I was a zone leader...?

Seriously. Not like the AP thing.

Dear all,

This week has been REALLY interesting. Perhaps a little too interesting. To start off with, I got transferred! Or rather, Elder Tsai got transferred, and I just got put somewhere else because I didn't have a companion any more. 

Here's what happened: On Friday morning, President told Elder Tsai to pack up all his stuff and told me to pack for a few days away. We both did, and President picked us up at our apartment. He took me to the mission office, and Elder Tsai to.....somewhere. I'm honestly not sure where he is. At the mission office I got picked up by Elder Amichia and Elder Reynolds, the Zone Leaders from the neighboring zone. I spent about 3 days with them working in their area and being their third companion. 

Their area is essentially the same geographical area, they just work in the English YSA branch. So I got to do weird stuff like contact white people, teach lessons in English, and even hear the sacrament prayers in English (the first time since I left home). I also had to go to special Zone Leader meetings and help with the weekly Zone Leader calls. It was a weird and totally unexpected couple days, but it was pretty fun. Elder Reynolds and Elder Amichia have both been out for a while. They were both very relaxed while still being very focused and hard-working, and they were both really funny. Elder Amichia is a big black guy from France whose English is pretty good. Elder Reynolds is a 24-year-old, short, really zen guy from LA. They're a fun duo, and their senses of humor played of each other in really interesting ways. 

I stayed with them from Friday evening until last night, when President told me that I'm going to be spending the rest of the transfer with the Mandarin West team (Elder Leung and Elder Lehnardt.) So they picked me up at the Zone Leader's apartment and took my back to the Mandarin Central apartment so I could pack up my stuff and close down the apartment. 

So, now I'm in my third tripanionship so far, and my last area is totally shut down. President told me that this kind of thing pretty much never happens, but he had an impression so he followed it. So I guess I'm special or something. Pretty crazy.

As far as people in the branch go, I'm not super sure how they're all doing. Everyone in our area was pretty concerned that we didn't answer any of their calls after Friday, so I had to spend a while on the phone with each of them trying to explain what happened in Chinese. I think they understood. According to Elder Leung and Elder Lehnardt, the whole branch was pretty confused why Elder Tsai and I weren't at church on Sunday. No one really knows why anything happened, including me.

Anyway, That's been my week. I hope It's been just as exciting and full of the hand of the Lord as mine has.

Love you all. Talk to you next week.

Elder Hadden

P.S. I should add, I'm still in Montreal in the Mandarin branch. just in a different part of the island.

Mormonspeak

AP:  Assistant to the President:  An Assistant to the President, or AP is the highest level of organizational leadership within a mission next to the Mission President, as the name suggests. This is an assignment from the mission president and not a calling. This assignment is typically given to young male missionaries who have shown themselves capable of the requirements of a responsible leadership role, have demonstrated reasonable obedience, and whose talents and abilities are not needed more in a different role within the mission.

In many missions, an AP is chosen from among the missionaries who have been in the mission the longest. Although an AP may remain in the position until the end of his mission, some missions allow a missionary to serve in other capacities after having served as an Assistant. APs supervise many of the affairs of the missionaries in a mission. Most missions have 2 APs, but the number and how they function may vary. They are accountable to the Mission President in their mission and generally supervise the activity of the Zone Leaders.

YSA:  Young Single Adults.  A YSA ward is an optional ward for single adults ages 18-30-ish.  Elder Hadden's sister Bethe is in a YSA ward in Salt Lake City by choice, mainly because she doesn't like the sound of crying  kids, but also because she's a single young adult.  If you are a young single adult, you can usually choose to be in either type of ward.  If you get married, you are automatically moved into a regular (family) ward.