Zone Leader Conference

It's been a crazy week for Jared.  He said that Monday was a calm before the storm and that he didn't do anything too exciting.

On Tuesday he spent the day in the apartment while his companion cleaned up and packed all of his stuff because he was being transferred.  Jared is staying where he is and will finish his mission here.  He said that they also got to play basketball with the ward and that he had a lot of fun doing that.

On Wedensday he had transfers, which are always exciting.  Jared said he's with Elder Aaron Ormiston from Tempe Arizona.  He said that he's a super humble kid, and a very hard worker and that being with him for just these few days has been a blast.

It sounded like Thursday was errand day.  Jared said that some people had packages com into the office that couldn't be shipped directly to them, so he and his companion had to go get them and deliver them.  He said they drove from Makakilo to Honolulu, then back to Makaha.  Then back to Makakilo.  Then the mission sent them something that had to be given to the District leaders to they proceeded to drive from Makakilo to Waianae and then FINALLY back to Makakilo.  When they got there they were pretty much exhausted.  He said they'd driven 103 miles on an island whose rough circumference is 110 miles.  So they'd almost driven around the whole island.  He said they spent what was left of the night preparing for District meeting the next day.

Jared said that they had a great District meeting, and afterwards got to do some work in their area.  He said that he's never felt so busy in his whole life.  But that it's all good and he's loving serving the Lord.

Here are a couple of pictures Jared sent us.

 Elder T., Sister S., and Elder Brooksby

at the Zone Leader Conference

Zone Leader Conference

Last Companion

Jared started his letter home with this sentence:  "Aloha everybody!  Howzit?  Bumbai you like holoholo? K den you go stay go I go stay come."  When I went to look it up, I couldn't find a good translation.  So while Jared wasn't called to a foreign language mission, I still think he's in one.

Jared said one of the other Elders asked him what it felt like to be 21 years old.  He said he thought about it for a second and said "remarkably like what it felt like at day 364 of being 20." Jared said that he received the "party in a box" that I sent him for his birthday, and that he and the Elders he lives with really enjoyed it.

He said that on March 8th he and a few other Elders and members got to go through the temple with a convert of his from earlier in his mission.  He said it was great seeing so many people that he hadn't seen for awhile.  And he was so happy for the member who was able to go to the temple and receive her own endowments.

He said that he found out he's staying in this area until the end of his mission, but will receive a new companion, Elder O.  Jared said that he heard that he's cool and so he thinks that will be fun way to end his mission.

And BIG NEWS -  We found out that Jared will be arriving back in NY on June 7th.  We're excited to finally know when he'll be coming home!

I Love to See the Temple

The big news from Jared's letter this week was that he met Brighton's (our DIL) grandmother Sister Fielding on Sunday night.  He said she's awesome.  She just entered the mission field.  He said that she's not going to be in his zone, but right next door.  And that he'd have to keep tabs on her.  He said they didn't have a long time to catch up because he was very busy that night, but that hopefully he'd get to talk to her again soon.

Jared said that Monday was a regular old proselyting day because Tuesday was their temple day.  They got up early and went to the 8 o'clock session.  He said they had to leave at 5:30am to get there in time and he felt like he was in seminary again.  He said the temple was great, as always.  He also said that he'd get to go to the temple again on Friday with a member who he baptized earlier in his mission.

Jared gave a little run down of his week:  "Well nothing really new this week... we spent some time resolving some conflicts with some elders.  It's kinda interesting to see my mission come full circle.  I remember having these ZL sit-downs when I had been out for 3 months.  And now I'm in the ZL shoes.  It's just interesting.  Other things we've done include getting yelled at by random members (I'm sure we've all heard the "every member a missionary" but sometimes I think it's "every member a mission president"), having numerous conference calls with President and the other leaders, making sure some baptisms happen in other areas, driving around like crazy, giving blessings, typing reports, accounting with the stake, going on splits, and even teaching a little!  I swear it's never been so hard just to do missionary work in my own area, my time is just eaten up by so many other things.  But somehow it all works out, so in the end it's ok."

Jared said that he told the sister in the office he wanted to fly into Albany.  He said it was weird to know that the end is coming.  He said that in his mission they have a huge transfer board in the assistant's office with all of the missionary's pictures and information on it.  When you have 3 transfers left you get a green dot sticker on your picture, a yellow one at two transfers, and a red one when you are in your last transfer.  He said right now he has a yellow dot!

It's always great to hear how Jared's doing!