Transfer 3 Area 2

Hey everyone! Transfer calls were Saturday and Valdez won't be my home anymore. I'm pretty sad about it. President Dance called Saturday for transfer calls, and he had me put it on speaker phone, so Elder Wood and I thought that either it was going to close, or both of us would stay. He told Elder Wood he would be training a new greenie. That's 3 in a row in Valdez. Pretty unusual for a bush area. He is pretty nervous for that. President Dance told me I am going to Wasilla to the Knik Fairview ward (you pronounce the K in Knik). I am serving with a big Tongan guy named Elder Vailea. I think we will get along, but I want to work hard and be obedient, and have lots of fun at the same time. We'll see how that goes. I will be the designated driver because they don't even bother having the Polynesians get licenses because of all the paper work. And I'll be driving a truck so that's awesome! I've heard it's a great area though so I'm excited for that. I really didn't want to leave Valdez. Most elders stay 3 to 4 transfers in Valdez, but both me and Elder Norton only stayed two each. It was really hard to leave everything, especially the members. I was pretty spoiled having Valdez as my greenie area. I'm used to having huge mountains basically right outside my door and all around me, and Wasilla is more of a valley so it's a lot more open. At least I can dry clean my suits now. I've been wearing my suits for three months without washing them. And I'm not sure how, but I gained 20 pounds of luggage in Valdez, and ripped the handle off my big suitcase because it weighed 70 pounds. I was pretty mad about it.

Valdez will hopefully be good for Elder Wood and his new greenie this transfer. We have found a couple people we are trying to teach, and just got a really good refferal from the Zone leaders in Juneau, so hopefully Valdez will pick up. The first three weeks with Elder Wood were a little tough, but the last three weeks were awesome. He was a good companion and we had a lot of fun. I told the members in Valdez that I would be back, and I really want to be sent back to Valdez again before I come home. If they close the area for awhile I would love to be able to open it. Anyways, Elder Wood and I had to give talks on Sunday, and it went pretty well. I talked on Baptism and he talked on the Holy Ghost. I was also able to teach both the 2nd and 3rd discussions this week. We taught them to members, because it's a slow area, but at least I got to teach them. We also went fishing on Monday, but we didn't catch anything. They were jumping just outside our reach from the shore. They are big fish. We had to hike a little bit to get to the spot where we were told to fish by members, and it was right next to a person's cabin on some rocks. It was private property so we knocked to ask if we could fish there and no one answered so we just fished. They got home while we were fishing, so we had to ninja our way through the forest and find the trail again to get out without being caught.

Being a missionary is awesome. Well, have a good week and hopefully I will have good news in my email next week! Thanks for the shoes! They are awesome and they fit prefect. I was basically a baller on the court with them. And thanks for the hand grip thing too. I'm going to have a gorilla grip when I get home. I'm really sory but I don't know if I will be able to write letters this week. I can only write today, and with transfers I'm not sure how much time I will have. And who knows if I can email next week because of Labor Day, but we'll see. I love you guys and hope everything is going well at home! Love Mat