Assistant to President

Yes, Hell as been released on me as a missionary, I was called to the worst position in the mission... my mission president frequently reminds me, not that he needed to though. I already knew this was a horrible calling! Ha Ha! I received transfer calls last Saturday and was reassured that I was staying in Seattle North. Little did I know that President had a different thought in mind. The Assistant is never announced on transfer calls so when I left to take a missionary home in my zone I arrived at the mission home with President Larkin greeting me and asking to come into his office. "Oh great" I thought. "I'm going to have to deal with some type of horribly disobedient missionary in my zone or something." Nope. Even worse. He sat me down in his office before he interviewed the departing missionaries and asked me to be his next Assistant for the next 6 months. Therefore I have had less than 5 hours of sleep each night. Thursday nights are the worst because we have on-date updates which take 2 hours at the least. Bed time is around 1. Not to mention we still have a full proselyting area so whatever trainings we don't finish before bed, we finish in the late hours.

So far I have picked up the new missionaries at the airport, dropped off the missionaries going home, dealt with some emotionally draining situations that I have no business discussing on this blog, and eating, maybe 1 good meal a day. It's pretty common for the Assistants to only eat 1 meal because we are so busy. We no longer have preparation days and according to Elder Bunton (my old companion in Seattle North who is my new companion!) we shop after 10:00 Monday evenings. Tuesday we have trainings for new missionaries and trainings for zone leaders on Friday not to mention a baptism on Saturday. PHEW!

To finish what happened in Seattle North, I ended my week with a baptism and I missed Brett's which was this past Saturday. It was horribly disappointing but all in all I feel very accomplished of what I did while serving as a zone leader in that area.

I am scared to death of what these next four transfers bring as the assistant but I'm here to learn something valuable. The assistants area is the Federal Way Ward in the Federal Way Stake. The ward that borders Jovita Creek. I've only served on the west side of the mission. I-5 goes through all my areas! Ha Ha! I only have 2 transfers left after this assignment (a.k.a 12 weeks) and that weirds me out.

I love you all and I will try my hardest to keep you updated. Stay strong and work hard! Bring people into the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have found in my service as a missionary and my split second week as an assistant that it's all based on love. The atonement, the Earth, God, and the people called to serve. The ward leaders, the mission president, and stake presidents all love the people whom they serve so much,

I love you all x 10,000! Take care.

Elder Bottema