So it begins...


Today we had our transfer meeting. Neither I or Elder Baldwin were transferred. We're sticking around in Pleasanton. This transfer, we have 6 going home, and 29 coming in. This is our first batch of 19/18 year old sisters/ Elders. Not too much happened in Pleasanton, as far as crazy changes go. There were a lot of whitewashings and creating of areas. A sister in the zone is training, so we could have a sister that is younger than me. That's weird.  Elder Platt got transferred to Fremont, and he is Elder Bingham's district leader. Elder Bingham is still in Newark, and is training again, so Fremont is becoming a gathering place for my posterity. 

This week should be a great week for us. We've got a bunch of new potential investigators that we hope to start teaching this week. A few are member referrals that we are chasing. Elder Baldwin and I have set the goal to baptize 3 people this transfer. That will be a big stretch, but we feel like we can do it. One thing we've started is a competition with the priests. We are seeing who can hand out more copies of the Book of Mormon, the priest's quorum or the missionaries. We think they are going to smoke us, but we're going to try hard. It is a really good group of priests. 

One thing we're trying to change is out attitude. We feel like we've been letting ourselves get down, and keeping ourselves there. This is a hard area, but we have work to do. This transfer will be a big one for us. 

Also, as a side note, in addition to Elder Holland speaking to the mission on the 23rd of March, he will be speaking to the Pleasanton stake on the 24th. We get him twice. That will be cool. 

Have a good week, and look for ways to share the Gospel.

-Elder James Richards