Week 11; Transfers

March 30, 1988

On Thursday, we gave a short Book of Mormon presentation to Leslie down on Corina. Unfortunately, we did not have a marked copy of the Book of Mormon with us, so we will have to drop one by tomorrow. I don’t know why we went all the way down there only to give here a short presentation instead of taking a little bit longer and teaching the first discussion.

On Friday, we tried to see one contact, but he was not at home.  Transfers are next week, and my trainer is convinced that he is out of here.  I guess that explains why the work has fallen off.

The Menlo Park Stake had its conference this weekend.  After the adult session on Saturday night, our ward mission leader, as he was driving us home, said that he wanted to take us out for pie.  As we were trying to think of a place to go for pie, our WML said that he had been craving Chinese food all night, then he mentioned a place called Chinese Delight, which he said his car automatically goes to everyday, and then he goes from there.  Moments later we were pulling into the parking lot and we all said "What the heck, let's do it."

Earlier in the day, Elder Golf and I rode all over our area -- some elders, a long time ago, divided the area into five subdivisions, and we went to all five -- dropping off thank you notes and trying to see contacts.  Additionally, we hopped the zone boundary to visit Golf's aunt in Mountain View.

On Sunday, we had the general session of stake conference today at the Menlo Park chapel. President Douglas was in attendance and was asked to bear his testimony. Afterward we attended a baptism for a family of five. The lucky missionaries were Elders Victor and November. The whole thing was beautiful and the spirit was so strong. It fired me up so that I can’t wait until my first baptism, even more than before. That strengthened my determination to work hard.

This area has been dead since October. Golf and I have not worked very hard these past two months. I wonder how hard he worked with his previous companions. If we had worked harder and given it our all, while living the mission rules, we might have had success. But we did not give it our all and our Father in Heaven did not give us all his blessings. If Golf is transferred, I hope my new companion will be a hard worker, one that will give his all so that we can breathe life back into this area.

On Monday morning, Elders Golf and Lima had a minor bike accident. They were riding down Hamilton Avenue, which parallels University Avenue, when they saw two guys point at them and start running after them. Golf and Lima sped up to make their escape by turning right onto Hale Avenue. Golf was in the lead and was hugging the curb; he saw the cause of his demise at the last second.

At the corners of many streets in Palo Alto the sidewalk is flush with the street and underneath is a drainage culvert. Golf saw too late that he had hugged the curb too tightly, he tried to turn away but he was out of room, so he smashed into lip of the sidewalk. His back wheel flipped up and he walked his bike four steps before Lima smashed into him from behind.

Lima had heard the noise of Golf’s collision with the culvert and he thought, “No, he’s not dumb enough to hit that.” Alas, they both fell in a heap, fortunately for Golf, his arm kept his face from hitting the pavement. Neither suffered any major injuries, just bumps and bruises, their bikes, on the other hand, were not so fortunate.  Golf's front rim, which struck the culvert head on, was bent inward, a total loss; Lima’s front forks were bent out of shape. As they lay twisted on the ground, a police car pulled up and the officer asked if they were okay. Their pursuers were nowhere in sight.

Meanwhile, back at the flat, I was passing off the fourth discussion to Elder Fox. Elders Victor and November came down later and November and I passed off the fifth and sixth discussions. Tonight we went over to our ward mission leader's home and they invited us to stay for dinner. We earned our keep by teaching family home evening after dinner.

On Tuesday morning, we went to see two of our contacts, Todd and Lloyd, but neither were at home.  In the afternoon, I went with Elder Fox to see one of their contacts who had become one of ours with the ward boundary changes.  Nicholas had some questions about baptism, as taught in the second discussion; he thinks a lot and seems to be teachable.

Transfer calls came around noon.  Elder Golf is finally getting out of here; all week he has been impatient to move on.  Elder Fox is going as well; he has been called to be a zone leader in Los Gatos -- couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Last night my companion got a call from his trainer.  I was in the other room, but I could not help but overhear some of what was said.  It was no surprise to hear that he was happy to be leaving, but then he said that his last two months here had been a joke.  Yeah, that might explain why we haven't been working all that hard.  That really got to me, that he would consider my training period to be a joke.  I don't think my companion ever really accepted my quiet personality.  I love the guy, but what a jerk.

I'm sorry, I never wanted to write negative things about my companions, but, wow.  When I wrote in my journal last night, I had been in a mood to be magnanimous.  I admit that I am feeling less so, today.

For the transfer, we drove Elders Golf and Fox up to Edgewood chapel in Redwood City to meet the transfer van.  This mission is small enough geographically that the mission mechanics can pick the elders up at different points in the mission and take them to other points to meet their new companions.  Golf and Fox would ride in the van, which was pulling a trailer with their luggage, south to the next zone.  My new companion got out of the van after riding south from San Fransisco (the City).

Elder Lima's new companion was not on the transfer van as he is actually being transferred in from the Fresno mission.  He was recently diagnosed with cancer and will be getting radiation treatments at the Stanford Medical Center.  We took my new comp, Elder Lake [as usual, names have been changed to protect the innocent -- it may have been obvious that I have been using the phonetic alphabet, but I couldn't have two Elder Limas] back to the flat so he could unpack, then we went to get a pizza before returning to Edgewood chapel to pick up Elder Lima's new comp.

When we got the pizza I noticed that Golf had left a note in my wallet reminding me that I still owed him a few bucks from a previous pizza purchase -- I had also found a note in my closet.  I was surprised that he hadn't talked to me personally.  There were a few times during the last two months that he gave me the "silent treatment"; I guess he wanted to see how I would like it.  It wasn't a particularly effective approach.

Enough about my trainer.  I've got a new comp, who seems like a good guy, and a chance to start over.  Life is good.

Love

Douglas

--

As I wrote a few weeks ago, around Christmas time I got a card from my trainer in which he thanked me for everything he learned during our two months together, and also that we sat together at lunch during the mission Christmas conference.  To this day we are still friends.  I want to add that, during those two months, he was sick a lot, so the lack of hard work was not all the result of his attitude at the time.  After few weeks in his new area he had another bike accident, this time it was because he simply passed out while riding.  It appeared that he was dealing with some persistent virus -- like Mono, or something.  A few years after my mission I had a case of Mono that left me feeling fatigued for 15 months, so I can imagine what he might have been struggling with.