Missionary Care Package Make A Difference in the Morale of A Missionary

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 2:38 AM

Okay I'm writing you like a 2 paragraph email this week, I spent my time online reading emails this week, and it was very nice to get to spend some time looking at Gigi's pictures she sent me, i was very happy and laughed a lot, especially since the longer you are on a mission, they less people write you. But who can blame them, you've been gone a long time, and you take awhile to write back because you eventually go senior companion (well, i haven't yet, but i know I will in the next few transfers, 3 at the most) and as your Chinese gets enough to communicate in complete stories and sentences and ideas, you start to get to help your senior companion out a lot more..

Week 5 Transfer 4--My halfway mark--Hump Day: Missionary Letter

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 11:26 PM

Today is something I've heard missionaries refer to as a hump day?  No idea why, and nobody here says that, but yeah, I've been on my mission exactly 9 months today.  I go home July 20th with the way transfers fall here...so a day short of 9 months left.  I only noticed that since President told us when we were going home in interviews..then I was like...hmm cool, my halfway point is soon...and on a preparation day...so tadum. 

Missionaries Thoughts on Conference

It takes a few days for missionaries to share with their families what they learned or thought about the past conference.  Different missionaries come away with different perspective depending on what resonates with the missionary.  My daughter serving in Taiwan Taipei came away from conference by admonishing my wife me and our whole family to conform closer to the gospel as she is doing. She wanted to know what we were doing to change our lives.

Sister B. wrote us:

How do we take what President Monson said about taking these things and changing, and actually change?  Seriously.  I personally cannot remember a big step I took to change after conference in my life...I remember after conference this time, feeling a big desire to change and become better.  As a missionary this is what my life is about...but then I wondered, how will my family and friends do this.  I, myself, have to take great effort to change, and that is what my life is focused on. And it's hard! Seriously.  My whole life is becoming more converted so that my investigators can be more converted, since their level of conversion can only be as far is mine is...and yet it's a daily struggle.  I focus on it constantly.  So for you guys, how is conference going to change you?  I heard maybe 3 of you guys write me about conference and tell me about what you liked, but I'd much rather know, how are you going to take conference and CONFORM?  Change and become more like Christ?  Being on a mission had made me realize our family is not very good at conforming, but conforming is a gospel principle. I hope you don't take offense at this statement, but I honestly believe it to be true. My growing up experience was unique, and I cherish that in a lot of ways...but as I testify about how the gospel blesses families, I wish to see a change in my own family that really shows how this mission is helping you guys.  Heavenly Father is an unchanging God.  His laws and his principles will never change.  And so, in order to obtain His salvation, we need to put ourselves in line with His laws.  We need to develop His love (charity) and not worry about being unique or different.  Believe me, you are unique.  You don't even have to try to be.  So what I'm wondering, is what are you guys going to change because of conference?  How are you going to be more obedient to God's will?  A big reason I ask is because I personally am struggling with obedience.  I want to be a conformed and obedient missionary, but sometimes some of the stuff I do or say shock people.  I'm working on this through goal setting...and I hope you guys can too.

 I am glad to see that the words of the general authority has power to her and that she wants to live the gospel and share it with those she meets.  Her mission is having an affect on her life.

S. Graff serving with her husband in Guatemala discussed her pioneer heritage:

At ten we went to Tomkinson’s apartment across the hall with Tilleys and Blackburns and watched the morning session of General Conference. They hooked up a projector to the computer and we had a huge picture on the wall. Seeing the Conference Center packed with thousands always brings tears. Today I felt like I had kids there because Reynaldo and Claudia are in Salt Lake. We had notebooks to take notes in that were passed out at the office. There was a picture of each member of the presidency and the twelve apostles and half a page to write our thoughts about each of their talks. President Monson announced five new temples: Brigham City, UT; Fort Lauderdale, FL; Chile, Brazil, and Japan. That makes a total of 151 temples operating, under construction and announced. I always love the gospel truths as taught by Elder Bednar. Elder Uchtdorf brought laughs from all of us as he wondered what people think about our Church where the children sing of talking streams, popcorn growing on trees, and children who want to be sunbeams. When I was a child “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam” was my favorite song and I think that holds true for many of our grandchildren. The Tabernacle Choir singing “Come, Come Ye Saints” at the closing moved me to tears. I always think of the great sacrifices of my ancestors as they traveled to Utah because of their love for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I also think of the other pioneers, those here in Guatemala and elsewhere who join the Church and mark the path forward for their descendants.

