What a day! Today was transfer day. It is one of the biggest days of the month. We were up at 6, at the office at 7:10, set up a snack table in the office, down to the stake center at 7:30 and hang out for an hour talking to missionaries, hugging, and quite a bit of crying. There was a very young looking Elder who was down on one leg and crying his eyes out. I felt so bad for him. He really does look very young and other Elders were trying to talk him out of his very sad state. Even the President said to us he had never seen this happen before. The Pres. did say that he had a hard time leaving his folks and had a hard time at the beginning of his mission, but he really broke down at this transfer. He has a hard time with change someone said. But Elder Itzep, who was abandoned as a child in Mexico and raised by, I don't know who, well, he does have a brother who he has lived with, and he could almost pass for Pablo, you know, small stature, Spanish, great smile, really tried to cheer him up and sort of put him on the bus. The bus pulls out at 8:30. Back to the office
and then an office full of kids most of the day. More hugging, snacking, singing the last song on her mission, (and Dad not able to look at her because he had such big tears in his eyes.)
taking pics, getting a little bit of work done for Dad. Me, none. But I did get a new computer today. Took most of the day for Elder Fackrell to install it. He is a great kid who comes into the office on Tuesday and Thursday and just does whatever he is asked to do. He is a real computer geek. He is also rolling his eyes a lot at us seniors. I have seen him do it! You know, these youngens just get tired of our 'senior' questions about computers. Oh, and he installed a new printer for Dad. Dad thinks he has died and gone to printing heaven! He printed out his forms in a few seconds that up until now have taken minutes to do and even then they haven't turned out quite right. Then he printed out a new page of his cars FOR SALE in color. Thot he was pretty smart. Gosh, the equipment makes a lot of difference.

This is Elder Dodds from Twin Falls, Idaho. We got to know him at Christmas time when we picked him up and drove for hours with him to a Zone Conference where he was part of the program. He told us all about his family. A great kid who loved his family and everyone else.

At 2 pm a bunch of us went to the Community of Christ temple to listen to Elder Hurst play the organ. This is Elder Hurst and he is from Blackfoot. He sat at this huge organ and played some LDS hymns. It was beautiful. The lady in their church who plays the organ is kind of known around the world among organ players and she also played for us. We were browsing through their hymn book and found several hymns the same as ours and Dad sort of out loud said, I wonder if she would play, The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning. The Pres got up and went to the front and she played it for us. It was beautiful. The Pres has gotten to know her and while he has been here and told us that she once played the organ in the Tabernacle. She is good.

One of our missionaries, Sister Fife also sang a song for us. She has a lovely voice and Dad cries every time she sings. (He cries whenever any of these kids sing!)

It was after four and two more Sisters arrived who were going home and asked if we would take them to the Mission Home. That is where they spend the night. They had a mission car so they followed us out there and we unloaded their luggage and Dad brought the car back and met the missionaries in the parking lot who were getting their car. The bus had arrived back in town and there were Elders all over again. We finally left the office at 5:50, dropped the mail off and were home at 6 pm. Oh no, it was later than that. We stopped at Taco Bell and picked up food and then came home. What a day! It was exciting, sad, uplifting, fun, just so many emotions. Cried lots of tears, gave lots of hugs and oh, I didn't even tell you about Elder White. This is sad. He is a great missionary and he left today on medical leave.

Elder White had surgery just two months before he came on his mission. He has some crazy cyst around his tail bone. The surgeon sewed him up and now he is in trouble again and has to go home and have the surgery again and this time they will leave it open so that it can heal from the inside out. So his recovery will take awhile, but he is determined to come back and finish his mission. I just got teary as I told him goodbye.

It was a long day and hard on the heart strings. But we love these kids. Gosh, they are great and dedicated and just so good that it is hard to believe.

The Gospel is true and really affects lives. All is Well