Friends and Fam,
I’m just going to go ahead and spill the beans. I’ve been called to be the new District Leader of the El Camino district in the El Camino Zone (confusing, I know). Safe to say the call came as a bit of a surprise to me. I just barely got finished being trained a week ago and now all of a sudden I’m in charge of 7 other missionaries haha. With President Hall’s release as mission president coming up at the end of June he’s been really working hard with all the new missionaries that came in the past 4 transfers or so to ensure the mission is as in good shape as possible for the new mission pres. Another reason for this is that some crazy number like half the mission or so is going home in the next 6 months, and with it all the experience of the mission. So he’s calling all these newbies (like me) to leadership positions to whip em into shape asap and make the mission a beast after he leaves. By the way, he sent out a quick email on who the new mission president it going to be so I’ll send that out after this. But basically it was a small struggle at the beginning to figure out exactly what my responsibilities are and how I can best fulfill them but with a whole week’s full of experience I’m feeling pretty gr8. Essentially being a district leader just means having a lot more work to do! Just what I needed haha. But seriously, it’s been tons of fun to work with the other missionaries more throughout the week and we’ve all gotten pretty tight real quick.
You’re probably all wondering also who my new comp is I’m sure. Well to answer your question his name is Elder Stark. Apparently Tony Stark is his uncle or something… I forgot to take a pic with him this week (or any pictures at all haha) so enjoy this one of him sitting at the computer next to me. He’s super cool. He’s from West Point, Utah. He described the location as “directly east to the island at the north of the Great Salt Lake, not on the island, but east of it”. Not sure how accurate that is but have fun looking for it. Fun fact, he was actually Elder Elder’s trainer! So he was companions with my MTC comp right before he came here. Small world…the church must be true or something. It’s been great to work with him, he’s a suuuuper good missionary.
Quick investigator update: the gorditos are doing awesome. They’re scheduled to be baptized this coming Sunday but we haven’t finished teaching all the lessons to them so this week is probably going to be crazy making sure they’re ready. But we’ve got a plan and it’s going to work! During our lessons with them their prayers are seriously unbelievable and it’s insane how well the Spirit teaches them. They’re definitely getting baptized. Emerson was also confirmed just yesterday! I didn’t seem him this week because of an exchange we went on but Elder Stark said he’s doing great. Other than that, this week was kind of a weird one, being the first week of transfers and all. We’ve haven’t been able to find Wilmur for a while and I’m worried he’s avoiding us. But such is the life of a LDS missionary. We’ve got several other investigators that are looking like they’ve got dece potential so we’ll see what happens.
Here’s something that’ll make you happy mom… Elder Searle, our beast piano-playing missionary was transferred out of the area and everyone that came in can’t play so, you guessed it, I’m the new ward pianist. Yay. Luckily I was wise enough to buy a simplified hymn book a couple months back because I knew this moment was coming, but yesterday the bishopric was out to get me so they picked 2/3 hymns that weren’t in my book so…it was rough to say the least. But lucky for me that most Latinos are tone deaf so no worries over here. It’s official, mom: you have the gift of prophesy. I am in fact playing the piano on my mission and now all those years of not ever practicing are regretted haha. Hope you’re happy!
The bike life (#BikeLife, get that trending on Twitter/Insta kids) has been great though. Elder Stark knows how to pop a wheelie on his bike so he’s been teaching me here and there. Whenever we ride by a group of kids that recognize they always yell: “do a wheelie!!” so we’re pretty popular around here. I’m sure pretty soon people will be begging us to baptize them once I get my wheelie down so no worries, I’ll be practicing this week.
I think that’s it for this week. Tons of stuff to do coming up! Having real responsibility is tiring haha. But I hope everyone has as good of a week as I will!
Nos vemos,
Elder Allen
Elder Mason Allen 