The one where I get sick on Christmas

Wut uppp woot HAPPY 2024, the year I come HOMEEEEE so crazy anyway.

My goal is for the remainder of these 9 months here in Oregon, I'm hoping to send a weekly email that starts with the week! haha

So there are a couple of stories that I need to backup and update you all on since being transferred to Grants Pass.

So Nov 16, boom I get transferred to Grants Pass from Central Point. I was getting my first trainee EIder Griffiths! So yep I was training a brand new missionary right off the rip and whitewashing a new area!! Super excited and SUPER nervous, but me being out 14 months in, I felt decently confident lol. So we spent the night in Eugene, the next day I got my trainee and boom we had a good start to the transfer. We got a lot done, and I was quickly able to grow a strong relationship with the Ward members and the Bishop, super fire guy. My comp on the other hand was super struggling, but I made the best of it and just tried to love the guy.

On Dec 18, we had our Christmas Zone conference!! Super hype, but long 8-hour zone conference!! We spent the first 1 hour listening to the APs and then President was able to speak for 2 hours. It was super and he just talked about wanting the desire to be a better missionary super good insights! After that, they had awesome games set up for us and it was actually fun haha. During that time, I had a visit with President about the serious struggles my comp was having. After my visit, I joined everyone in playing minute to win it games and having super awesome fun! And then the final hour we were able to listen to the President speak more, fire! Then President and Sister Cornelius handed out our gifts from our families! Super glad that we only had a 40-minute drive home, we were exhausted holy cow!!!!

I will share that during the conference, the President and APs decided to emergency transfer my comp to Eugene so that he could be near President and work out some his personal challenges. There is a mountain of deets to unpack there, and I will keep it close to the chest. I wished him well. For the remainder of the transfer, I would be in a trio with my ZLs.

CHRISTMAS EVE/DAY

Soooo Zach gets sick on his last Christmas Eve in the mission... such a big rip hahaha but it's all good. We had dinner planned with the Stake President on Christmas Eve, but didn't end up going over obv! But we got sick because I was with the ZLs for the remainder of the transfer. While I was with the ZLs they had to go to the ZONE LEADER conference, and all the assistants wanted me to come because they liked me haha (not bragging I promise lol). Anyway, everyone at that leader conference was super sick, so we knew were definitely gonna get sick, ripppp so a few days later it was Christmas and all 3 of us got sickkkk such a party huh. But Christmas Day we were feeling a lil better and we were able to go hang with the zone because pday was on Christmas day!! So that was my last Christmas on the mission which is crazy to think bout!

Okay so this next part is gonna be the current week right now so it is January 3rd, HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Okay so after weeks after being with the ZLs, we grew super tight,were Elders Noah Cummins and Kayden Atwood just super good homies and we had some super fun moments and definitely a lot of laughs which I needed. With the anniversary of Maddie's passing, I needed to be surrounded by good people to lift my spirit! So that wish came true again from the Christmas prior which I thank God for every day.

Now it's time once again for transfer news. I couldn't hold it all in, especially after my last transfer. So I asked President if he would tell my transfer news early. He said I might be staying in my area, so I was super nervous. Later that night, he called me and told me the I was going to be TRAINING AGAIN and STAYING in Grants Pass! I get so excited and I'm just freaking out because I'm just so happy to get a second chance to train a brand new missionary, and I'm glad I'm not to be whitewashing haha.

So the day comes to go up to Eugene and stay overnight as we await our new trainees. Bonus while on our way to dinner, we stopped by to see the legend Russ Fish, that I had the privilege to teach Russ from day one until baptism,ped and see him get baptized! So we stop by his house and they were just so happy to see us! The other elder in the pic was my companion at the time when we were teaching him the new member lessons. Hope that all makes sense lol! But we said hi real quick to him and ofc hes just extremely happy to see us so that made my night fr fr!

So anyways we go to bed and at 2 am I get woken up by Elder Cade Robinson he became and AP when I was done with my 3rd transfer) (I'm starting my 11 transfer now) so he was just a super big homie and I always looked up to him, so he woke me up because it was his time to go home, so sad. Literally so sad but I'm glad he woke me up (we were all staying in the same apartment that night haha) so I could say bye to him! I'm definitely gonna see that guy after the mission!

Anyway fast forward to meeting my trainee!! His name is ELDER HADEN PUGMRE!! SUCH A BIG HOMIE!! He'I's from Logan Ut and is 6.4 tall! Super awesome guy and im super excited about this transfer!!

NEW YEARS EVE

So the ZLs got me into poker and guess what Elder Pugmre already knows how to play so that's what we did New Years Eve haha, and then New Years Day we hung out and got In & Out and played more poker hahah

A couple of miracles that happened within the first 5 days of Elder Pugmre being here. We have been able to set up lessons with 2 new people! Looking forward to those lessons there gonna be so sic and I can't wait start teaching them!! The Redwood Ward seems that this ward had a hard time finding because everyone's house is gated or just there not home but we gonna change that this transfer because I'm not gonna have a slow transfer!

One of the new people actually came from the 1st counselor of the Bishopric, he'in s such a homie and the line of work he's able to talk about his beliefs about God, so this patient that he's been helping he was able to bring up religion and talk about the missionaries and she was interested in having the missionaries over so that was sick! We will be meeting with her on Saturday! The other person we found was a media referral that got sent to us, so we tried to call but our number was already blocked so we decided to go in person and she answered and we were able to set a little lesson up this weekend as well!! WHEWWW!

Zach's being for real when he says he's gonna try to send out an email every week for the remainder of my mission, we gonna see how it goes be praying I can do it.

I love ya guys and have a good rest of your week!!