thy read a letter in church yesterday about how on February 20th we're having an Alberta fast! The whole province (minus Calgary, nobody up here likes them anyway haha) is fasting for 24 hours for missionary work! It's gonna be awesome. It starts at 6pm on Monday and ends at 6pm on Tuesday. We're pretty excited. Also at church yesterday, we got to participate in a baby blessing of a less active girl that we visit pretty often. She's Chilean, which means there were a million people at church today, and we pretty much had the entire extended family up on the stand for the blessing. I've never been so cramped in my life trying to reach a hand in there hahaha it was hialrious. But super cool! Hey Mom I called for supplies the other day, and they said they'd bill me....? I dunno, I'm assuming you'll get a bill :) You're the best! Hey can I have a picture of the Portland Temple? Random I know, but I miss that place! Temple day is in two weeks, and they're switching pday to Tuesday so we can go. It'll be so cool. I miss the temple a lot. I can't wait to go regularly again! So other than that I have nothing else.....I got a letter from Gramma Read last week. She should get a letter from me in about a week. I'm so jealous Geoff, Nicole and Bryant ran that 5k! I wish I could have been there. Hey mom the Debit Card is still pretty lame :( it doesn't work at very many places. So I've been using the Mastercard. So yeah! That's life. It's going good here. I'm excited to go to Spruce Grove, and I'm glad to hear everything's going well there! Do work family! And anyone else who reads this!

 

 I love you guys!

 

Elder Read

 

PS - I love letters. Don't hesitate to send away!