Transfer Day

I can tell it is the day after transfers.

I came into the kitchen this morning and found my husband scrounging for something to feed hungry assistants who came to switch cars after getting up at 5:00 to drive departing missionaries to the airport.

The cupboards were bare.

He scrounged up 5 slices of bread, some eggs, and a forlorn slice of turkey to make a couple of 'croque monsieur' sandwiches (it's a French thing - from his mission).

On transfer days hungry elders are in and out of the mission home as they travel to and from the airport and all around the Trinidad. Some of them get up at 4:00 AM to catch flights and get no food at all. By the end of the day I feel like a hoard of starving locusts has been through my kitchen.

But I love transfer days. It is incredibly heart warming to watch missionaries as they come and go - the excitement as they see one another again, back-slapping hugs, complicated handshakes, excited chatter as they catch up on branches and investigators, and the big eyes of new missionaries as they see the West Indies band of brothers (will I ever fit in?)

Here are a few pictures

From Sept transfers

From Sept transfers

From Sept transfers

From Sept transfers

I have learned some mission lingo. A 'son' is a new missionary being trained and the 'father', of course, is the trainer. The 'mother' is a new elder's second companion. I even heard one elder, yesterday, refer to himself as a 'test tube baby' because he never had a 'mother' - he went strait from trainee to co companion. 'Brothers' are missionaries trained by the same trainer. There are 'grandsons' and 'great grandsons' as they go down the line of trainers and trainees. Missions have quite the genealogy.

Here are two 'brothers', Elder Sturdevant and Elder Damm, with their 'father', Elder Roberts (on the right).

From Sept transfers

Here is something interesting

President Robison has to assign areas and trainers for incoming missionaries long before he ever meets them and often before he even sees pictures or personal information. It is always amazing as we actually meet the new elders and see how well they match with their trainers. It is one of the miracles of this mission that it works so well time after time. We were commenting at the end of the day on the similarities between Elder Damm (trainee) and Elder Roberts (trainer). They could be brothers in size, smiles, and personalities.

From Sept transfers