Last time for intakes and transfers

 

Talofa!

This last week was a busy one!  Out-take, Intake, and Transfers--THE LAST transfer of our mission!  We would have celebrated last night after we spent all day Saturday moving missionaries around, but we were too tired! HAHA!  It's time to start counting down the last 6 weeks of our mission I guess.  We will be part of the out-take at the end of February.  It's a big one, there will be 18 missionaries going home. The Out-take last Tuesday evening had 12 young missionaries and 2 Senior missionaries   Elder and Sister Barkdull have been the office couple for the Island of Savaii.  We had dinner and out-take devotional on Tuesday evening. We were late for it because we had to make a run to the outpatient clinic with a Sister who was pretty sick with a stomach bug and ended up getting IV fluids because she was dehydrated.  But we made it for the devotional part and got to hear all the missionary's testimonies.  Most of them flew out on Wednesday and the three that were from Samoa had family come and pick them up.  On Thursday, we welcomed 26 new missionaries!

We did our little intake workshops and met them all during that time. Right when we were finishing up the workshops, I got a call from some zone leaders to tell me that Elder Bernard had taken an elbow to the forehead during a p-day basketball game and his head was bleeding all over.  So we met them at the ER and spent the evening getting stitches and head x-rayed. 

 Elder Godderidge spent a couple of days last week delivering needs to zones and he put a sink in a member's home who is housing missionaries. It's amazing how much he gets done in a day!  The mission is really going to miss him! 

It gets so chaotic on these 6-week turnover weeks!  It has been quite hectic with crazy medical things lately too so I'm really hoping it calms down for a few weeks.  I want to get the office/clinic all organized, stocked and in good shape for the next nurse and Elder Godderidge will be doing the same with making sure things are stocked up and organized for the new housing guy.  We've been happy serving here and there are lots of people we need to make sure we connect with before we go home to thank them and say our good-byes.  I have a feeling these last six weeks are going to be bittersweet. 

We sure appreciate all of you and wish we could be there to support Jill in her health challenges but we know everyone's been very supportive and I know she's very thankful for all of you.  Our prayers have been with all of you and especially with Jill this last week and I know God is hearing all of our prayers. There are a couple of scriptures I ran across this week that I know all of you take to heart:

 "And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother . " --1 John 4:21

"My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." --1 John 3:18

 We'll keep in touch and we love to hear from you all so don't hesitate to call and chat!