Transfer 3, Week 1 (November 24, 2014)

November 24, 2014

So, my companion left me. Now instead of introducing my companion as Elder Mangakahia and having everybody look at me funny and say, "What?" and then just telling them to call him Elder M, my new companion is named Elder Smith. Everybody gets it the first time. That's nice.

Elder Wyatt Smith is from Malta, Idaho. He says it's a small town near Twin Falls. He grew up on a dairy farm in a big family with 7 siblings. He's a nice guy.

This week's been pretty good. Things were pretty hectic with transfers at the beginning of the week, but they've slowed down quite a bit since then. My journal entries each night have gone from 2-3 lines back up to a page or so. 

I'm still in Brampton, Ontario. It's a great place. Most of the missionaries say it's the most "normal" place in the entire mission. Not many crazies out here. Plenty of people from all around the world, but not many crazies.

For those of you asking about snow, it snowed about a foot here earlier this week, but then it melted yesterday and today.

The church members up here are great. Being able to stay in one area for a few months now really has its benefits. It's awesome being able to know most of the people in your ward (congregation). As missionaries, we're constantly playing matchmaker, but instead of romantic relationships, we try to build friendships. As we come to know the ward, it becomes a lot easier to say who would get along with somebody that we just met that day. That, and the members here really are awesome. A while back, I mentioned something about how I love brownies. Last week, the family I mentioned that to fed me brownies. God bless that family. I've missed brownies, especially since we never really have the time to bake decent brownies at home and store-bought brownies always seem to come out too cake-y.

This week, our stake hosted what they called a "Missionary Academy" where the youth got together to learn more about what missionaries do. It was really awesome being able to witness so many youth bear testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and His divinity.

In other news, I watched On the Lord's Errand, a biography of Thomas S. Monson. I was watching it in ASL for the fun of it, and found Mary Bonham interpreting. That was pretty cool.

Oh, and I was able to teach about the Restoration in sign language this week. That was also pretty great. Claudia might be the first ASL investigator in the mission.

I love you all.

-Elder Crye