Dear Parents of the New (and Historic) September Transfer!

Welcome to the Great California San Fernando Mission!  We have 50 new missionaries who have joined us this week, one fourth of the whole mission!  Sorry for all the exclamation points, but this is amazing!

It is Wednesday morning and all the missionaries are in their areas, and since it is 8:41 a.m. they are all doing their individual study.  At 9 they will have companionship study to prepare for the lessons they will teach today. 

This is the biggest arriving group in the history of the mission, and most likely will be the biggest group ever to arrive.  In the olden days (last year) a large group would have been 15.  That wave Elder Nelson spoke about is more like a tsunami. 

This transfer was a little trickier than usual.  New missionaries go through a 12 week in-field training program.  Last transfer we had 30 missionaries who are now half-way through the training. 50 + 30+ 80 (the trainers)= 160 missionaries who are studying an extra hour a day with the in-field training.  We only have 205 in the mission!  So we are studying!  The 160 number is not quite accurate, we have a few missionaries being trained in trios and a few that are finishing their training with another 6-weeker.  We even have some trainers of your missionaries who have only been here 6 weeks!  When the Lord said he would hasten the work, He wasn’t kidding around.  The great news is that the missionaries are up to the challenge and are working miracles!

Included in the group are 7 visa-waiters.  We love our visa-waiters.  They are a great addition to the mission and really work hard and encourage us.  We don’t know when their visas will come, but we secretly hope never.  Generally they come within a couple of months.  We’ve had visas come within days and we have some who have been waiting six months, government red tape moves slowly sometimes.  But even if we don’t know how long they will be with us, the Lord knows and we can testify that those that wait with us have been called to serve here as well as their final destination.  Truly it is a blessing (even if it seems disguised).

We see miracles every day in this mission!  Next Monday you should receive your first email from your missionary.  Ask him or her about the miracles in this work.  Ask them about their first afternoon in the mission where they went out finding people to teach after landing at the airport.  I blogged about Day 1 here,http://kenanddi.blogspot.com/2013/05/incomings.html if you want more details. 

Along with praying for your missionary, please pray for you missionary’s companion.  To bless the lives of Heavenly Father’s children, companions must work in unity.  Adjusting to a companion 24/7 is always a learning curve.  Pray for both halves of the companionship.  It makes a huge difference.

We love this group already, they are going to be amazing!

Love,

Sister and President Hall

Largest Transfer in the History of the San Fernando California Mission