Tansfered ;(

Well, as you can see by the title, I am getting transferred. I found out on Saturday.  We are so bummed.  I leave Tuesday morning to go to Erlangen.  No, it is not nearby.  It is a while away.  It is near Nuremberg.  I am so sad.  You have no idea.  I have been in my current area for three months.  It sounds long but that is really not long at all.  People will stay in one area for 4 1/2 - 7 months before they get transferred.  I do not want to go at all!  I found out right after we had a lesson with an investigator and set a baptismal date.  I am not necessarily upset that I will be missing a baptism, I am just upset that I have to leave this area and the people that are here.  I love these members and investigators with all my heart!  Ah man.  It hurt so bad giving my good-bye testimony in church yesterday.  I have that same feeling in my gut now as I did when I was leaving to the MTC.  Not fun.  I called President Stoddard and told him about the baptismal date and he was super happy! I then told him that I found out that I was getting transferred away.  I asked him if I really need to go.  I told him that I did not feel like it was my time to go just yet, like my job wasn't complete here.  After expressing my concerns to him, he told me that he did not want to transfer me at all.  He said he was super proud of the work that was going on there and did not want to separate us at all.  He said that Friday night, he had a last minute feeling from the Spirit that somebody needed to come down to Langen for a bit.  I asked him if I could stay in a drit (I don't even know if 'drit' is English or German. It means staying in a group of 3).  He said it was possible, but they would need to close Erlangen if they did that.  I told him that we probably would not want to do that.  I was crushed inside, but I told him, "President, if this is what the Spirit told you, then I will go and do what I need to do in Erlangen."  "Elder," he replied, "You are a great man. Thank you so much for being understanding. You will be very blessed because of this."  I figured that God has asked many other people to do many other things that were difficult, but each time somebody obeyed his command, they were blessed. God sees the big picture and knows what is best.  I am sure I will have a great experience in my new area, I am just sad to have to leave here. 

But other than that, things are going great!  We met with our new investigator from Ecuador.  We taught the first lesson again because last time we only did a tiny part of it.  It went really well! We did an excellent job at teaching together and using the Spirit.  It was really cool!  We invited him to be baptized.  He was so close to saying yes, he just said that he wanted to learn a little bit more.  Understandable.  We tried to make a new appointment with him and he asked about Saturday night.  We told him that we already had an appointment. We then realized that the Family we had an appointment with was from Colombia and that it would be great to have members involved, especially if they can speak Spanish.  We ate a huge chunk of pig that was slow roasting in some marinade for 36 hours.  It was unbelievably good!  Oh my gosh!  We had our appointment with him there about the Plan of Salvation.  It also went really well.  We were able to set a baptismal date with him for the 6th of February.  I am super excited for him! I am sure he will be baptized!

We also met with our other investigator, Imad.  We taught him repentance and it went really well!  Today we will find out if he got a new job or not by the Post.  I hope he gets this job, because if he does, he will be better off financially and he will also be able to come to church finally!  We are going to try to say bye to him today.  I have seen him make so much progress.  I was there since day one.  It is amazing how much progress he has made!  It is sad to see him go, but I am sure he will be in good hands. 

Sunday we used a lot of time to go to members and to say goodbye to them.  It sucked, but it was better than not being able to say bye.  One family wants me to let them know when I am going home so that they can come to the testimony meeting that is held for the missionaries leaving the mission in Frankfurt.  So hopefully I will see them again!

Love you guys! Have a great one!

Elder Grow