TRANAFER 11

I can't believe that I got transferred. It was a shocker for sure. Only one transfer with the great Elder Jensen. So we guessed where I was going to go. We had no idea. But I had a feeling I was going to stay in the stake. And I did. Elder Hansen was in Angleton when Elder Jensen got there. After that transfer Elder Hansen left to go to Bay City. I replaced Elder Hansen in Angleton when he went to Bay City. Another note to make things more confusing, Elder Hansen was trained by my MTC companion Elder Jones in Angleton. Anyways I heard stories from Elder Jensen about Elder Hansen. I wanted to serve with him if I was getting transferred. That is exactly what happened. I bet you didn't see that coming in my email. HA! We are so happy to be together here in Bay City. He is a cool guy and we have a lot in common. He is a huge LOTR fan and a huge Office fan. We get along great and he is an excellent missionary. He has been out for almost 6 months so he is relevantly young in mission. His last companion had only been out one transfer when he got Elder Hansen.

Bay City is great. We get about 75 people to church on average and it is a small town. We cover about 6 really tiny towns in our area. The biggest being Bay City. We are 30 miles away from the closest missionaries. We have no district leader just the zone leaders in our district. So we are kind of on our own. We are the only ward that meets at our building as well. It is pretty out there in the country. But they have a library. This week we went to Matagorda. It is a small town on the gulf that had someone who had to go see. It is tiny. It has no fast food places and is pretty much only beach houses. I saw the gulf on Friday. It is nothing to be jealous of. It is nasty water and always has been. It took about 64 miles to go there and back. We have a pretty big area. I thought Angleton was big. The only difference is that there is no reason to go to the small towns unless the spirit tells us to. There are hardly any people out there.

There are some really great people we are working with here in Bay City. One of them, Johnathan Ruiz, was baptized this past weekend. He is only 9 years old but he knows 100 times more about the gospel than I did at his age and he was not even a member yet. He is the most mature 9 year old I have ever met. He is a cool kid and his family are great people as well. He is a great kid and he is very strong in the gospel for his age. I love to see it when someone excepts the gospel and lets it change their life. It makes an impact on everyone around them and helps them see the truth of the gospel. I look forward to seeing how he will change even more now that he will have the Holy Ghost. Along with him we have some great people we are still teaching. One named Dayon. He is a good kid and is also very mature for his age. He is 18 and he is a really nice and caring kid. Most of the people in his living situation don't turn out as good as he is. I think it is because his parents are good parents who have values and teach there children what is right and what is wrong.

It has been sooooo hot here this week. Today has been refreshing with the rain but it has been a scorcher lately. We were tracting yesterday and we were sweating really bad. It gets really humid and hot quick. It was in the mid 90's this week for most of the week. The heat just kills me. luckily this is a car area. I was dreading getting transferred to a bike area in the summer. That would be tough. I don't envy those Elders that get to be on bikes for the summer. There is some interesting weather news. They predicted alto of hurricanes for this year. They usually do but this year is more that it has been in a long time. They predicted 3-7 major hurricanes to get into the gulf with a 76% chance of hitting the U.S. So we might have a hurricane. I hope we don't because of the damage it brings and destruction.

Some more facts about mission life and the area I am in now. Elder Jensen is training a new missionary as well as Elder Robertson, my old companion from Friendswood. Elder Jensen didn't want to train but he will do good. Elder Robertson is excited to train. He has been in Galveston for 3 transfers by the end of this one and will most likely be there for one more to end his mission.. That would be weird. He would have served almost equally in Sugar Land, Angleton, Friendswood, and Galveston . He never got a taste of the city. Also in Bay City there are 92 churches. It is pretty crazy.
I love you all. Have a great week.

love,

ELDER DEVON J. MARR