Sister Chelsea Williamson bore her testimony about the Prophets and Apostles:

"Think of it, brothers and sisters. The heavens are opened. There is revelation in our day. Think of the miracle."

What a miracle it is. General conference has always been a special weekend for me; family gatherings, quilts being made, food being eaten, and hearing a Prophet’s voice. This weekend may not have been how the other weekends have been, however, it was perhaps my most meaningful general conference yet. I have never been an eloquent writer, I don't know how to express myself in a way that would be adequate, but I do want you all to know how deeply, deeply grateful I was for this past weekend. The heavens are opened. We do communicate with God today. We do have a living Prophet who leads us and guides us. Those men and women who addressed us are so in touch, so aware, and so good. What a privilege to be a member of this church, the only true church on the earth. I love what President Eyring said, "Any believing Latter-Day Saint is an optimist." He is right, when we truly come to understand this gospel, this marvelous plan our Father has provided for us, we have no reason to be afraid or to be discouraged, we have every reason to be hopeful and every reason to be optimistic.

As you know, Elder Holland has always been one of my all-time favorites. I am sure you all felt the same spiritual witness as I did that the Book of Mormon is true as he so powerfully testified. It is so true. That book changes lives every day. It inspires men to be better. It quiets fears and awakens faith. It motivates and strengthens. It is the word of God. Read it. Ponder it. Cherish it. It is true - what a privilege to have the opportunity to read from it every day.

I love this work. Our investigators are progressing and we have good things coming for this area. The Lord's hand is always involved in it. I see that in all we do. Share the gospel, please. I love what was said in conference about the Saviors last counsel to His apostles. Of all the things He could have shared, of all the things He could have taught, His last request was to proclaim this gospel. As I go on in this cause, I pray you all will too. Share the gospel - it will bless you and others.

I find it fascinating how missionaries develop a more mature insight in to the gospel and their obedience to the leaders.  I remember my own daughters could barely sit through conference but now they have profound insights.  I hope they keep the zeal of the gospel burning in their lives for many years to come.

Transfer 5 Week 3: A Call to Repentance--Conforming to the Gospel Principles

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 12:28 AM

Hello there, face here.  Okay, maybe I'm not face, but I liked that cartoon way back in the days.  It's just been another week in Jilong.  And a very interesting one at that.  We watched conference...had zone conference...we also need to head out to Taipei tomorrow for President's interviews, so we've gotten quite a lot of trips to Taipei. 

General Conference wasn't actually supposed to be a trip to Taipei for us, but on Saturday morning, they couldn't get the English working in Jilong, just Chinese, so we missed the morning session of conference and caught the next bus to Taipei, just to see the last 10 minutes of that session.  It ended up being alright though, because President's Assistant, Elder Gassin, burned us a copy of that session during the break, then for District meeting Monday we watched Saturday Mornings conference.  So now, we have watched all of conference.  I thought it was unique that such a great emphasis was love and service.  I realized in my own life, the problems that happen especially with family and friendship relationships, are mostly due to selfishness.  I think the average person forgets the importance of repenting daily.  I mean, I feel like a lot of people go on a mission, invite investigators to keep commitments, such as repenting daily, and at that time come to the realization that we also need to do such...but then, I think time passes and it's easy to forget what you taught them.  The habits developed become less of habits, we digress spiritually, become more like the natural man....then as conference is watched and speaker after speaker talk about putting off the natural man, it's easy to have a desire to change...while they speak, the spirit is strong, a fire is kindled within our hearts, but do we ultimately change?  Do we put it into action?  Do our family relationships become stronger?  Do we start to feel the power of the Holy Ghost's influence in our lives daily as we do the things that invite his presense into our lives? Do we become more active in considering how others feel and what we can do for others instead of feeling like we ourselves are wronged?  What do we do because of conference?  How do we take what President Monson said about taking these things and changing, and actually change?  Seriously.  I personally cannot remember a big step I took to change after conference in my life...I remember after conference this time, feeling a big desire to change and become better.  As a missionary this is what my life is about...but then I wondered, how will my family and friends do this.  I, myself, have to take great effort to change, and that is what my life is focused on. And it's hard! Seriously.  My whole life is becoming more converted so that my investigators can be more converted, since their level of conversion can only be as far is mine is...and yet it's a daily struggle.  I focus on it constantly.  So for you guys, how is conference going to change you?  I heard maybe 3 of you guys write me about conference and tell me about what you liked, but I'd much rather know, how are you going to take conference and CONFORM?  Change and become more like Christ?  Being on a mission had made me realize our family is not very good at conforming, but conforming is a gospel principle. I hope you don't take offense at this statement, but I honestly believe it to be true. My growing up experience was unique, and I cherish that in a lot of ways...but as I testify about how the gospel blesses families, I wish to see a change in my own family that really shows how this mission is helping you guys.  Heavenly Father is an unchanging God.  His laws and his principles will never change.  And so, in order to obtain His salvation, we need to put ourselves in line with His laws.  We need to develop His love (charity) and not worry about being unique or different.  Believe me, you are unique.  You don't even have to try to be.  So what I'm wondering, is what are you guys going to change because of conference?  How are you going to be more obedient to God's will?  A big reason I ask is because I personally am struggling with obedience.  I want to be a conformed and obedient missionary, but sometimes some of the stuff I do or say shock people.  I'm working on this through goal setting...and I hope you guys can too. 

