Well, this last week was great. The ward was sad to see me go, which is a miracle. When I came in, it was a hard place to be a missionary. No one wanted anything to do with us. We really turned it around. Our Bishop was very appreciative, and everyone on our ward counsel came up to wish me well. Since the area next to us got white washed and sisters are being put in, our ward mission leader asked us if we were being whitewashed. We said no, Elder Son is still staying, and his immediate reply was "good, that would have been terrible!" That is amazing to me. If you had asked him 6 months ago if he wanted Elders out of the area he would have said yes in a heartbeat. He would have said that when I first got here too. Elder Son will do amazing things here. Those sisters in the other ward will also support sister work in our ward, and a senior couple just landed in our building, so the ward has access to 6 missionaries, and they can use all 6. That is a huge turn around from just 4 months ago.
We picked up a part-member family this week as an investigator. This is the kind of family that the ward council goes "Wow you taught them??" It was really cool, and a great lesson. They also came to my outgoing fireside. It was an excellent week. A perfect end. I'm leaving with about 12 investigators and 4 of those will go to the sisters. The area will basically be split and both companionships will have lots of work to do. It is really exciting.
I don't really have much more to say. I have loved my mission so much. I have mixed feelings about going home. It is incredibly hard to leave, but I'm excited to tackle new things. This is the happiest chapter in my life and it's coming to a close. I'm sure there are many more good things ahead.
Signing off for the last time,
-Elder James Richards