November Transfers

Farewell to a great group of missionaries! We lost Elder Johanson, Elder Boardman (one of our assistants), Elder Britt, Elder Garrett, Elder Jorgensen and in front, Elder Dedow! And no, they didn't "die" they graduated! We will really miss them!
November hit us with rain and cold weather....the coats are out and on! However, it hasn't dampened the spirits of our drivers! This little traffic jam is below our mission office building and is one of many during rush hour. The drivers go in all lanes to get where they want to go. It doesn't matter if it is their lane or even in the right direction! It makes for some really interesting jam-ups!
This is our newest group of incoming missionaries. Elder Horgmo from Norway, Elder Campbell from Canada and Sora Betham from California arrived smiling and excited to go to work. We love getting our new missionaries. They bring an enthusiastic spirit with them from the MTC.
Everyone wants to be their companion.
Our Transfer meeting was different than any we have held the whole time we have been on our mission! Instead of having the transfered missionaries meet at the Mihai Bravu capela, we had the new missionaries stay at our home until their companion/trainer came to pick them up. During this time we fed them all lunch and then sent them on their way! Everyone else who was transfered received a phone call and then traveled to their new areas of service. In case you are wondering why we did this, it was because Elder Kopischke, our 1st counselor in the Area Presidency, and a member of the first quorum of seventies, wanted to do zone conference tour with us six days later. We couldn't bring all the missionaries into Bucharest for Transfers and then turn around and bring them back in for zone conference that soon. It all worked out well but it was decided that it wasn't the favorite way to do transfers! This photo is the whole group who ended up in Bucharest for transfers---the new missionaries, their trainers and a few strays that joined with them! :)
The first day of our Zone Tour with Elder Kopischke we held Zone Council in our home. This is our current group of zone leaders. During a break, Elder Kopischke visits and answers questions. The conference was a great success and we learned many valuable things to help us with our missionary work. By the way, Zone Conference was held on Thanksgiving day and the day after. We spent our time being very Thankful and having a "thanksgiving dinner" consisiting of Pizza, ordered by the Elders!
Sora Paeamaelotu and the Facer's all left us this month. Sora "P", as she is fondly called, left for New Zealand on Nov. 29th and the Facer's, who served as our office couple, went home on Nov. 10th.