April 16, 2006


  • From a letter dated April 3, 2006




    Greetings from Arcadia!


    I have been transferred to the Temple City ward where I will only be serving part time as a proseltyzing missionary. I am the new Office Elder in the mission office. Pretty much during the office hours I will be here in Arcadia doing office work, coordinating transportation, helping with Zone Conferences, and other mission work.  After office hours and on weekends I'll be doing normal missionary things in Temple City. I am way stoked.


    It is so hard to leave Sunland. I loved the ward members and investigators. I became very attatched to the people. I would love to share specific ways in which people said goodbye, but it's probably not xanga appropriate, and it will make me sad to recount their sincere statements and gifts. It was so nice to know, though, that the people in that area appreciated my service there.


    Now that I am in the office, I will see a different side to the mission. It is exciting. I will probably be here for a good 6 months. There is a lot of training I have to go through just to learn about where things are and how to work out all the paperwork and things, but I am not worried about learning. It is neat- I will be seeing the political side of the mission from a third party observing perspective. Elders and Sisters have already placed bribes (I will remain silent as to whether or not I accepted them) for various favors. Office Elders get to know mission annoucements sooner than most. We see the mail first. We know transfers sooner. We know where things are- get things like Mission Rosters. People tell us their problems for some reason even though they don't need to.   Basically we see and hear everything, and everybody wants favors from us because of it.


    I am very excited to get to learn the areas of the mission and to get to see and know all of the missionaries. This is going to be a great opportunity for me.


    Speaking of opportunities, I hope that you took the opportunity to enjoy General Conference this past weekend. Elder Eyring and Elder Holland gave remarkable talks. Go to LDS.ORG right now and listen to, read, watch Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk in the Sunday Morning session. It is powerful. I always feel like Elder Holland writes his speeches as letters directly to me (of course his October 2005 address to young women being a dissapointing exception).


    Well, I better get going. Office life is very busy compared to Sunland. Take care,


    Elder Embree