April 7, 2008

Dear Family,
Greetings from Wilmington "America's Drugground." Once again my companion has been emergency transferred. Elder Toolson was so needed in the office that President Murray had to steal him mid transfer. He really is an increadible missionary and an exceptionally talented individual. If this trend continues, by the time I will be off my mission I will have had one fourth of all the missionaries in the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Mission as companions. I can only hope that I will have as many baptisms as I have as companions. My new companion is Elder Hernandez. He is a quirky and eccentric individual who has a great deal of charity. I learned how to work hard and be obedient from Elder Toolson and I am sure I will learn how to love the people from Elder Hernandez. The problem I had with Elder Toolson was that we could not talk about anything but missionary work with him. The problem I have with Elder Hernandez is that he does not talk about missionary work. My experience with both of these companions bears truth to the old saying "the grass is always greener on the other side." Regardless of this fact this week has been a great learning experience for me. Elder Toolson was not transferred until Saturday, but I wasn't with him for the entire week. He was on exchanges with other missionaries in our district and then to the mission office to fix something. As a result of Elder Toolson's abscence the burden of being the senior companion was now on my shoulders. At first I had little faith in myself. However, statistically, this week has been the best week since I have been in the mission. We have been reactivating a recovering crack addict by the name of Dorris Eubanks for the past week. On Monday night we went over to her house and mopped her floors. After that we had a short lesson with her. I then asked for refferals from her and she gave me twenty eight names of friends and family members that I should talk to. I have called some of these individuals and so far non of them have any idea about who Dorris Eubanks is. I my guess is that she has been feeding us random names from the phone book.