TRANSFERRED AGAIN. . . TO "THE ROCK!!"

Hi Family,

You'll be able to tell from the pictures that this week has been a bit adventurous!  Elder Skinner and I had to travel to Moncton, and then to Halifax for a technology training meeting being held on Tuesday...but a big storm blew in Monday night so we thought it important to get on the road while we could...nice plan, but it didn't work as well as we hoped.  We got stuck in the church parking lot, taking 90 minutes to dig ourselves out, and get on the road.  The drive normally takes just under two hours...well with all the snow we were driving pretty slowly.  The roads weren't the best, and then, suddenly, there was a wretched noise coming from our car.  At this point it was 3:30 a.m. (yes, we started out just after midnight!) and we were in the very middle of nowhere between Moncton and New Brunswick.  Sure enough, we had a blown out front tire.  To make things even "better," we didn't have a flashlight...we had taken it out when we were packing our things and forgot to put it back in.!  So there we were, two elders in their pajamas, in the middle of a blizzard, trying to change a flat tire with no light!  But we got it changed, made it to Moncton on our "donut" and got on the road to Halifax with the Moncton elders...in THEIR car!  

 

Yep, the road from Moncton to Halifax showed how bad the storm had been.  We even hit a massive snow drift that "came out of nowhere."  When we hit it, we spun around, bouncing off the median, but then finally came to a stop.  The cars behind us couldn't see anything because of the snow, and they almost hit us, but we were definitely protected!  We made it to the meeting on time, but Elder Skinner and I had been awake for 32 hours straight.  We were tired, but the meetings were great!!

(The notice of the "Panio player" on Thrusday night was Elder Hunt.  Turned out to be a "not-so-good panio" but after playing Bumble Boogie and a couple of other songs, we switched to his violin, and the people liked both!)

 
 

 
Friday the day was BEAUTIFUL...all the way up to 8 degrees Celsius!  There were a lot of people out and about, especially on the walking bridge, so we were able to contact a lot of people.  At one point I was so engrossed in the conversation that I didn't see what was up ahead, and I stepped right in this big pile of dog poo!  So gross!!
Later in the day we had rugby practice and I got to take over the "backs" and work with them on my own.  We did some good drills and they made some big improvements.  One asked if I was going to school out there, so I was able to tell him about our missionary work.  It was pretty cool.  Then in the evening we met with the Bailiff family.  They are like the "perfect Mormon family" except the wife isn't a member.  We got to visit with them, and after awhile I got the feeling I should ask the wife if she would be interested in meeting with the missionaries.  She is!!  We are happy, and so is Bro. Bailiff.  It seems he had wanted to ask his wife, but didn't want to pester her.  We get to have a BBQ Family Home Evening with them next week!

 We had to say good-bye to the Hendricksons on Saturday, as they were being transferred to Halifax.  The couple replacing them is the Henigers, and they seem to be a great replacement couple!  Later we went over to the church to watch the General Conference broadcast.  We had set things up earlier and everything was working great, but something went wrong with the broadcast itself so I was on the phone with Salt Lake trying to work things out.  Eventually, I just got a laptop and hooked it up through the projector and streamed it from the Internet.  We missed the first hour of the morning session,but everything else came through just great!!!  Every talk was incredible and so powerful.  We also found out that President Leavitt has some sort of infection and is in the hospital trying to recuperate.
Transfer letters didn't come out on Sunday because of President Leavitt being in the hospital.  So I guess we see what happens.

(Hot off the email press:  Elder Hunt received a transfer letter today saying he's being transferred to NEWFOUNDLAND!!!  He will be a zone leader out there for the entire "island."  I'm sure we'll hear more details next week!!!)