12. Gilbert AZ

30 September 2013

Dear Family and Friends-

It is the last week of the transfer so a lot of crazy things have been going on, but we will get to them soon. The week started off pretty normal.

Monday- On Pday we took naps. After that we made some homemade pizzas in celebration of Elder J's last pday ever! [I guess he is finished with his mission and is going home?]  That night we did yard work for both of our neighbors.

The highlight on Tuesday was giving a blessing to a returning member of the church who is working to return to the Temple. She has had a crazy history. She claims to have done every drug, and illegal substance at some point in her life. She is also bi-polar. Fun. She asked for a blessing to clear her mind, I guess it was off the wall that day. She asked me to give the blessing and she said that once the blessing was over her mind was totally relaxed. I was so happy that I was able to help her through the authority God has given us. It was a true testimony builder for me as well!

Wednesday was a rather uneventful day. We visited a lot of less active members.

On Thursday we returned to Bobbi's to do some more service. We took down some massive tree limbs that were infested with cockroaches. Nasty. Bobbi brought some baby chicks out to play with. Fun!

I also had my first minor bike incident this week. I wasn't paying attention while riding down the sidewalk and I drifted into the stucco walls that surround nearly all the neighborhoods here. It tore up my shoulders as I blasted out chunks of the stucco wall. Ouch. It was really funny though!

On Friday we had dinner with the Primary of one of our wards that night. They were having a Primary Program rehearsal and had a pizza party before. [Primary aged children are 3-12.  All year they learn new songs and scriptures, and in the Fall present what they have learned during a Sunday Sacrament Meeting.]

On Saturday (this is where things get fun) one of our Zone Leaders was called to be the new Assistant to the President. Then our Zone Leader made us pack our bags and head to his place. We are now a trio with the Zone Leader until Wednesday (transfer day). Its been hard but pretty fun thus far!

On Sunday we attended 4 Primary Programs. Best Sunday ever! [I love that he is calling 7-8 hours- at a minimum- of Church time- the "best Sunday ever".] We taught two recent convert lessons. 

So now for the BIG NEWS. And I just found this out while I was here writing my email. Elder P was called to be a District Leader and will be getting transferred. Afterwards, President Nattress called me and told me I will be becoming Senior Companion, leading the area (hopefully the one I'm in right now) and will training an incoming visa waiter heading to Brazil.  I'm only 6 weeks old!!!!!!! WHAAAAAA. I'm really scared but excited at the same time. We have a lot of surprises to come. There are 17 new cars in the mission.  We are waiting for iphones and ipads.  I have no clue whats going to happen. Next Monday's email should be really interesting!

 hope to hear from yall soon

Elder Siebers

[In a separate quick note, Cooper asked us to email photos to him.  He wants to decorate his planner. So if you have photos (mission appropriate ONLY please) that you think he would like to remind him of the important people and places in his life- please email them to him.]

[And, on another note, many have asked about the status of Cooper's VISA.  Last Wednesday- September 25th- I logged on to the Brazilian Consulate Visa Update website and lo and behold his VISA was now "ready for collection".  This means it still needed to be mailed to the Church Travel Dept. in Salt Lake City, they will contact his current Mission President, President Nattress and his Rio de Janeiro Mission President- President Lima- to have them work out a good day for him to transfer. In general they don't like to move missionaries between transfers.  So it is highly likely that Cooper will be in Arizona for another six weeks.  But from the above, I would say he sounds pretty happy about all of that.  The ipads and iphones are going to piloted in the Gilbert Mission.  Eventually they will be rolled out to all US Missions and then perhaps most other missions?  But I would be surprised if the Rio Mission has use of this kind of technology while he is serving there.  So it's fun that he may get to be a part of the pilot.]