So yeah! That's what they talked about at zone conference...they talked about obedience and goal setting.  It was a very fitting zone conference for me, because both are things that I'm not good at, but I'd like to be.  I seriously in the past have hated setting goals, because I'm scared of not measuring up to them, but goals are a way to see progress, so I'll have to get over my fears and be more specific in my goals...it's not very feasible to think you can just change over night...i've heard stories, but never actually just POOF changed...So, little by little.  You can't just go from not understanding how you listen to the Holy Ghost to feeling it constantly in your life.  This isn't how I teach my investigators, and it's not what I expect for myself either.  First you teach them what the Holy Ghost is.  Then you encourage them to do things that will invite the Holy Ghost into their lives, such as baptism, and laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, prayer to recognize how he feels for you individually, being obedient so he can dwell with you, following his promptings so he stays...etc.  As I more understand righteous principles, I think I'll keep them more.  President shared Alma 32 with us about arousing your faculties..you can't just have faith in something right away.  Not true and everlasting faith.  There are steps to do.  The start is getting the desire, arousing your faculties...hoping...so yeah.  This is what my hope for you guys is....that as I do my best as a missionary to serve God and bless my family, you guys will also put faith into action...have weekly Family Home Evening, pray together, read together, strengthen your relationship, avoid things that draw you apart...change yourself for those around you...learn to love each other, more fully and more completely.  That is my hope...but I can't change anybody's agency...Only you can change, no matter how much others want you to.

In another experience, this week my companion and I had the..unique experience to have lunch with a member of a church that broke off of the LDS church, they read the Book of Mormon, but beliefs are much different than our own.  I know which church it is, but would prefer not to specify, as there are quite a few break off's of the LDS church.  Sufficeth it to say she had us come back with her to their church, one floor in a large building with many floors. 

4 minutes this story needs to be brief...anyways, we went back there, and it's really small since not many believers live in Taiwan, but they had copies of the Book of Mormon.  I picked one up and began to read the introduction.  As I was reading, the Holy Ghost came very strong to my heart that the intention of this book was completely wrong.  I felt sad for this lady, she has SO much truth, she has the Book of Mormon in her life, she has Moroni's promise, and yet, she doesn't have true authority.  The Holy Ghost just testified to me that this wasn't true and what I had in my bag was.  I'm glad for the Holy Ghost and our ability as members of this church to know truth for ourselves.  Her reason for not being with our church was the LDS churches past of polygamy.  It had nothing to do with her own feelings.  So how great that we have personal revelation.  Nobody can be forced to believe truth.  We feel it.  I know this church is true.  I felt it.  And I felt it that day, strongly.  I love that lady a lot, but I'm glad I was born into a church with correct authority.  To her, I would not say her church was wrong, I don't persecute others beliefs, but I stand strong to mine.  I know the Book of Mormon is true.  I loved Sunday Afternoon's talk.  25 seconds to send this! Bye!

