Saying goodbye to Laguna Hills

Anthony - A very special ward member from Laguna Hills 2nd Ward.  "It has been a blessing to serve with Tony!  He has helped me through the last two transfers!  I am really going to miss Tony and his two girls.  They are my home away from home!"

 

Dinner at Tony's the night before transferring to 2nd area.  Elder Hess & Tony's Daughter, Lola.

The night before transferring to his 2nd area, Elder Hess went to a Harvest Fair with Anthony and his Girls.  This is Anthony's other daughter.

Saying Goodbye to friends from the Laguna Hills 2nd Ward

I enjoyed some nice email exchanges today.  For one....I got emails from Kyle in such a timely fashion it was definately a breath of fresh air.  He is being transferred to his 2nd area today.  He is overly excited yet very nervous and also very sad.  He made friends with a member in the Laguna Hills 2nd ward named Anthony.  He states that Anthony and his girls have been his home away from home and they have really helped him get through some difficult times during the last 3 months.  Kyle doesn't know where he was being transferred to, he will know around 4:00 today so I guess we wait until next week when we hear from him again.  He had a baptism scheduled for October 26.  I asked him if he would still be able to attend.  He said that he does get to still attend the baptism but only if the guy stays clean.  He also mentioned that he has been teaching Lola (Anthony's daughter) and that she asked him to baptize her but Kyle says she isn't quite ready yet.  Kyle said that he received an email from Caden today.  He was so excited to hear from him.  He was also very excited that Caden would soon be joining him in the mission field.  I asked Kyle today how he was starting to feel?  Was he getting used to things a little better?  Was he happy?  He replied, "I'm ok...I still struggle with the worldly stuff.  I have not yet witnessed a spiritual conversion in myself so I'm going to fully read the Book of Mormon by Christmas.  I'm still working on obtaining a couple of Christlike attributes such as loving and patience to be specific.  I also am striving to be 100% obedient to everything and I still struggle with that.  Now that I am leaving my first area, I am kind of feeling stressed.  It's like starting all over!  I often find myself counting the days until I come home cause I am excited for that and that's when I work ten times harder cause I don't want to go home.  I'm pretty good...just trying to gain more knowledge and opening my mouth to talk to people...  D&C 33.  Ya Mom, I'm good!".