Complete Surprise! This transfer came out of no where!

Dear Family,

So this week has been one of the craziest surprise weeks ever!!!

I have a big surprise for my last transfer too. I wasn't expecting this! Last Tuesday I got a call from President Meredith. A majority of the zone leaders right now are going home with me and so they are in need of training many new Zone Leaders that are very young. So, President tells me that he is calling me to be a Zone Leader in Anitoch where I will be training a new missionary to be a Zone Leader and I will be transferred EARLY because I am shot gunning the area and the zone due to the other two ZL's, one going home and the other being called to be the new assistant. The President wanted me to transfer early so I could have a few days with them before they left.

 On Friday morning, (transfers won't be until this upcoming Tuesday) I met with my new companion Elder Clayton. He will be my companion until Tuesday when he goes home. So I headed to Antioch for the quickest training ever. But that isn't even the biggest surprise. You'll read about it more farther down!

This place is in the middle of no where; our area is the whole Antioch stake, so Pittsburg, Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley all the way to Discovery Bay. The other catch too is I have been called to serve in the Antioch YSA ward English speaking. I went from Spanish my whole mission to English YSA. 

Yesterday at church was really great though. The members are wonderful, but they are all my age which is weird and its all in English. I am getting my real new companion on Tuesday and we will be completely new to the area and to the Zone. I am really excited though for this, my last six weeks will be great and a lot of hard work.

President Meredith said that he was sorry for giving me this big assignment my last transfer and having the Language change, but that he needed me here. I told him that I am more than happy to do it. He gave me permission to take as many naps or breaks that I need because this will be a lot of stress and work. I am excited for this big change and to go out with a boom. 

I have 6 more weeks to go and I am going to work as hard as I can. Also President Meredith, said he heard about the Zone training meeting we just gave back in the Richmond Zone  and has asked me to give the training at Zone Conference this next week. He also asked me to be prepared in Mission Leadership council to teach 3 other Zone Leaders on how to give it. I have been preparing that training this week and I am really excited for this opportunity. I have a lot going on these next 6 weeks.

The Area isn't too bad. We have a truck being so far out here and this is a huge zone just like Oakland. We have 4 investigators that are preparing for Baptism soon so we are going to be working really hard for that. I had to buy a GPS if you didn't notice because this area is so big and YSA ward is so spread out and I have no clue where I am going. I just got a cheap 80 dollar one that will last afterwards also. 

We are teaching 3 Foster kids that are preparing for baptism. They are really great but so addicted to video games its ridiculous. The members here are really nice. I can already tell that this is a trunky ward, meaning they are going to make my last few weeks miserable due to many of them having served missions. I am going to push it out though. Our apartment out here is the nicest one in the mission. This area is so blessed. We have a lot going for us right now. The houses here are so big! Especially out in Discovery Bay which is even more out in the middle of no where but the houses are enormous.

So yes my last week in Richmond/Concord was really good. I was on a back to back exchange from Monday to Thursday so Elder Cardenas didn't even know I was leaving until Thursday. Thanksgiving was really good also. We ate at the Bishops home that morning and then ate lunch with Victor a member from Oakland that just moved to San Pablo.

That night we ate with The Romero family and I broke the news to them. They were really sad but had me give them my information and I told them I would be back in January and they were happy about that. I am happy for them, the dad is really progressing and warming up to being baptized. Little by Little. On Tuesday I was on an exchange with Elder Adam in the Laotian program. He really was having a hard time being new and down on himself. We had a great exchange and talked to a lot of people. He was so nervous to talk to people, but I would just talk to everyone and at the end he asked me how "do you do it, you make it look so easy?" I just said that it isn't easy and I have really had to get out of my comfort zone for sure.

On Wednesday I was in my area with Elder Macias. That was really fun. We did a lot of finding and I was still in the clouds trying to figure out what was going on with me being transferred to Antioch. I got to say goodbye to a few of our members, but then I just disappeared.

Its been awesome here out in Antioch. We ate the first day on Friday with some members. They are wonderful. The bishopric is hilarious, no wonder they in the YSA ward. I love the members here. They are so dorky but great. Our Ward Mission Leader is on the ball and just got home from the Salt Lake City West mission. So crazy.

Not much going on more than that. This next week is going to be crazy with planning and the new area, new companion and also mission leadership council with the trainings for zone conference. Still haven't seen the package and I won't till maybe tomorrow. I have so many pills left so don't worry. I will be sending in my report this week.

I had to order English name tags... :( It will be good. Still have my daily language study though which is good. 

Love you all, Elder Hill