I am home! On Thursday I arrived home. Bridgewater is my home! It is the closest place to home on my mission. Oh how I loved my time here before and I am going to enjoy it even more this time around. For 6 months I blossomed and flourished here. I was successful. I found new investigators every week. We had investigators going to Church. We had less actives going to Church. I was on top of the world here. It was one of the highest points on my mission.
It has been a very exciting transfer week. I was the most excited for this transfer than any other transfer I've been a part of. In the days leading up to transfer day, it was hard for me mentally to stay focussed on Woodstock. It took a lot of energy for me to not think about going back to Bridgewater. Mornings and evening were particularly hard for me. It was a good exercise for me for when I go home. I imagine it will be 10 times harder. It will take every ounce of mental energy I've got to stay focussed during that final week. You'll be happy to know that even though it was hard for me to stay focussed I finished strong in Woodstock.
Often times when a missionary is on his last transfer he puts his arms in the air and says "Thats it, I'm done. What's the use anymore? If we find a new investigator I'm not going to teach him. Why bother?" They just lose complete and utter motivation to work.
I don't envision myself or Chris getting like that towards the end of our missions. We will stay focussed until the end when we walk out of that airplane. We will work hard and be just as motivated as we were at the beginning of our missions.
My final few days in Woodstock were spent by going to Island Falls on Tuesday and visiting some less actives and also doing some knocking. We had my "last supper" with the Wilkinson's Monday night. Whenever a missionary leaves the area, the Wilkinson's have that missionary over for what's called their "last supper" where they feed them a big dinner. For me it was ham and grilled chicken. It was delicious! We had a lesson with one of our investigators. He is an intense investigator. He had some intense questions for us. I got to say goodbye to some of the members before I left.
The first couple days back in Bridgewater have been great. But I was sad to learn that the work is bare right now and they have no investigators right now. That was hard on me especially since we were teaching 9 investigators when I left. It made me feel like I did all that work for nothing. I asked myself "What happened?" "What happened to all those investigators I left behind?" It was difficult for me to get over.
I have been doing a lot of pondering and praying lately asking Heavenly Father why I got transferred back here. I haven't received an answer yet though. I have had a lot of questions come into my mind. It has been a hard week mentally for me with the excitement of going back to Bridgewater and wondering why I got sent back here. I have stressed myself out this week. When really I just need to stop questioning and just embrace the simple fact that I am serving in Bridgewater now and I will be here for Christmas.
I had the opportunity to go to the temple on Thursday for the first time in 8 months and I loved it! As I was sitting in the Celestial room I thought of Ayla. I enjoyed the temple dedication yesterday as well. We went to the first session and I enjoyed Elder Clayton's talk as well. I liked when he talked about the power of the temple in our lives and how it can transform us.
Anyway that's it for this week! Have a good week and wish me luck!
Love,
Elder O'Brien (the older)
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