No Touching Rule in Affect in MTC

Elder Brandon Mitchell's family reported on his blog yesterday on Sunday, 11 October 2009 that

The MTC presidency has now declared it flu season so we can no longer touch people.  No handshakes no hugs.  So instead we do air handshakes where you put your hand a couple inches away from the other persons hand and you shake your hand up and down in the air.  I think it is actually pretty amusing.  My companion and I started doing air fives with sound effects.  Basically I do an air five with someone else and we stop just a couple inches away from the other person’s hand.  Then my companion claps at the same time.  When it works out it is pretty cool. 

The precaution is necessary because he reported earlier in his post that there are 2,104 missionaries at the MTC currently so there is a possibility of flu spreading again.

Missionary Work Changes Lives

Today Landon Rich, a missionary serving in the Peru Lima Mission shares with us the story of Carlos, a drug addict who lived on the streets and slept in the back of a truck who has since cleaned up his act and is taking the missionary lessons.  To find out the details go to the Elder Landon Rich's post The Lost Black Sheep.  Missionaries change lives with their faith and belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is one of the better missionary posts I have read in some time.

The Things that Missionaries Do

Sister Aubrey Bjarnson serving in the Italy Rome Mission on the blog Quiet Rain shares this interesting parable The Game of Life:

And I want to tell a story.

The Game of Life: A Parable of Member Missionary Work

Okay, so I’m going to first tell you what happened, and then I’ll explain the parable. Monday morning, our District Leader calls us to ask if we’re okay with having lunch in the church after DDM. Okay, that sounds fine. Then he says, “Elder Torres is going to try and call you, but do not answer the phone.” “Why not?” “I’ll explain later.” Sure enough, shortly thereafter, Anziano Torres calls, and we did not answer. In fact I think Sorella Swenson hung up on him. Then they called again. We did not answer. We continued to get ready to go. Besides, we thought, we’re going to see the elders in a few minutes because DDM was in a half hour. The phone rang again. This time it was a private number. My insides squirmed. It was most likely the elders, but why was it so important for them to reach us and why did our district leader want so badly that we not listen? Again we did not answer.

Okay, in actuality, at this point my companion figured it out. However, for purposes of the parable we are going to say that we were still in the dark.

Again the phone rang as a private number, and we did not answer. And then, Marco Antonio called. We couldn’t not talk to Marco Antonio even if we knew that he was probably trying to relay a message from the other elders. Marco Antonio informed us that were to bring UNO so we could play in the church.

Our District Leader represents a priest of another religion. Me and my companion represent normal people who do not know the church. The other elders represent (dun dun dun) missionaries. Marco Antonio represents a member of the church and our friend. UNO represents a game that I love and would be sad if I realized that I had unknowingly passed up the chance to play it.

Anziano Nielson (our district leader) hates Uno. Other leaders of other religions do not understand the joy that comes from the true gospel. They tell their congregation not to listen to other religions. People can be confused. They will hold tightly to what they know (their district leader told them not to answer the phone) and are hesitant to open the doors to unknown (whatever it was that the other elders wanted). However, when you bring in member missionaries, the work moves forward. People trust their friends. Through their member friends they can be brought to the knowledge of the gospel. They can be told what they have to do to receive Eternal Life (or to have a great game of UNO).

 I find it interesting the simple things that amuse missionaries.

Transfer 5 Week 2: Struggles in New Area

This week doesn't have a lot in the way of things to talk about. I've found that I don't exactly like moving. I miss Zhongli a lot. Mostly because I worked so hard there in Zhongli for almost 6 months and our numbers were like, almost too good to be true, then I came here and we only have one ward instead of two, it's a lot smaller of an area and only one ward, and it's really ridiculously hard to get places, and I'm exasted to death after ever 20 minute bike ride, whereas, 20 minute bike rides in my old area were nothing...and our numbers were the worst they have been on my entire mission. I'm not really sure what to do to start to like this place. Our church is the 5th and 6th floor on a 12 floor building, and it's kind of ghetto fabulous. It has green tiled floors, and looks like it was built in the 60s. But, at least I have found some more positives besides my huge apartment and my own bathroom. Haha. One is my companion. She's actually really good. She's been here a long time, so you would think that if I thought we should stop meeting with an investigator, she'd be upset at me and want to hold on, because she's been here 6 transfers (longer than I've been on a mission) and been working with them forever, but she's very open to my opinions. We've spent a lot of time contacting, which I've never spent a lot of time doing at all...and I'm getting used to it. I have to admit, I feel like contacting is not exactly super effective because you talk to people for 2 hours, and you are lucky if you find 1 that wants to meet, but I'm talking to more people, so that's good. In the past I have not talked to nearly as many people. My legs are also pretty buff. It hurts to go up hills, but my legs are getting huge with muscles, so I'm sure I'm going to like that eventually..once it stops hurting. Rather huge with muscles than with fat right?!

