I'm adding a little extra post this week.  President Strong wrote a beautiful explanation on the family and friends Facebook page of what happens during transfer week and how transfers are decided.  I want to keep it and remember it so I'm posting it in my blog.  What he says is really true.  He often changes the transfer board once he interviews the missionary.  Our secretary makes these beautiful cards with beautiful envelopes that the new missionaries open the morning after they get here.  She has to stay up really late waiting to hear for sure where each new missionary will be going.  Then she makes the cards for them to open the next morning.  We get new missionaries on Wednesday, transfers are Thursday, departing missionaries leave Friday.   I'll post my regular update on Sunday.

Dear Parents,

Today is transfer day in the mission. It is a big day that happens every six weeks. We receive all the new missionaries, say good-bye to missionaries who are going home, and move all of the missionaries who are being transferred - all in a 36 hour window.

Last night, we received the 15 new missionaries. We pick them up at the airport and transport them to the mission home. When they arrive, we let them settle in for a few minutes before feeding them a wonderful home-cooked meal prepared by Sister Chandler, the local Stake President's wife. The love the members here have for the missionaries is overpowering at times.

Once their belly's are full, they are pretty tired, given their ~3am wake-up at the MTC and the trip across the country. So, we keep the orientation for them as light as we can - just the key things they need to be survive for the first 6 weeks. I then interview each of them to seek inspiration on the trainer and areas to assign them to - I am often surprised how clear it is once I talk with them. We try to get them to bed early so they can be rested for a big day the next day.

We carefully pick their trainers, always trying to use the very best missionaries in the mission. Training a new missionary is the most important assignment a missionary can receive. The trainer has a profound impact on the new missionary. Being selected to train is to be shown a very high level of trust.

They are up at 6:30 am the next morning. We feed them a hearty breakfast and then announce their assignments, while they excitedly look at the mission map to see exactly where they are going. We then tell them a little bit about their first area and companion - they are riveted, of course. It is better than Christmas morning :)

We then talk with them for a few minutes about the kind of mission we aspire to be and what we expect of them as missionaries and give them some guidance on what they need to do to get off to a positive start. They are wide-eyed. We want them to embrace that we have very high expectations of them and will give them very high levels of love and support so they can achieve them.

We will bring them back for a day of training, with their trainers, 6 weeks from now. We've found they are much better prepared to learn after having experienced real missionary life for a little while!

By 8:30 am or so, their bags are loaded into the vehicles we use to transport them to their areas. It it quite the logistical procession. In about eight hours, two sets of vehicles will depart in opposite directions, travel the mission in circles, and return to the mission home at about the same time. Each of these caravans are moving both the new and the existing missionaries to their new areas around the mission. It is quite a thing to see.

With this, all of the missionaries who are departing the mission arrive at the mission home. 16 missionaries will arrive tonight. We have an hour or so to catch our breath before before we begin a very special evening with the departing missionaries. It will be an evening of great food, extraordinary joy for having completed such a meaningful and difficult journey successfully, and a time for reflection and sharing with people they have toiled, rejoiced, laughed, cried, and even bled with. I wish I could bottle it up and share it with you. The Spirit is very strong. It reassures me the world will be in good hands. It is a very special time.

The contrast between the eagerness, apprehension (fear), and naivete of the incoming missionaries with the strength, power, and joy of the outgoing missionaries, is the most instructive and powerful part of the day. Passing through the same space, but going in opposite directions, there is great evidence of the power of Heaven to turn all of us into something much greater, if we will but give ourselves to it.

It is really an honor to serve with your sons and daughters. They teach us and inspire us. Thank you for sending them. Thank you for your love and prayers - they are felt and matter.

This is a great work.

President Strong