Week #44 - Ping Pong Dairy Queen

Hey Everyone!

It's been quite the week. I gotta say I was a bit stressed and nervous the first couple days I got here. I felt like I was being trained again. Elder Hinckley (new comp) is amazing- it's his last transfer and you would NEVER guess. He's ready to go out working his lil' butt off which is awesome. I've learned a ton from him and realized I wasn't the pro missionary I thought I was. We're both brand new in this area- He had already been in the Santa Rosa Zone but he was in a different ward. So, it's been pretty intense. My zone here is very "old"...I'm one of the youngest here and the three district leaders have all been out for at least 16 months. They've all been in Santa Rosa for a while. Most people in the zone already knew each other and sadly I didn't know many of them at all. So needless to say, it was a little intimidating and I didn't quite feel like I was the zone leader or even part of the zone at first. Everyone looked to Elder Hinckley as the leader and I was just his companion. Things are way better now though- I'm quickly feeling more and more "in" and I'm way excited for the transfer. Elder Hinckley and I made a zone goal of collectively handing out 1000 copies of the Book of Mormon by the end of the transfer. The zone is WAY excited about it and we're all working like crazy. It's made things a lot more fun and gives a lot more purpose to tracting. The catch is in order to count it we have to have a return appointment, so we're not just passing them out like candy. It's been really effective and this past week our zone handed out 117- so not bad at all. Plus, we first introduced the idea on Wednesday so they didn't even have a full week to get that.

Oh- I believe everyone was given the wrong address. The one you have is another missionary apartment in the same complex so it's not a big deal, but mine is 3717 Sonoma Ave Apt #2 (not 1)Santa Rosa, CA 95405 As for other awesomeness, I am currently the driver of the only truck, a Chevy Colorado, in the entire mission. I'm pretty proud of that. Also I'm in President Stoddard's ward which is kinda cool.

Have a good week!
Elder B