July 28, 2014 - Transfer Week!

From left to right: Elder Gledhill (previous comp), Elder Miles, Elder Ni (new comp), Elder Day (the AP that just went home), and the Sisters from the previous District

It was a crazy transfer week. President Riggs showed up at our town home last Saturday unannounced and asked me to be his next Assistant. That was a shock. I had to pack and be ready to leave by Sunday night. I spent the rest of the week with the other two Assistants while Elder Gledhill was in a trio with our roommates. We are supposed to keep it a secret and not tell anyone who the next Assistant is, so we hid it really well and when it came to transfer day almost nobody knew about it. President talked about how he wasn't really considering me because I haven't served as a zone leader yet, but my name kept coming back to him. He testified that it was inspired by the Lord. That brought some comfort and made me feel good.

Elder Miles with the White House

I didn't end up moving very far. I still live in the same ward boundaries. I am also still in the same District and Elder Gledhill (my last companion) is now my District Leader. I loved being with Elder Gledhill last transfer. My new companion is Elder Ni. He is from Taiwan and he goes home in December. He is a very good missionary and very loving. This will be his third transfer as an Assistant and he has been teaching me a ton of stuff. His family was baptized when he was 10 years old and he has a twin brother serving in Houston. He went to BYU for a little before his mission and plans on going back.

One of the hard parts of the week was getting very little sleep. We went to sleep after midnight every night and sometimes as late as 2. We also had to wake up early several days around 5 in order to take people to the airport or to get to meetings. I won’t be able to work out for the foreseeable future because of the crazy hours we work. We had to stay up late in planning meetings, writing papers, and working on transfers. It was really strange taking the departing missionaries to the airport and picking up the new missionaries. I remember that moment when I walked off the plane and it seems like a long time ago. I haven't been able to eat as well as I would like. Partly because we never have time and also we have no food in our apartment. We have to eat out a lot because we are on the road.

Elder Miles with the Washington Memorial

We drive the only truck in the mission. I realized the only two vehicles I’ve driven on my mission are a minivan and a truck (haha). Our apartment is pretty old, but we are moving to a new one in a few weeks. We are kind of cramped in there. We live with the office elders and they are in a trio this transfer which makes it even harder. A lot of the room is gone because we all sleep on queen size mattresses :). Apparently I also have the most comfortable bed in the mission. Elder Ni and I each have our own phones too! One of our biggest responsibilities seems to be to forwarding phone calls between missionaries in different zones (haha).

It is great to be able to see President more often and have the chance to work closely with him. I am going to learn a lot about leadership and serving others with this new assignment. We do a lot of training other missionaries at meetings and on exchanges. Our schedule is already packed this transfer, so it’s going to be crazy!

Love,

Elder Miles