no more driving

Transfer calls were last night. We thought we were both staying cause it was past 10:30 and we didn't get a call, but then at 11:00 we got one cause apparently they were really behind. Elder Bronson is going to Sandridge, by Virginia Beach, and I'm staying right here. It's weird cause I'll be the go-to authority on the area now until my new companion starts to learn it. His name is Elder Holbrook. I don't know much about him except that he plays the organ and piano pretty good (he did a musical number at Mission Conference). He seems a little...weird, but it'll be alright. He'll be senior companion so I'll go back to riding shotgun. The GPS that I clung to the last 6 weeks is leaving with one of the Spanish Elders so I'll have to look at the map and act like I know where we're going. I probably know the area better than I did Chesterfield, but I'm far from where Elder Bronson was when I showed up. It'll be interesting. But my hope is that he'll have a good attitude about the area cause Elder Bronson didn't (and admits that he didn't). It's good change that'll hopefully get us to have more success. I will miss Elder Bronson cause we got along well and I probably won't get to have as much fun without him but this will be good for him. Plus I'll have to be more responsible in terms of knowing people and planning every night for the first few weeks. But I guess this is part of the transition process of not being fresh anymore. I'm not as nervous about it as I thought I would be.

I didn't bring my planner from last transfer with me so I don't remember everything we did, but I'll try.

Friday night we had a bit of a car emergency. We went to the border between us and Staunton (pronounced like Stanton, by the way) to get some of the potentials that they had in our area book, and right when we were about to start up and drive home the battery died. We tried asking people at the 7-11 if they had jumper cables but they either didn't have any or didn't want to help. So we called up a member and he atttempted to start it up but it still wasn't working. We decided that we should just have Goldwrench (a local company owned by a member) tow it in the morning while the member drove us home. In the morning we got picked up by the towing truck and taken to the car, but because Brother Gold had to help out with the primary activity he wouldn't be able to look at the car. So we compromised and had us help in his place while he fixed the car. The activity was helping the kids clean the church building so once that was over we got the car back and all was well again. Turns out the battery terminal was really dirty so they cleaned that up and charged it. Yeah. That was probably a boring story but whatever.

I know I'm forgetting stuff but nothing's coming to mind. Our maggots are slowly disappearing but they still show up. Uhhh, yeah. Not much has changed in terms of investigators either, but that could change with all the other changes. We also got a new bishopric, and the new mission president will be coming to each of our apartments to do interviews around the beginning of July. So all sorts of new stuff happening.

Well, this Sunday is my 5 month mark, odd as that sounds. Still haven't really been out that long but I feel like I've changed a lot. Virginia is a pretty nice place that is indeed green and beautiful but I don't know if I'd want to live here after the mission or anything. Not to say I don't like it but I do prefer the more populated spots and the like. The roads are really stupid though. Some of the intersections and street signs and stuff just baffle me. Baffle me.

I think that's it though. I feel like I'm forgetting stuff to say but that's all I've got. I liked the Casen pictures from Andrea but I do wish I could keep them away from the computer too. Maybe I'll just take a picture of the computer screen or something.

-Elder Ryan Parker