Monday, August 8, 2011

Transfer 8

I don't know how time flies by so fast... I'm not sure what to write about this week!

We did a lot of tracting/contacting (talking to people either at parks, at their door, on the streets etc.) We talk to all kinds of people.

We're teaching a 14-year-old named Brandi who was recently adopted into a members family. She doesn't have much understanding or knowledge of Christianity in general, so we're teaching her very slowly and simply. She enjoyed church yesterday and we'll be teaching her and family later this week.

Being an Assistant keeps me so busy, it's great. Here's a little more to a story I think I wrote about a few weeks ago. About Rachel, the less-active 21-year-old who my companion felt prompted to visit. I talked to Elder McMillan on the phone last night and asked how things are going. He said that Rachel has changed so much - as different as black to white. Since I left she has been reading and praying regularly and has been receiving all kinds of answers and revelation. She prayed to help her find something, and she found it five seconds later. She was reading her Book of Mormon, closed the book and left to wash her face, went back to the book and got an overwhelming "knowing" that it was true. All she could say is, "it's true...it has to be true..." She is making drastic changes to her life and putting away bad habits and behaviors. Two days ago she texted the Elders and told them, "I love this gospel! I have never been happier in my life!" and she is now talking about serving a mission. She says she needs a bigger testimony, but is ready to work on it because she's wanted to serve a mission her whole life.

 Again, I don't have much time to write and the stuff I would write about isn't very interesting. We are in a lot of meetings, go on exchanges with missionaries all over Northern Ohio, plan a lot of workshops, pray like crazy, go through lots of paperwork for stake presidents and such, are on the phone 24/7.... We're always doing something. It's awesome.

This last week was Transfers so I was very involved in the coming and going of missionaries. We picked up the new missionaries at the airport and brought them to the mission home. We went over lots of information, role-played, ate food, etc. The next morning we brought them to the Kirtland Temple and Kirtland Sites. At the transfer meeting (at the Kirtland Stake Center) they got with their new companions and we gathered all the missionaries who were flying home the next morning. We had a great lunch and dinner together and that night had a testimony meeting. It was so powerful and tear-filled. It was so exciting/sad to see such amazing missionaries end their mission. Their examples have inpacted me greatly and I'm very blessed to have had the opportunity to work with so many of them (Elder Haines was one of them (we served in Findlay together) and three from the group were former AP's). I think they're all doing well at home now. I'll miss those guys.


I know that as I have been given this new calling, I have been growing and enlarging my capacity. As it says in Alma 34:32 "...this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors." As I grow and become what my Heavenly Father wants me to become, I can see how I am being prepared for that great day when I return to my Father. I know that this gospel is true and that it changes lives; it blesses millions every day. I love you all. Sorry I'm not so thorough in my letter... Just go on a mission and see for yourself what it's like

Love, Elder Dransfield

President Sorensen with (from left) Elder Dransfield, Elder McClellan, and Elder Tracy, current Assistants, and Elder Hunt, Elder Smith, and Elder Farmer, former Assistants.

President Sorensen with the Assistants:  From left, Elder Dransfield, Elder McClellan, and Elder Tracy taken at the Mission Office on July 28, 2011.

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