What a cool week! It’s definitely been a new experience since transfers and I’ve had to figure out a lot of new things which has been a challenge, but it’s still been fun!

The beginning of the week was mostly filled with stopping by as many friends and close members as we could so that Elder Smith could say goodbye to them. He took some pictures with most of them to keep the memories alive, but it was still bittersweet for quite a few of them. 

Transfer’s were on Wednesday morning and they went great! I had fun seeing some missionaries I know and catching up with them after a few weeks or even months. I was sad to say goodbye and part ways with Elder Smith and one of our housemates (Elder Barrow), but I really enjoyed meeting my new companion Elder North who’s a really cool guy! We’ve gotten to know each other pretty well over this past half week and it’s been great! Elder North loves biking and isn’t as quiet as my old companion so we’ve had a good time pedaling along the sidewalks of South Mountain while chatting and cracking jokes. 

After transfers on Wednesday we went shopping and then to a few lessons, one of which was with our Swahili speaking friends Gerard and Christina. The awesome thing about that lesson was that we were able to get in contact with some Swahili speaking missionaries that live in Tanzania and they were able to teach them over Google Chat in their own language that night and then later on Saturday night as well!

We’ve had quite a few really nice lessons and some really awesome impromptu stop-bys which made these past few days nice and pretty unique. Aside from all that has changed with having a new companion, its still been a pretty simple week and it’s made me excited for the transfer to come!

I don’t have much else to share this week, so I’ll just end by sharing that this week has taught me that God gives us challenges to help us grow and to test our strength. Like many of the changes that happen in life, having a new companion definitely comes with challenges and successes, but it’s really our perspective that changes whether we see those as something to help us grow or tear us down.

God loves us all and he knows us by name. He will bless us when we put forth effort and seek to change.

As always, I love you all and I’ll catch ya’ll next week!

Sincerely,
Elder Whitchurch
Mosiah 24:15

Fun Story:
We got to share an impromptu message at a members house the other night which turned out to be really fun. We had a great time sharing a scripture about seeking God’s help in our week and the spirit was definitely felt. While extending an invitation with our message, we were petting their very big and very energetic dog named Bear (a very fitting name). While Elder North was petting him, Bear decided that my companions camelbak mouthpiece looked like something to slobber on. Long story short, Elder North really needs to wash his camelbak at some point.