It's cool that the last day of the transfer is also the last day of
the month. It makes things nicer to keep track of. Because quarter 4
starts in October as well. And then it's easier to keep track of time,
like I'll have Oct, Nov, and part of Dec. left.

    I had a weird dream where everyone was saying it was super cold,
and it was really 275 out. And I'm like, this isn't cold, 50 is cold.
People were wearing coats and complaining.

   It's also weird that the world is changing and lots of things are
going on, and we kinda see it, but I don't look into it, so some
things just fly over me. And when I get back, it's going to be really
different. Maybe because I'll want to know what's going on in the
world when it comes to this equality thing. A lot of my friends post
about it, and all I can think is that our church has done this since
1830. Even though the world is quickly killing itself, it's good to
know that some people care Enough to try and make it better.

I'm trying to think of who could be my comp, or rather who I'd like to
be my companion. And I don't even know who's in the mission anymore!
The longer I'm in the mission, the fewer people I know. And the more
people i don't really care about knowing. Unless they're in my
district. I've said that before. I only care about who's in my
district, no reason to worry about who's in another zone.

I have a weird neck pain that doesn't really hurt all the time, just
sometimes. I'll stretch it, but nothing happens.

Oh, I've been making a few time lapse videos. I need to post them on
FB. I can make it like that album, only who I want to see it will see
it. we went to a members house in long beach, they live on the 6th
floor, so it was a good angle to film. I recorded for 5 minutes and
the time lapse shortened it to 40 seconds, but it's cool.

Not much happened this week, as always, hopefully it'll be different
next week. Well, we are helping this less active come back to church,
and he's come two weeks in a row! But he's still considered LA until
he goes to the temple for anything.

We are going to five guys today for the last day with this district.
I heard they are making a five guys in Spanish fork over by Costco.
I've never even heard of it until I got here. But people in salt lake
valley go all the time, but then again, no one knows about j-dawgs
outside of utah county.

I'm glad I don't have to worry about movies right now, but just wait..
When get home, I'll need a month to myself of catching up.

I'm also glad I don't serve in Manhattan, that would be just crazy.
But so is Brooklyn. People say it's worse. But more people live in
queens than those two boroughs.

I can't wait to get home so I can shave my head again.
I guess I could do it here, but it's just not .... Appropriate.

   So the final week of transfers is crazy - you have Wednesday is
training calls: president will call you and ask you to train. Then
Thursday is leadership calls: the zone leaders will call you and tell
you that you've been called as a leader. (Asking and telling- you
still have a choice to accept or not) then Friday is leadership
meeting: where you meet with president about your leadership calling
and gives you a packet containing important info. And Saturday night
is when zone leaders call and we have a conference call with everyone
in the Zone and we find out if we are staying or leaving. What they
usually say is elder peck...is in. Elder blackham.....is out.
Elder.... Blah blah. So it's just going through everyone in the zone
and saying in or out. And sometimes they'll say things like
'unfortunately we are not getting a new zone leader because elder
hunter is staying with us' but make it seem like he is leaving. It's
stressful.

Then Sunday you say your goodbyes. Monday you pack. Tuesday you drive
to queens and then the craziest meeting ever happens.

     You have what feels like the whole mission in one very small
chapel. It's probably like 190-210 missionaries. I think we have about
270 in total. It's been a while since i asked. We lost 24 last
transfer, and we'll lose 13 this time. But idk how much we're getting.
We have the new missionaries introduce themselves, then our president
and his wife speak to us, we have the departing missionaries sing a
song. Then we have transfer calls where the zone leaders get up to the
podium and read who's in their zone. That is super crazy and everyone
freaks out and cheers and other things, because of who goes with who
and where... It's great. Then afterwards is leaders meeting and
'anti-leaders meeting' where the comps of leaders are supposed to go
do something. *i never have- haha in all 15 transfer meetings I've
been to, I've never gone and done what everyone else does* I just
chill and talk with the office couples. They're awesome. We got new
ones to be in charge of the cars. That's three different couples in my
time here. First was the Gulbransen's. Then the Bottomfield's. And now
it's the Prince's.   SO....... If you dont have a leader comp, you
grab the new guy's luggage and go home. Unless your car is trapped,
then it's a crazy hassle to find you and move your car. But there are
key copies to every car, so if the leader has the Keys, it don't
matter.     And that's about it. It lasts like a good 6 hours or more.
And the traffic getting there is pretty bad, but coming home at 5 or 6
is worse. If there's a foot of snow, it takes 4 hours to get home.
(true story).

Sorry that was a lot of info, but it's all fun and I almost want to
record it all and show people how crazy but great it is. There was a
video on Facebook that showed a transfer meeting in Taiwan. It was
pretty similar to ours. Except how the trainees get placed with their
trainers is way different. We have the new guys meet downstairs before
the meeting and get paired up with your new comp/trainer and then go
upstairs to the chapel. What Taiwan did was have the pairing off
during the meeting, and have each companions face up on the screen. It
was cool, but it seems to add a whole level of stress and craziness.
This transfer ends right before thanksgiving.
I'll have my third but real second Halloween here. The first one was
cancelled because of sandy.

It's weird that everyone who was here for the storm is gone, or will
go home tomorrow. I'm the only one left who was on the mission during
the storm. Lots of people came after, but it's not the same. They
don't know what it was like staying inside for a whole week, with no
power. And it sounded like the world was ending.

I say weird a lot. I like that word.
Well, I'll send this off, maybe write more later... Gotta go.

LYB- elder Peck.