The one where I'm movin' on

Hey Hey this past week has been crazy. If you read my last email and guessed, GOING, you were right. I have been transferred to Central Point, OR and finally got out of Santa Clara after 6 whole months of serving there. I am now in the Central Point Zone and my ward is the Medford 3rd though kinda confusing haha!

But a couple of days before pday last week, President called me over Zoom and we had a great discussion about mission leadership. He wants to see me continue to progress and to serve and lead in this new area. I am now a follow-up trainer to a new missionary, Elder Cheketts, who has only been out for 7 weeks. President said that this would be somewhat of a big task given that this new missionary had a rough start in the mission and is very introverted, not a big talker. When he said that I got super nervous but it also made me excited to train and to be a great example for this new Elder.

As transfer day rolled around I had very little nerves, im usually super nervous but this time I was calm and mellow, recalling my prior experience with my comp in Kalamath who had a similar personality and we ended up getting along great!

So we made the 3-hour car ride down to Medford, we arrive at the Stake Center and Medford Temple (they share a parking lot). Super cool experience to show up at the Temple and to be able to have that peace. btw, Central Point is a small "suburb" of Medford. Super excited to have the Temple in our area.

As I meet my new companion, I'm thinking to myself I got this haha, he's quiet but a good dude. So I'm really feeling ready to see what Elder Fillmore has to offer in this area!

So the first thing we did before we got dropped off at our apartment (yes I'm still on a bike! ugh) was we went straight to IN&OUT! Literally have missed that place so much, haven't been there in 6 months!! Nothing better than that!!

After eating, we find out we actually get to take the Spanish Elders truck for a day or so! So that's sweet. So we drove to our apartment and I got all settled in I instantly started cleaning bc it was gross and I couldn't live in a dirty apartment. After a few hours of cleaning, we got the whole place looking niceee. We then hurried off to our first dinner appointment in the area. We had dinner with the Jones family, a super young couple with a few littles. We had some niceee Costco lasagna so that was yum after a long day of travel!

After dinner, we shared an awesome message about how God can help us endure to the end and asked them how they have seen God's hand in their lives. They were great to share how their family has been blessed because of that knowledge.

I led the message and it was a little nervous, especially with them meeting me for the first time, haha but just sent it and had a great time!

After dinner, we drove back to the apartment. I was so tired but I needed to unpack because my mind would have not let me go to sleep before unpacking, haha. So my comp and I had our first few moments alone to chat. We actually vibe pretty decent. We definitely don't have the same interests haha, pokemon, will give you an idea of what the Elder is like haha! But overall super excited to be in this area!

The next day (friday) we basically helped the zone leaders all day with getting their apartment ready and helping them throw away some couches because we had the truck.

Saturday, after district council, I finally took a good look at our teaching pool, wow, there is a decent ton and definitely a lot to do! All consist of teaching people that are interested or on a date for baptism! Or discussing the new member lessons with new members.

So I'm weekly planning for like 3 hours and just helping my comp learn how to like actually plan, so that was an awesome push of hope and gave me confidence I can do this.

Saturday night, we had a dinner with the McGarys, and WOW that was such a powerful dinner... well idk what was more powerful the message we gave or the fact that we JUST HAD salad.... for dinner..... I was like uhhhh shoot okay I guess, I'm having salad HAHAH and you guys know I.... love....salad! But for real we had such a great message and it involved me tearing up hard-core!

Before dinner, my comp told me they had gone through a lot of family losses, and the fact that Sis. McGary has been blind since about 18 years old and got married in her 30s and just all the trials they have gone through. They have 5 children. I literally asked them how do you guys keep going in life and keep following Christ? The one that got me tearing up was when they explained how they lost their oldest son just after 3 days of living, and how hard it was for them to lose him (because she never thought she would be a mom) So obviously I felt the spirit so strong and I wanted to explain my experience with losing my sister and that's really when the tears started lol and when I was done telling the story, the Sis. McGary was saying how she really feels the spirit in the room and a lot stronger than others, and she was saying how she can feel her son in the room...as I was explaining the loss of my sister. Holy cow I literally just felt the spirit so STRONG because I know Maddie was also in the room with me! Love the mission and those experiences I would not have been able to have if I hadn't come out here.

Sunday rolls around and being completely new to the ward obviously, I'm just trying to meet everyone and just trying to get at least of the names down haha, but the church service was awesome, It is definitely a small ward and reminded me of the 2 branches I served in when I first came to the mish haha. After church, we had ward council over Zoom, and not gonna lie KILLED that call just explaining what I knew after I studied that area book and just everyone we have scheduled this upcoming week!

Overall super solid start to the transfer and super excited to get to work!

Love Elder Fillmore