Transfered for the Last Time

Family!

About 3 months ago in an interview, I sat across from Sister Jensen and she asked me, "So, Elder Brown, where have you served?"

"Well," I replied, "I've been on the river nearly my entire mission. The only area that wasn't on the Mississippi was Kirksville. I was in Fort Madison, then Kirksville, then Davenport, and now Quincy. Every area has at least been super far East."

"Really?" She seemed a bit astonished, "Well, that won't last long."

I sat across from President Jensen not 10 minutes later. "Well, Elder Brown, how long have you been here so far?" I told him the amount of time I had been in Quincy, about 4 months at that point. "Hm... Maybe a transfer more and you'll be out of here."

"President?" I ventured, "I've been on the Mississippi my whole mission. I'd really like to see Des Moines or go somewhere in that direction."

He looked pensive, then said matter-of-factly "Well, that's pretty logical. It will happen, don't you worry."

So, you may ask, was I surprised when I got transferred to Clinton, IA? Why yes, I was. And then you may ask, is that anywhere near Des Moines? No, No it is not. Well then where is it?

You guessed it. Right on the Mississippi river. I'm still in the Davenport Stake, serving as one of the Clinton Zone Leaders. My companion is Elder Aaron Leavitt, who I replaced when I went to Quincy. He was one of my zone leaders during the time that I served in Kirksville, so I already know him well. He goes home at the end of this transfer, and so I'll be his very last companion! He is wonderful. He is from Las Vegas, Nevada, and he is a great missionary. I've looked up to him for a long time, and so I hope I can learn from him in the short time that we'll have to serve together. So far, the zone has struggled a bit over the last little while. I hope that good things come about as Elder Leavitt and I serve together. I still have little to no idea about the area, but we have a sweet African young lady who is scheduled to be baptized on the 31st of January. I hope we can help her to reach that date!

Also, just a little miracle. I can't remember if I mentioned how we did a Called to Serve program during the time I was in Davenport. We had mini missionaries, and my mini missionary was Chris? Well, he lives in Clinton. When I got here, I found out he was less active! So maybe that's one of the reasons that the Lord has sent me back to the Mississippi... We will see.

I love you all!

Elder Brown