Transfers!

This week was transfers, and I was finally transferred. I am now in the Herriman South Stake. I am almost as close to my parents now as I possibly can be while still being in the mission boundaries. My new companion is Elder Stanley. He is from Tennessee and has been out for about five and a half months. He is 18. His last companion and I just switched places. Elder Tyler is the one who took my place with Elder Koo. I am still a district leader. I now have four sisters and two elders in my district. I am really going to miss the Sandy Crescent Stake and all the wonderful people there. It is not easy to leave after being there for six months. I know I am here for a reason though. We have two investigators right now. One's name is Mike and he is getting baptized this next Sunday. He is probably in his late 30's and is married. He has made some serious progress the past couple months! He has had to overcome many addictions and is developing a belief in Jesus Christ and in Heavenly Father. He truly is a new man compared to where he was. The other investigator is a nine year old girl named Ellie. She will be getting baptized in January. She wasn't able to make it to church yesterday so it will most likely be on the 17th. We have a car, it's a Chevy Cruz this time which I am happy about. It's one of the better cars in the mission. A car is a car though so anything is better than nothing. We live in a members basement. They are almost always gone though so I haven't met them. It's a nice apartment. We have a pool table, an air hockey table, a pinball machine, and a ping pong table. I am content. Our area is up on the mountain side again so I still have a great view of the valley. I can see all the temples in the valley at once. I love it! It still hasn't snowed much so I am really happy about that. I'm glad I'm getting some of the milder winters on my mission when I have to be out in it all day every day. I am still trying to get used to west side addresses again. I have to remember that the numbers get bigger going to the West now instead of the East. We had a cool Christmas devotional with President Chambers on Friday. It's a longer drive from Herriman so we were gone most of the afternoon. I saw President and Sister Bishop there and it was hard to tell them that I had been transferred. They are in our mission presidency and lived in the Crescent Stake. I got to know them well. So that's kind of the news this week. I feel like I won't be here in Herriman very long, or at least in this area. I don't know why. This will also be an eight week transfer to make up for our four week transfer last time. Which means I will be here until the beginning of February. I get to call home this week. I am excited about that. It's crazy to think that I will be home for next Christmas though and that I will only have one more call after this. Anyways, things are going well! I am excited to be here yet sad to leave my old stake. I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

Elder McKinney

One last picture from Sandy