Elder Andrew Mockler: What a crazy week!

Hello!

Wow...what a week. At moments I feel like this has been the longest week ever...and in the next moment I can't believe so much has happened in so little time. I'll see how much I can fit in here before we run out of time.

It all started last weekend because President called us and told us that a missionary from our mission had decided to go home early so we had to pick him up from the train station, get his travel ready, and take him to the airport. He got here Saturday night and Sunday morning we drove to the airport at 3:00 am to get him in for his flight which left at 6:30. The only problem was that we didn't realize the church travel office had accidentally booked his flight from Madrid instead of Málaga until we had already arrived and waited in line. So, at 4:00am I rang the church travel office emergency line in Utah and had a nice 30 minute conversation to try to rebook the flight. Nothing was going out on Sunday so....we repeated it all on Monday morning (well, except the phone call to Utah). It was totally insane. After a good nap for a few hours we came into the office and got some things started before going to Zone Leader Concilio Monday evening and Tuesday morning. It was really good to see all the zone leaders and be back at concilio! I translated the whole time, which ended up being really fun, but we all felt like zombies by the time Tuesday ended.

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty normal days without too much office madness, which was a much needed break. Yesterday, though, we started all the fun of transfer time! I spent the day making travel plans and buying lots of train tickets for our training meetings next week and the transfer on Tuesday. We'll keep working on all of that until Wednesday when Elder Hunt leaves and I get to start knocking out all of the post-transfer residency work...woohoo! I don't want to make it sound like my whole life is just drudgery, though, because it is anything but that. I really don't think I've had more fun in my entire life!

Today President told us to find something fun to do for P-Day, and as we helped a member move we saw a Miniature Golf course and decided to go. It was awesome! It was probably the most intense Mini-Golf I've ever played. I almost won, but barely missed the hole-in-one on the bonus hole which really ruined my score. 3rd place works too, I guess.

And missionary work? Things are looking really good here. I've met tons of British people here...and people from about every other part of Europe. We found a new investigator this week named Johnny who is from Norway. He first met missionaries about 20 years ago and knows quite a bit about the church already. We're excited to keep meeting with him. Despite having a lot of our proselyting time taken up by office work we still get lots of chances to teach and find new people. It is a great blessing.

Oh yeah! There is so much to say I keep forgetting important things. So like I said, transfers are this week and Elder Hunt is leaving. We found out that Elder Nally is going to start training his replacement this week, who is none other than....wait for it....Elder Berrett! We couldn't believe it! I'll be back with my hijo here in the office haha. I'm super excited to be back with him again. I will probably be with him until at least March which is pretty wild. I can't wait.

This church is SO true! There is no other organization like it in the world. I see that more and more here in the office. I am so grateful to be part of this great work in the last days. It is humbling to know that Heavenly Father put such circumstances in my life to lead me to be here. I am grateful for all I am learning. I'm also grateful for Jesus Christ, who is our living Savior, brother, and friend. I wish to grow closer to Him everyday and hope I can help others along the way, too.

Have a great week! I love you all so much!!

Elder Mockler

Random, unexpected fishy dinner with some investigators

(fish eyes are actually quite good...have I mentioned that before?)