Weekly Letter and Transfers!

Dear Family,

I'm online now, just catching up on the emails I missed from last week and waiting for transfer news.  I predict that I'll be with Elder Broadhead in Sibu for his last 4 weeks, but you never know...  There are a lot of missionaries going home this transfer, so things could get interesting.  I'll let you know when news comes.

Wow, you are all doing so many great and admirable things!  Last night, instead of writing in my journal, I looked through the pictures you've all sent me.  As I explained a little bit about my family to Elder Berger, I kept grinning and saying, "Maaan, they're just the best!  How did I ever get lucky enough to get put in this family?"  I mean it!  I love you all so much, and I'm so proud of how hard you all work and how good you all are, to each other and to everyone you meet.  As Preach My Gospel says, "Just as vital as what you do, however, is who you are."  I'm grateful for each one of you - for who you are and who you're becoming!  (You are severely cool.)  Way to go, Noelle, working extra shifts! (was that because other people just didn't show up, or did you ask for them?) And we all love your art - Elders keep asking why they don't have your art in their own homes or why you haven't made millions on a EE&ER missionary calendar.  Lauren, you are an awesome example to me, too! Getting up to substitute for paper route and then doing cross country and Driver's Ed!  Soon you'll be running the town! Or at least driving all over its streets.  Erin, great job at all your feis...es. I may not know how to spell feises, but I know that you're a great dancer and you are doing lots of fantastic things!  How is babysitting?  Evan, it's exciting to hear about all your adventures!  Climbing rocks, roping cattle, shooting arrows, ziplining, and extreme biking - what don't you do?  You look especially heroic in your picture with the bow and arrow!  Are those gold and silver arrow points I spy on your uniform?  Noice work!

Mom and Dad, Yaaaay!! for paying off the house!  As I looked at the pictures of the house last night, Elder Berger commented that our living room and kitchen are beautiful, and done exactly the way he wants his future house.  Way to be classy!  I know that you work very hard, not only on the house, but on jobs and the family and in the ward and community, and so many other ways, renowned and unnoticed, that I don't know how to begin to express my admiration and love for you!  It's great to hear the things that you share with me every week.  Maybe I haven't expressed it very well, but everything you send me is just such a strength and a blessing to me!

I love you all!
爱你的，

Brennan

(45 minutes later)

Transfers!

Whaaaat??  Elder Broadhead is going to Singapore for his last few weeks - that was the last thing anyone expected.  I'm still in Sibu, with Elder Durrant as my new companion.  This well be an interesting development in our branch, and for the Chinese-speaking missionaries as a whole.

Elder Durrant was in the MTC for my first 3 weeks there, so he's essentially the same age as me in the mission.  We won't have any real veterans in our Chinese area.  Now I'm kind of glad that I've had these last few weeks to practice running everything by myself.  I'll be living with him in a 2-elder only house, for the first time in my mission.  I'm going to learn a lot about being someone's friend over the course of this next couple of transfers, I can tell.

Also, there are a couple of Missionaries from Taiwan (Elder Tseng, whom I like to claim as my half-son) and China (Elder Wang, my previous companion, with whom I had a joyful reunion in Singapore this week) that have been switched from English-speaking to Chinese-speaking for this transfer.  It's just unexpected.  

Well, I was going to give you all a big long schpeil (ask Lauren for the German schpelling) about my week.  After emailing my recent converts and President Mains, my time is short, so I don't know how much I'll be able to fit in.

 

Singapore Zone Conference was great!  I learned so much about repentance, the theme of the conference.  Okay, got to go... long story short, I had a great time, met Elder Wang and Elder Fletcher and Elder Frey again, which was great, and then my connecting flight home from Kuching was cancelled, so I was one of four lucky Elders to be put up in the Four Points hotel by Sheraton in Kuching for one night.  You can probably go to their website to see the fancy preferred-guest suites I stayed in and the incredible buffet I ate and ate and ate.  More next week

Love,
Brennan