Off to Serve in Bandon

Hello everyone!  This week marked off my last week of being in the Winston ward in the Roseburg stake.  I am currently off to serve in Bandon, which is a small costal town in the Coos Bay stake, and my companion is Elder Bushman.  Due to Bandon being on the coast, I am excited to get to see the ocean for the second time in my life, as well as enjoy cooler temperatures than what I was experiencing in Winston.  Elder Bushman is also the first zone leader I had when I entered the mission, and is a missionary I seem to keep running into each time I transfer.  This will be his final transfer before going home, and it should be fun seeing how the upcoming weeks unfold!

To start off with this past week though, on Tuesday we had a great lesson with Philip, where we taught the word of wisdom.  He readily accepted it and got rid of his coffee pot after we left.  He is doing awesome and should make it to his baptism this upcoming transfer.  When he does, I will have the privilege of getting to Skype in.  The rest of the day was spent contacting, teaching a lesson to an investigator who is moving out, and watching "Seventeen Miracles" for a special event in our Book of Mormon class.  In the middle of it all, our Chevy Cruz's battery died due to a Tiwi malfunction, and we had to jump start our car with the help of a member.

On Wednesday, the biggest event was the ward inviting us missionaries to help teach in a mutual mission night, where the youth went from one room to another hearing mission stories and learning what it meant to be a missionary.  In our station we decided to get the youth teaching, so we taught them our missionary purpose and had them role playing giving us a Book of Mormon from Tracting or street contacting.  It was fun to watch them honestly struggle, but have a good time doing it, and in the end, our room was the only one we heard the youth talking about when we finished up.  Score one for the missionaries!

The rest of the week was spent doing average missionary work, including a lot of walking.  Friday morning was when we got our transfer calls, which was followed up with me giving my final district meeting for a little while.  The rest of the week was spent saying good byes, dealing with car troubles (the battery died a second time Sunday morning and we had to get the tires switched), and more teaching and walking.  It has been an honor to serve in Winston, and while here I have learned so much about conversion, how wards and stakes operate, charity for all those we have been blessed to teach, and a deeper testimony.  The people here are amazing, and I hope to be able to continue to grow as a missionary in Bandon.  Until then, thank you for all of the support!

Elder Baxter

Loving the river.  Now onto the ocean!

Saying Goodbye