March 19, 2012 Transfer 2, Week 6

Where to start....
If you lack an understanding of missionary organization, this might be a bit confusing but here it goes...

One of my Zone Leaders got to be called an Assistant to the President.  And if one gets called to be an assistant they have to transfer areas a couple days early.  The reason this matters is because the Zone Leaders are in my district and I am companion to the District leader.  So because one of the Zone Leaders had to leave a couple days early that means the other Zone Leader joined our companionship.  So I got to be in my first Trio out in the field.  Hope you managed to understand all that missionary talk.  But it only gets better, the Zone Leader that stayed in the area is also Mexican.  So that means Elder Reyes, Elder Rodriguez, and Elder Gonzalez are The Mexican Trio!!!!  We thought it was pretty cool!  We even took pictures and we are looking for a Mexican flag to join us in our pictures.  The downside to all this is that we had to split our time between two areas.  We weren't able to teach as many lessons s we would have liked or find many new investigators.  But the small little fact that we got a car for the last couple of days almost made up for it.  The car would not have mattered much, but last week it rained almost nonstop from Tuesday morning to Saturday morning.  The Lord truly heard my prayers to help keep me dry.

Saturday night was transfer calls!!!!!! (You have to love the Missionary Lingo)  I was about 1000000000000000000000% sure that I was staying in Richmond. Usually one stays in an area for about 6 months (or 4 transfers).  I have only been here in Richmond for 3 months.  So when we got the transfer call and the first thing we heard was "Elder Rodriguez, your new companion will..." To be honest my ears didn't hear much after that.  Then when my head stopped spinning I found out that I will be going to......(Drum roll please)........HALF MOON BAY!!!! (Look it up, i hear its a pretty nice area). My new companion will be Elder Brogyay from Argentina (YES! Another Latino, well if you can call Argentines Latinos...).  He has been out of the MTC for 6 weeks.  We will be in car and I will be the driver (SCARY!).  And I will be the senior companion (SCARY! x 2).  Long story short, nothing on a mission is 1000000000000000000000% sure.

I will be in Half Moon Bay by tomorrow night!!!! Its crazy how fast things can change.

"Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast..." Hebrews 6:19
Hope is an attribute of Jesus Christ.  He had had so much hope in the Father and His promises that while on the cross Christ cried "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me." Jesus, who had been completely obedient, had a hope that His Father would never leave Him (And as Elder Holland teaches "The Father was never closer") because He was sinless.  But we know that The Father had to withdraw His Spirit so that it could be an "infinite and eternal" atonement.  Christ's hope was so perfect that he did not anticipate for the withdrawal of the Spirit.  I know Christ's hope did not falter, for he said "Father it is finished."  When in life you do not understand, and think you can no longer bare it, know that there is always hope. Hope is the necessary anchor.

Elder Gonzalez