Wow, so I guess I’ll cut right to the chase. This week has been huge.
Every time I get comfortable at what I’m doing, I always get a curve ball thrown at me. So obviously, I’m getting transferred. Wed. I’ll be heading over to go serve with Elder Briggs in Beira 1. All city! It will be a huge change of scenery for me. From the jungle to the city. It will be good though. I really like Elder Briggs. He’s from Provo, Utah and has 4 transfers now. I’m really looking forward to the transfers. Our new apartment is apparently really nice. It will just be us two in there, so that’s cool. I guess it was an apartment for senior missionaries, but was turned into one for missionaries so it’s extra nice. Some other news that might interest you as well, is that I just was put in as District Leader too. Ha! I’m pretty much freaking out. So nervous. Hopefully it will all turn out good. I am the youngest and most inexperienced senior companion in the district as well as the 3rd to last, most inexperienced senior companion in the mission and now I have to try and teach guys older than me how to be better missionaries. I honestly don’t know how to do that. I think I will be learning more
from them, than they will learn from me. The other companionships in the district is of Elder Jensen and Elder Udall. Elder Jensen is the senior and is only 1 transfer ahead of me however he has been a senior comp for 3 transfers now. I knew him in the MTC and so we’re pretty good friends already. We lived in Munhava for 2 transfers together so that will fun to be with him again. His comp Elder Udall is 1 transfer behind me and just came up from Maputo and so far I like him a lot. The other companionship is Elder Kanel and Boswell. Elder Kanel is coming up from Maputo too. I think he’s the only one in the district with over a year on the mission. Then Elder Boswell was with us in my district in the MTC and so we know each other pretty well. So that is our district. It’s only 6 missionaries, but it’s actually the biggest district in Beira. So I’m excited about starting my new assignment. I’ll let you know how things go. It’s really not that big of an assignment, but I’m still pretty nervous. All I have to do is district meetings every Friday, pass along information from the Zone Leaders and do Baptismal Interviews, so that’s cool. I think I can handle that. It was just so unexpected. I was pretty sure that I was getting transferred, but really thought that if I was going to have an extra responsibility it would be going into another branch presidency not as a DL. It will be good though. I’m pretty sure I’ll learn a lot. The nice thing is I get to carry a phone now, so that will be a lot of fun. The branch I’m going into apparently has a lot of strong members and doing well but has a lack of leadership like everywhere up here. That’s where my one semi-strength lies I think. I learned alot in Munhava about working with the branch and training and helping branch leadership and so hopefully some of the things I have learned will translate over. I guess we’ll see. But ya. That’s the big news. The rest of the week was good. We did a lot of training this week and I’ve been doing a ton of branch work this week, trying to get all of the loose ends tied up and things ready for Elder Buckner, for when he takes my place. But ya. The week was a good one.

I received that package and really like everything in it. Those clippers will be really nice and so thanks for those! The caramels were still super good too, so that was nice. Can’t wait to cook the cookies and everything else. I’ve got to say though, that those cool-aid packets are by far the best. We drink a lot of cool-aid. Anyways, Happy b-day to Big O! I still can’t believe he’s 17! That’s pretty nuts. Glad things are getting warmer because that means things are getting colder out here... ha. Anyway. Thanks for the letters and package and talk to you soon!

Elder Okazaki