The Transition

 July 5, 2021

This week was President and Sister Holme's first week as our mission presidents! I've been super nervous about this week for the past 3 months, praying, fasting, and staying up too late thinking about all the things I would need to do as their assistant to help them the best I can. Well, this week turned out to be one of the BEST weeks of my life! It was absolutely amazing! As I explain some of the awesome opportunities I had this week, KEEP IN MIND we worked SO hard this week. Harder than ever before. It wasn't all just fun and games like it might sound haha. 

First of all, I attended the transition dinner between the Teuschers and the Holmes, and it was really fun just hanging out and joking around with everyone. The Teuschers surprised me, Elder Money, and President Holmes with matching "unity ties". They have little boat steering wheels on them to basically say "you guys are in charge now". I am so so soooo grateful for that whole experience, I will never forget it.

The next day, we drove the Holme's around the mission to meet all the missionaries! They live in downtown Manhattan and are really nervous about driving anywhere, so they asked us to drive them anytime they need to go somewhere. It's been fun! I love hearing them talk on the way to/from meetings saying how nervous they are, asking for advice, asking about certain missionaries, and answering all their questions. It's pretty funny how little they actually know about New York and everything going on in the mission haha. It's been a super humbling opportunity to get to train them on some things.

President asked us to be with him all day every day to help him with things that come up. So, every morning we went to the mission home and helped unpack boxes, plan his schedule, do emergency trips to the store, join him in meetings, plan zone conferences together, drive him to things, set up wifi, and also just to be there to answer questions and calm their nerves. We are with them so much, and they are so nice that it kind of feels like we are part of the family. The are SO much fun to be around. They live on the top floor of a skyscraper, and the view is absolutely incredible. My ears pop in the elevator everytime I go there. For some reason, they dont have any gas yet in their apartment, so they can't cook anything. So, for every lunch and dinner this week, the Holmes' took us out to eat at fancy restaurants around Manhattan. Sushi, steaks, burgers, shakes, it was incredible. They are super rich too, I think they own a private jet. The food was amazing, but it was even more amazing getting to know them and learning so much from them. He personally knows several apostles and knows the prophet really well (he told us about President Nelson's diet and how he looks so amazing for being in his 90's). I have learned so much about the gospel just being with them! 

Last night was the 4th of July, and we got to watch fireworks from the roof of his building, overlooking the whole city. The pictures don't look as cool as it actually was. I looked around and thought, "what even is my life right now???" How on earth did I end up on top of a building watching fireworks over NYC with my mission president and his family???? I am seriously so full of gratitude, and I feel very inadequate to be getting to have these experiences. Almost every day, Elder Money and I look at eachother and say "why us?"

We also had MLC this week. It was pretty intense trying to prepare things for it because President Holmes wanted to change a lot of things about how we were previously doing them (good changes, just lots of work trying to adjust slides and agendas). It was probably my favorite MLC we have ever had. At MLC, we clarified what actually counts as finding a new person to teach, and everyone was shook... as a result, our mission found 100 more people than normal (almost 3 new people per companionship, which we have been trying to do for over a year and a half haha). President told everyone about some minor changes in rules throughout the mission, and everyone was going crazy. I guess after MLC, all the missionaries went back to their areas and told their zones about the changes. If you've ever played the game "telephone", you know that things don't get passed on very well. All week we were receiving texts asking about WILD RUMOURS that I have no idea where they even came from. The changes aren't even that big, but everyone is acting like the world is ending and we've had to send lots of clarification texts.

In conclusion, this week has been super fun, INCREDIBLY BUSY, very humbling, mind blowing, and I have learned so much. Some things I have learned:

- We should not add or take away from what prophets and apostles have already given us. Adding on extra rules and requirements (such as putting a time limit on how long someone needs to be free from cigarettes before they can be baptized, or random rules for missionaries that aren't anywhere in the handbook) is altering what apostles have said. Pretty interesting.

- the baptismal interview is based on WILL YOU questions, and the temple interview is based on DO YOU questions.

- President Nelson and President Oaks were ordained apostles on the same day, but President Nelson was set apart first, which is the only reason he is the prophet instead of Oaks. Crazy stuff.

Have a wonderful week! Love you all!

- Elder Webster