Our district is also really good. Our district leader, Elder Daniels, used to be the zone leader in Hualien. Elder Lords went and took his place. He's training an Elder Leavitt this transfer, so he went district leader to train ba. His companion is very dedicated. It will be fun to see his Chinese improve, I've always been the youngest in my district until now. We also have the zone leaders in my district. Elder Cai is really funny. He was in Zhongli 2nd ward with me and Sister Hill back in my first 2 transfers. So, it's nice to be in a district with someone I already knew before. And E. Hammer seems fun too.

The only thing that I can even remember about this week, besides that we contacted a lot since we don't have a whole lot of investigators right now, so we are in a transition and finding a lot...we had the Moon Festival here in Taiwan this last weekend. There are about 3 big festivals here, and the Moon Festival is one of them. We cooked meat...steaks and squid and porkchops on a grill and BBQed them. That's a big thing to do. And FYI squid isn't bad. It's just chewy! It was a lot of fun. I just played with the kids and ate a lot. My stomach was so happy. Us missionaries are kind of poor, so we don't eat a ton of meat...at least I don't...because it's a lot more expensive. Unless I just eat like a piece of Chicken for dinner, for 50 kuai..and that's all. And I haven't had steak since America! So yum yum yum. So yeah! I enjoyed Moon Festival, too bad I only get to be here for one. But not THAT too bad, because everyone going home is always like "I'm so tired!" So I probably will be tired by next year too and not want to stay another 3 months to have Moon Festival. haha. Soooo that's pretty much it. Contacting and moon festival. Those were pretty much the events of this week! Next week we have Zone Conference and we watch General Conference Saturday and Sunday, so I'll write about that next week perhaps!

Oh! And by the way, I invited someone to baptism on the street yesterday, just to practice, um I think I confused her a little, so I need more practice at explaining it, she said "next time there's an chance.." whatever that means! But at least I did it, and I got her number, so I'll call next week and see if she'll set up. she was cute. Haha.

Bye bye!

1-800-Dial-a-Baptism: Blog of the Month

Elder Lee Jepsen serving in the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission's mother has one of the most interesting missionary blogs as she shares video clips and very interesting accounts of his mission which started in Denmark Copenhagen and now finishes up in this mission which also includes part of Canada.

Being a more mature member of the church he has some interesting insights and thoughts about his mission which he shares weekly with his family.  An exceptionally interesting post is 1-800-Dial-a-Baptism in which he reports:

This week I once again had the blessing of seeing my testimony grow. The Lord truly loves the people in this area the way that He prepares both them and us. We do our missionary work every week, but it was as if I this week in particular saw a clear relation in how the Lord blesses us when he finds our effort acceptable and the time is right. It could seem that perhaps we are doing something right. Now I just have to remember what that was and we can do it every week. But wait, if that doesn't happen I guess it wasn't us at all, but instead the Lord's hand at work. We just work here. ;-)

A woman phoned us up one day and said she wanted to be baptized... just like that... out of the blue. She had met with the elders four years ago and it had come to a halt for some reason.

Then she recently had a dream where she was reading in the Book of Mormon, and definitely read the word "Apocalypse" very clearly. Still in her dream, she reacted by saying out loud "I should have gotten baptized while I had the chance." This was at first particularly unsettling to her because she was reading "Apocalypse" as a synonym to "Armageddon," much more like an all encompassing version of our more recent and already horrifying September 11th.

I then proceeded to explain to her that the word itself actually simply meant "revealed," "uncovered," or even "morning of Divine light" and actually applies to all books of scripture, as the "Revelation of John" is also known as the "Apocalypse" and the word just got a bad rep because of the contents of that particular book. However, the word applied to her in the way that this was an uncovering of truth for her, a revelation to her from God mapping out a course of action for her to follow.

With that settled she was all for baptism. Well that is... she was all for baptism already when she called us, we just work here. Obviously there's a lot more to the story, but to shorten a long story we have planned for her baptism a month from now, on her birthday.

