March 23, 2014

Dear Mom

It has been an interesting week for sure. I have been doing great though.

Transfers- How transfers work is we travel to the mission office on Tuesday, the day of transfers, and we find out where we are going and who our new companion will be. I lived about 45 min from mission office, so Elder Robins and I traveled there Tuesday Morning after getting all my thing packed in the car! So what happens is they put up a transfer news paper that says where you are going, and who you new companion will be. I read the transfer news, and at first couldn't find my new companion. I guess they had not been informed one of them was leaving, so they were still traveling to the mission office.

New Things- My new area is called Secunda. I am in Secunda 2. So we are basically in the middle of nowhere. There are two sets of missionaries here, and we see each other everyday, because we share a car. Other than that, the closest missionaries are about an hour away. My new companions name is Elder Cazier. He is a cool kid, but not the same as Elder Robins. He is a great missionary. So after they got to the mission office to pick me up I loaded all my stuff in the car, and we had a long drive to our area. I drove a lot of it because they had to drive to the mission office. It was about a 2 and a half hour drive to Secunda from Roodeport where the mission office is. Our flat is very nice. It is just as nice or nicer than my last flat. We have a car, but we share it with the other Secunda missionaries. We live in separate flats. I did well fitting everything in my suitcases, but I also took a few boxes with things I have acquired. I did take my weights. The flat I went to someone had a bench for like bench pressing which is really nice because I was trying to make a bench out of chairs in my last flat! Elder Robins stayed in Hospital View and got a new companion there. 

 Thank you for the good advice and I will try not to judge or get an opinion about your new assignment until you have given myself a chance to adjust.  I also pray that I will be blessed to get along with new  companion and adjust to new area.  I will try to be patient and I know with time everything will look better.  I was very comfortable before especially with Elder robins, and I have felt really uncomfortable this past week. 

I am exciting to hear that Mitchell Hansen is going on a mission. I didn't think that he was going to go. That sounds like it will be an interesting place for him to serve, Singapore.  I hope that his family is doing better. I didn't know that there daughter was diagnosed with cancer. Hope she is doing well. That is really cool that all those boys are receiving there mission calls!!! Keep me updated on people that keep receiving mission calls.

I don't have a physical address, but I will get one for you. The building we attend now is called the Secunda branch. It is a branch that I am serving in now, and it is pretty small. Thank you for sending a package, it means a lot. I hope it gets here soon. Being in this new area we don't see our zone leaders much, so I hope when it comes they can get it out here to me. With mail I am pretty sure there were a few weeks I didn't get anything. I feel like a few of your letters didn't make it because of the mail strike. I look forward to speaking with you on mothers day. That is about a month and a half away. I also look forward to conference because it is cool to watch the few live ones and know you are watching the same thing! 

In this new area we email at our chapel, and there isn't much Internet, so I can't really upload pictures to dropbox, or attach pictures.  I am sorry about that, but I will try to send them somehow. I am sure the longer days are making you much happier. I noticed on my calendar this week it was the first official day of spring, which is exciting. It is kind of starting to get colder here, but not much colder yet. 

I love you, and thank you for all the support. I hope the family is doing well. Tell everyone Hi for me, and I love all of them. 

Love Elder Mitchell Brown