What is TRANSFER WEEK?

 In missions all over the world transfers generally follow the same pattern. 

Every six weeks we say good-bye to sisters and elders who have completed their service and they fly home, and we welcome new missionaries who arrive from the MTC or their temporary COVID assignments to begin their service. Sometimes, changes are made within existing companionships as well. 

Ideally, it all happens within 24 hours give or take, so that the travel and the turbulence are streamlined, but for us the process is spread out over several days.  

Sometimes missions know a transfer ahead who will be joining their ranks, and for others it can be a little more last minute due to visa and travel issues. It keeps things exciting! 

I like to think of it this way...whether you buy your Christmas present on the day after Thanksgiving and have it wrapped and under the tree, or you wait until December 24th to do your shopping, a gift is still a gift, and these missionaries are definitely blessings to our mission. 

The behind the scenes logistics can boggle the mind:

Accurate and updated travel itineraries...covid tests...getting departing missionaries and their luggage to the mission office from every corner of the mission (when 10% of your missionaries have drivers licenses and vehicles)...coordinating exchanges for the companions left behind...exit interviews...farewell dinners...delayed flights...forgotten baggages fees...airport runs...customs...surprise arrivals...prayerfully organizing new companionships...training the trainers who train the new missionaries...holding Mission Leadership Council...orienting, interviewing and feeding new missionaries after long flights...finding temporary housing...transporting them to their areas (with the same drivers and vehicles)...as well as running the temporary Zimbabwe MTC. 

And missionaries are always hungry!

Luckily, our assistants are younger than us and stronger than us and work tirelessly to help things run as smoothly as possible. This transfer we managed:

12 trips to the airport, 11 different flights, 20 covid tests, 20 departures to home/permanent assignments, 21 arrivals, one MLC, changes in 36 of 45 companionships, over 108 plates of food, and a partridge in a pear tree.