Bannon's Mission Blog: Half Way There!!

Sorry for not writing last week. We have been jam packed with work and got back to the office at 10:30pm from finishing moving/closing a house in the mountains a couple hours away. So by the time we got back I just wrote my mom and dad real quick and then filed a couple of things real quick and finally headed home. This transfer is especially crazy busy because it's my new presidents first transfer AND there were 5 areas shut down last transfer so we have to move out and close those houses. And two of those houses are a ways away. Monday we were in the mountains finishing closing a house of the sisters in Sajoma that was closed and no longer has missionaries there. Tuesday we were in Puerto Plata doing the same thing. Wednesday we did a bunch of office work and did another house move and had to go look at a house to buy for a companionship in Tierra Alta that hasn't had water in 3 weeks so they need to move. Thursday was a blur because we did a ton of stuff that I can't remember at the moment and don't have my agenda with me to remind myself. Then Fridays are "mail run" days. So we have to go around in the morning and get all the letters and packages at 3 different places in Santiago. Then sort all the mail in the office and get it ready to send out in that night. That usually is pretty time consuming but we also had all the zone leaders in the mission in the office for their first meeting with President Castillo so we went and picked up 50 personal food boxes for them for lunch. And we had to take in presidents car to get checked up and the oil changed. And since it was the end of the month, we had to do our monthly check up on the mission cars/trucks. Then we had to pick up the mission plaques for the missionaries who ordered them because I am in charge of those too. Then we loaded up the truck with all the mail and packages (and there was a lot) then went by all the zone leaders houses in Santiago and Naverrette to drop off the mail so the zone leaders can give them to their zones. And drop off the mail that goes to zones far away to this place called Caribe Touts that ships them out. Finally after that we got home and I burned a shirt because I HIT A YEAR IN THE MISSION!!! I hit a year on Thursday but we got home late and were exhausted so I just said I would do it Friday instead. When you hit a year in the mission, it's tradition to burn one of your shirts. So we went up on the roof like how we did when I was with Elder Rodriguez when he hit a year, and burned one of mine. I called all the elders in my group on Thursday and congratulated them all. They all said the same thing, "can you believe we already have a year!?? Crazy!" And it really is so insane that I already have a year in my mission and only have one left! Thank heavens I still have one left! Haha. The mission really is the best.

Now it is finally P Day for us office elders. So we can finally relax and breath for a second :) being an office elder really is so much more then being an elder in the office and having a car. It's a lot of hard work. Physically when we have to constantly be on the move going from moving houses to driving for a long time to searching for different houses to filling out paperwork to entering in finance info to all of the other stuff we have to do and then getting back to the house late sometimes because random stuff comes up that we have to help with. But I wouldn't change a thing! I love it so much as complicated and tiring as it is. It's very different from being a normal elder, but it is rewarding to me because we are working our butts off at all moments of the day. Now I worry and stress about how the heck we are going to get all the stuff done we need to whereas sometimes before the office I would be walking the streets all day looking for people to teach or serve and sometimes not having success and stressing out about how to get more busy. Haha. Speaking of stress, the AP's have it way worse then we do! One of the AP's, Elder Vargas, has been super stressed and hasn't been sleeping much and had a bad stress reaction and his tongue is like blistering up and stuff. But after these next couple of months everything should be getting back to normal and the transition should be back to normal.

sorry that this email is kind of all over the place. I am kinda just writing my scatter brained thoughts right now.

so my new president, President Castillo, is so legit. I love him so much! He is so funny and loving and I can tell he is going to be such an awesome president. We got to have dinner at his house one day this week and get to know him and his wife a little more. It was way fun. Sister Castillo is awesome too. Just a little nervous still, but adapting quite well. Most of the missionaries in the mission still don't even know him/haven't met or talked with him yet. But next week there will be a couple of zone conferences so they will all meet him finally then.

anyway I want to end by sharing a quote my mom sent me this week that I liked a lot:

"Feasting on the word of God each day is more important than sleep, school, work, television shows, video games, or social media. You may need to reorganize your priorities to provide time for the study of the word of God. "

Richard G. Scott

I love this quote. Especially right now as I am in the office. Because it is so hard to get my daily studies in that are so important and cherished by us missionaries. Even though we have permission to sleep a little longer if we need to as office elders and AP's because we are just hammered everyday with so much to do and sometimes get home late from a long moving trip an hour away and stuff like that, I refuse to because I know how vital it is to get my daily dosage of the gospel. I promise you that when you read the scriptures and ponder about the things the scriptures teach or the prophets or the church magazines, you will find greater peace and happiness and love in your lives. Even though I am super busy and loaded with stuff as an office elder, and as important as the things are in the office, the most important thing to me still is my daily studies of the gospel. Especially because the scriptures are like stress relief meds that really help you remember the real important things in life and things to be focused on. I like to think of it like this; when we want to get in shape or stronger, what do we do? We go to the gym and work out right? But that's not all, we have to be constantly feeding ourselves the right foods and proteins and nutrients our body needs in order to get in shape and get stronger. It's the same with church and the gospel. It's not enough to just be going to church. We have to constantly be nourishing ourselves and our spirit with the good words and teachings of Christ and his gospel.

That's all for now. Sorry for the disorganization of this email. Love you guys!

Everything is awesome!

Elder Greer

My 1 year mark when I burned my shirt!

Then when we went to Samana for P Day! (But the pics don't do it justice.) The beach we went to was literally such a nice, cool, clean, tropical beach with absolutely no one else there and it was like a mile long. Kind of a bummer that we could only play football on the sand. But at least I know where to take you guys when we come back!!