 Check out this blog if you want to see the maturity and insights of this fine man.

Transfers: How Missionaries Reckon Time

In missionary culture the lives of missionaries revolve around transfers.  A transfer occurs every six weeks on a regular cycle and missionaries count their time in the mission field from their first transfer.  Mission presidents on average go on the six-week cycle but some mission presidents might deviate slightly. For the most part the six-week cycle is the accepted time frame for the majority of missions.

How the cycle is measured is done transfer by transfer with weeks 1-6 for the six-week cycle. For example, Transfer 1 Week 1-6, Transfer 2 Week 1-6 etc.  The mission president in consultation with his two mission assistants assigns each companionship to a specific proselyting area for each transfer. For sister missionaries there are on average twelve transfers on the six-week cycle.  For elders there are on average sixteen transfers on the six-week cycle.

The only exception to the regular transfer occurs when there is a problem with a missionary such as an elder or sister becomes too close to a member of the opposite sex or a missionary is fighting with a companion then there can be an emergency transfer. Such transfers occur outside the regular cycle but don't affect the ongoing cycle of transfer counting.  For the most part missionaries reckon time by transfers in their mission and their lives revolve around  their transfers.  They mark their time by their transfers.

The reckoning of time based on transfers pervades missionaries lives.  Whenever I talk to a missionary at church they will inevitably bring up the fact the might be transferred.  There is no telling how long a missionary will last in an area. It could be anywhere from two months to six months or even longer. I stayed personally in a few areas about a month.

 There are a variety of ways that missionaries are informed of transfers.  The majority of them are called out by the mission assistants to the zone leaders to the district leaders down to the companionship.  In some fields all missionary companionships are called but in other fields only the missionaries affected are called.  The latter makes more sense.  I guess it doesn't hurt to call everyone since missionaries wonder who will remain in their district or zone.

A few missions which are geographically small hold a gathering of all missionaries and make an event of transfers.  There are some advantages like bonding or camaraderie.  It can fire up the missionaries and they can meet old friends or new missionaries.  Missionary presidents can use the event to communicate expectations.


Some missions actually have all the missionaries get together for a special transfer meeting.  It depends on the size of the mission and the disruption to the missionaries.  In the Texas Dallas Mission, Elder Kevin Forsell reported on 21 September 2009:

I just got in my new area last week. It's been great!! Ok, I'll tell you how it went: Transfer meeting: Elder McGregor and I went to transfer meeting and I was super nervous because I wanted a really great companion. After a few announcements they announced the new companionships. They called Elder McGregor to stay in McKinney and his new companion is Elder Urchhart. He was my companion while we flew from the MTC to TX. He's really cool. I hope he's my companion someday. Then they called my new area. My new companion is Elder Marshall and my new area is Oak Cliff. :D The area: oak cliff is JUST south of downtown dallas and SUPER ghetto. i love it. It's a bike area!! I dont have a car, but biking everywhere is really fun. The weather is getting better so its not as bad biking in the 105 degree weather. Now its in the 80's. lately its been rainy. We set two dates already, one to an investigator named Domingo and another to Arturo. Domingo is a little unsure... lives alone... wants to learn more. Arturo is part of a part member family. Wife and son are members, he's not... but SUPER excited to get baptized. The Comp: Elder Marshall is from Colorado Springs, CO. He's the only member of his family who's a member of the church and has only been a member for 2.5 years!! But he knows the gospel a lot, and is a really experienced missionary. He goes home in April. He's been in Oak Cliff for 2 transfers already (this is his third) and lately he's only kept companions for 1 transfer. maybe the trend will follow and I'll get ANOTHER new companion next transfer. I hope not though. Elder Marshall is a great example. He's really good at teaching me things and showing me how to be a good missionary. He has a goal to make me a leader by the end of the transfer ( for example, District Leader or Trainer or something).

My own daughter who is serving in the Taiwan Taipei Mission sends home many of her weekly emails with captions such as Week 23 in Zhongli, Transfer 4 Week 6: 4 Baptisms Slated.  My daughter lasted in Zhongli thirty weeks or a little over six months which was a long time in how long a missionary reckons time.

