March 16, 2015

Hola Familia/ Amigos 

In this email, I am going to have some super good and cool information to share. However, on the flip side there is going to a few things that I will mention that are not so exciting. We will see how things turn out, with my upcoming transfer and all. 

Well, to start it off, I just want to say I am so sad that transfers have come so quickly. It's so weird to me, that I started my mission with a 12 week training program and now I am super sad to say, that I only have 12 weeks left. It's scary to think about. However I know that my time will come to an end, when the Lord will have something else in his plans for me. 

My good old companion Elder Long will be leaving Woodland! It sucks to see this happen, because we have had such a wonderful transfer together. I’ve probably had some of the best memories, and miracles happen in this last transfer. However we did a really bad job documenting it. We didn't take very many pictures or videos this transfer. Elder Long is going to be headed down to San Rafael to serve the souls there. 

My new companion, who will be coming in, and I have served around each other quite a bit during my mission. He was in Santa Rosa, way back in the day when I was training Elder Dunlap! He has been out about 18 months I believe and I was also his district leader in Vallejo! So we have had some good times together! Elder Jeske is his Name! He is from Orem Utah! Another Utahteco Pues. 

This past week has been absolutely wonderful! We have had so much fun working hard, and enjoying our time together. We definitely didn't think it would be coming to an end like this. However, we both understand that the Lord has a plan for each of us. 

We have been dealing with a few new things, that we just learned in the past little bit. We actually found out that the Luna family, who we have been working with so consistently and are planning on getting baptized on the 11th of April. Although we just found out they are not actually married. So we have one more trial that has been placed before us. However, we know that we can take care of something like this super simply. It is just take a matter of time. 

We are still struggling to get the importance of coming to church into the minds of our other investigators. They are constantly telling us that they want to come to church, but then every Sunday they just come up with some kind of excuse of why they didn’t come. It's super disappointing, however we will get them there. It will just take a bit more time. 

On Wednesday we all had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning so that we could be in Santa Rosa by 9:30 for an all mission conference with Elder Nielson and Bro. Heaton who are from the MTC and the 1st Quorum of the Seventy! It was awesome! All of us missionaries received new ipads. The missionaries who have longer than 6 months left on their missions, actually paid for these ipads which means they will take it home. Their parents had to pay a $381 dollar technology fee. Those who have less than 6 months still have an ipad on lease from the church. 

We learned a lot about the reason we have ipads in the first place! Yes! it is to build up the kingdom of God, but more importantly is so we can all grow and learn how to use technology in a way that is righteous. Develop good habits for after the mission! 

Most of all, the church wants us all to learn how to use technology an have the strength not to get caught up in Pornography. Where is a better place to learn than on your mission? On our missions we are protected from the temptations our devices can bring and so are our companions, and leaders in the mission! I am super excited to see where, and how the work is going. By the end of May they will have 88 missions with these new devices, some of them in the Eastern Countries. 

So Friday, being transfer doctrine day, made the entire day super interesting. Everyone in the zone suggested me to be a trainer. So we thought we would have been receiving a call from Presidente Alba for that! Although there was only 1 new spanish speaking missionary coming into the mission. Well on our way to dinner at 4:48 we received that call from Presidente Alba, however our phone was in the trunk of the car so we missed the call! Immediately afterwards, the other elders got a call and we found out that Elder Blaylock who I live with was called to be our new District Leader. Well since my companion Elder Long was the district leader, we knew he was most likely leaving. This led us all to believe that I was definitely being called as a Trainer. However, when we finally got into communication with President Alba, he called me to be a District leader once again! I am not too excited about this calling, but have accepted it, and will fulfill it to the best of my abilities. 

Saturday and Sunday we had Stake conference, which was super cool! We actually had Elder Sitati show up from the 1st quorum of the seventy and speak to the Woodland stake. Something super interesting was the fact that I had to translate for Elder Sitati. It was a super fun experience but also super hard. I guess I did a good enough job! That’s just something that falls on your shoulders when you are the oldest missionary in the district! 

We also had a super cool meeting with him as missionaries Sunday morning where he wanted to meet and greet all of our returning less actives, and investigators. It was a ton of fun! He did a great job answering their questions in an amazingly spiritual way! 

Well I don't have much more to report on! I hope you all have had a wonderful week! I love and miss you all! 

Love you! 

Elder Albertson