Transfer week

Hello!  This week has been a busy week!  Transfer week comes every 6 weeks and we are always exhausted at the end of each day.  April 3 was transfer day.  We had 11 new missionaries report to the mission and 3 missionaries go home.  9 Sisters and 2 Elders flew in on Tuesday, April 2.  President and Sister Wall pick them up at the airport and take them back to the mission home.  President Wall interviews them and they spend the night there.  Then, on Wednesday morning, Brent and I have a few minutes to talk to them about finances (support cards), medical cards and car and bike safety.  Hurricane season is coming up the 1st of June so we also talk about 72 hour kits and emergency plans. We then depart for the Stake center where we have "transfer meeting".  Missionaries that are already serving in the mission that are going to be transferred to a new area or get a new companion are arriving along with our new missionaries.   We go into the chapel and President Wall makes the announcements on new companionships.  We have some lunch which has been planned by Sister Wall.  Avery (Sister Wall's paid assistant) and I prepare the drink and put the lunch out.  Every transfer is different.  Sometimes we will have as many as 100 to lunch and sometimes only 50 or so.  I have some pictures of the missionaries as they prepare to leave the church with new companions going off to new areas of the mission.

For those of you who are still feeling the effects of winter....look at those green trees!  Spring has come to Louisiana.  I heard one of the missionaries say that this was the warmest she'd been in months.  Well honey, just wait,  July is coming.....

Elder Medrano giving me a wave.

Elder Parker and Elder Wilkins, assistants to President Wall.......Posers!

Elder Johnson and Elder Bawden......the 'office elders'.  I think they are the hardest working elders in the mission.  While they are assigned to the mission office, they become the masters of moving things, like furniture, washers and dryers, beds, couches, etc.  They take care of problems like lost keys, lost bikes, flat tires.  They clean apartments that have been left messy that the mission wants to close.  They tirelessly and unselfishly work for the benefit of the mission.  They drive around the mission...helping, helping....and helping and not once have I ever heard them complain.  

The 'go homes' this month....Elder Dustin from Utah, Elder Peterson from Utah and Elder Gauthier from Tahiti standing in front of the Baton Rouge Temple.  

Love you all.  Carol aka Sister Olsen