 Elder Bradley McMullin described on 2 September 2009 the details he learned through a call about transfers in the Illinois Chicago South Mission:

Everything is going well. We got transfer calls last night. Pretty crazy stuff. Elder Denter and I are staying the same. Elder Sorensen is leaving Prestbury for Woodridge 2, which is in the Joliet Zone. Elder Gates, who is a really good soccer player, is taking his spot. Elder Price, from Woodridge 1, is becoming a new Zone Leader in Chicago. Elder Tzunun is taking his spot to be with Elder Barker, who's been in his first area for 6 months already. Elder Baum is coming to take Elder Wiser's spot in Naper 6. The Spanish are all staying the same. We've also got a new AP, Elder Wilson, who was a Zone Leader in Chicago. There's the news for the Zone! The other Sisters and the Geneva Elders are staying the same.

Elder Michael Bentz serving in Germany describes the process of killing off or sending home former companions in a future transfer:

Yeah, this new place Bad Homburg is pretty sweet, my comp, Elder Braithwaite, from Highland, UT is way cool, he dies in 2 transfers, so I might end up killing him as well as my trainer, oh well, it doesn't bother me very much.

Elder William Boy serving in the Virginia Richmond Mission expresses his feelings about not having to pack his things when not being transferred:

Elder Shock is leaving for home at the end of this transfer and so I will probably be staying here for the next 12 weeks and I am so happy to be here, and feel secure in that I don't have to pack everything up in 6 weeks. ( that is a pain).

Even church leaders sometimes have an impact on whether a missionary is transferred.  Elder Brent Parson shared a bishop's request to his mission president:

So this week was the week of transfers. We were talking to our Bishop about how this transfer is going to be complicated because tons of new missionaries are going to show up and how Elder Bie was probably going to be transferred.

So then on Sunday after having lunch with him he asked me to give him my cell phone and put me on the line with President. I was a bit confused but I dialed President's number and gave it to him. He said a bunch of stuff to President but pretty much said that if there was anyway possible to keep both of us here in the area then he would be really happy because we are doing really good work here in the area. I relaxed as I heard this haha and thought it was way cool that he did that.

So then Monday night came and we received the call to see who was going to be transferred. I still thought, despite my Bishop's call, that Elder Bie was going to leave...but it wasn't so. My Bishop got his wish and we both are going to stay here another month and half at least.

Well we didn't have much else to do and my comp had to talk to President about some stuff so we went to the Mission Office for transfers today.

Both us and my entire zone were sure that my comp was going to be transferred and that I was going to train seeing as I am "in that season" of the mission and there are 21 new missionaries showing up, but alas that didn't happen.

I was actually kind of disappointed. I thought that maybe I had lost some of President's respect or something like that but one of my friends who is one of the Assistants called me over during transfers and told me that they literally had put me up on "the board" that President has with all the missionaries in the mission as a trainer with my new noobie companion and everything...but then right before they finalized the transfer my Bishop called saying that he really wanted us to stay.

And so President decided to change everything and now I will wait a bit longer to train I guess. I mean, it's cool what happened and everything but on the other hand I really wanted to train. But whatevs, I am still happy with everything that is going on here in the area so I don't have much to complain about.

Speaking of that we had 2 baptisms last week and 2 more this week.

 Elder Kyle Parker feels that transfers are based on spiritual impressions:

 Hello Hello. This week wasn’t a very eventful one so sorry about that. We are trying to find new investigators and it is kind of hard. This coming week is the last week of the transfer. We really don’t know what is going to happen to either of us. President Drewes kind of hinted  I might be staying but you never know with that man. I have been in Jackson, Tennessee for 4 and ½ months now. I haven’t stayed in an area longer than that so statistics show that the logical choice would be that I get transferred but transfers aren’t supposed to be logical, they are spiritual and it is up to the Lord whether I get transferred or not.

 The concept of transfers is a real part of missionaries lives.  We as members and general members or parents of missionaries don't fully understand the telling of time in the same way as missionaries serving.  We see things in minutes, hours, weeks, months, and years.  We try to shape events in missionaries lives on that basis. We don't really relate to a six-week period as defining and impacting the lives of missionaries.  We would be able to talk to missionaries better if  we could to fit their activities to the way they see time rather than the way we see time.  It would be more meaningful to understanding missionary work if we could understand the transfer cycle better. My daughter always laughs when she calls twice a year and see talks about transfers and it goes right over our heads.  It is unique to LDS missionary culture.