Email cuarenta y cinco: East of the Mississippi

June 19, 2017 

Hey y'all! I'm going Memphis. There's transfer news for you. My last week in Jonesboro was a good one.

We saw CW on Wednesday, and that was such a relief. He is still going strong, just working a lot. His phone broke last week so he was never able to tell us he couldn't make it to church. We had a fantastic lesson with him. We read John chapter 21 with him and talked about how after the Savior's death the Apostles assumed that life would just go back to normal so they went out to fish. We know the story.

They weren't catching anything. After going all through the night without success, a figure on the shore calls out to them and tells them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat. They obey and catch so many fish that the nets begin to break as the disciples pull them in. They instantly recognize the man as Jesus and Peter bails overboard and begins to swim to the Savior. Then on shore, Jesus asks Peter three times "Lovest thou me?", each countering an affirmative answer with "Feed my sheep." Jesus was in effect saying: "Peter, 3 years ago on this same shore I commanded you to follow me. I
meant what I said. You were never meant to go back to simply being a fisherman again. I don't need fishermen, I need Apostles. I need disciples. I need servant who truly love me. Now for the second time, I'm asking you to follow me, and this time I mean forever."

We then said now that CW Jr has entered the straight and narrow way, he can't go back. He has to follow Christ, and follow Him forever. We got to visit CW Jr again on Saturday, and this time his wife, J, sat in on the lesson as well, which was a little miracle. We have heard that she isn't really receptive to missionaries from other members of the family, but she was awesome! She said that she and C have been talking about church, and that she has noticed a change in C. She wants to come to church! On Thursday we had Zone Conference, and got to say goodbye to the Wakolo's. It was super awesome, I love them so much! They are going to be living in

Sandy so Elder Jorgensen and I are both going to visit them when we are home.

We taught a family of 6 from Ecuador, it was really cool for Elder Jorgensen because his dad served his mission in Ecuador. They gave us this tomate de árbol juice that was so delicious.

Saturday President Wakolo texted us and informed us that Elder Jorgensen will be training this transfer, so I knew all day that I was headed out of Jonesboro. We both called that I was going to Memphis Spanish South. I'll be serving there with Elder Merrill, which I am super pumped about! Elder Merrill and I go way back! Also Elder Sotomarino and Elder Anaya are
serving together again and they are in my District! This transfer will be awesome. I really am going to miss Jonesboro, that place was my home. I love the Ward, I love the people, I love Jonesboro. So many people I will miss.

This morning I got to go to the temple for the first time in 8 and a half months. It was super awesome, I learned a ton and received a bunch of revelation as to how I can have more charity. Anyways I love y'all, the Church is true, the Book is blue, hello Memphis this will be cool.