Transfer 9: Week 1: Extended Zone: OA

Hello!

I hope that this finds everyone doing well... this last transfer went pretty quickly with all of the interesting changes that happened in the middle of everything. I am now training someone in the office... Sister Au-Yeung! Asian fun again... we were so shocked to hear that we were going to be companions again. So my time with Sister K. Farmer was short lived, but we had loads of fun. Maybe we'll be companions again on the mission... but to be honest only the Lord knows.

With the summer in full swing there are so many people on Temple Square... some who are interested in learning more, some are interested in the flowers and a new influx of people who are obsessed with the falcons that live in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. There are about 8-15 people who will track every movement that the falcons make... they've even given them names. I suppose having a family of the fastest birds on the Planet would make anyone excited, but it was just a new thing that I hadn't experienced before. Maybe after my mission I'll be a bird chaser rather than a tornado chaser...I bet that it would be infinitely safer, assuming that I do not dress up as a pigeon or rodent.

Falcon enthusiasts are not the only people on Temple Square though, there are also many people out for weddings and one of the most amazing programs that the mission has started doing is taking the family of the couple getting married on a tour of Temple Square while they wait for the marriage to take place. The family can request to have a missionary take them to see the temple model or to see God's Plan for His Family so their family and friends do not have to wait in the waiting room forever waiting for them to come out. It's not really there to get referrals from guests, but it's there for the family to still feel included and understand why their children want to get married in the first place. Missionary work is an amazing thing.

We also have seen many miracles because of members of this church who have had that desire to share the gospel with their family and friends. One allowed us to take his girlfriend on a tour so she could feel and experience Temple Square. They were so much fun, and he helped her see why it was important to him... she was so impressed with the combined testimonies of us and him that she wanted to learn more from the missionaries...

Best wishes to everyone.

Sister Pielstick