Elder Anderson's new phone clattered to the floor. He had the next model of the classic "missionary phone" which could play music, and had the czech translation of the ever-popular song "Mercies" by Jenny Phillips set up as his alarm clock. While he did enjoy a good sacrament-ready musical number in the morning, today was a big day and it was time to get praying. Recently he'd found it easier to pray without dozing, so he prayed himself through and started getting ready. It was Wednesday, the 30th of July, the last official day for the Slovaceks. After a quick breakfast, they hit the office for their personal study, and then headed to the airport to receive the jolly couple.
At the terminal, they waited with the Slovaceks and talked about experiences and future plans. Somehow, it didn't seem anything was changing. As they waited, they realized their airplane had landed 10 minutes early, but they still weren't coming through customs and it had been almost 50 minutes. Earlier they'd taken bets on what time the Irwins would come through the gate, but those times had long expired. "Do you think they made it to vienna?" "No, I bet they're luggage was lost somewhere."
Finally, a disheveled but smiling president and sister Irwin pushed their luggage cart through the gate and into the common area. "Good Morning! So glad to see you! You wouldn't believe it, but they lost one of our cases back in Vienna." Said President Irwin. "Don't worry president, we'll see to it that we find and deliver your suitcase." replied the assistants. They grabed the "cases" and started off for the parking lot.
The new president left with the old one, and Elder Doxey and Anderson set out to deliver the luggage in the mission micro bus to their apartment some 3 kilometers away. Due to an unusually dense traffic mixed with construction, the elders made it back to the mission home some 3 adventurous hours later and decided that, "next time", they'd take the metro and manually haul the luggage instead of fighting in and out of traffic.
The next two days were composed of transferring vast amounts of information from president Slovacek to president Irwin regarding the mission, our progress, and items of interest. Interestingly enough, no information was shared regarding individual missionaries, giving each person a chance to change radically without fear of apprehensions. What a blessing for so many! On Thursday, after a few bank meetings and some last touches to this transfer of information, President Slovacek and his wife went around, hugged the missionaries for the last time, and bowed out the door to spend time with the Czech saints in the temple and then ride off into the sunset.
Elder Doxey and Anderson stepped into the office right after President Slovacek had left and sat down to plan a conference. President Irwin sat there, somewhat lower in his chair since the chair was adjusted for president Slovacek's larger stature. Piles of letters and documents were neatly stacked on the desk among binders of information and contacts on members. He surveyed the scene for a moment.
*Sigh* "Right, where to start..."
The phone rang. "Oh! What's that?"
"It's the phone from the United States."
"Oh, really? Well, what do I do?"
As he reached to answer it, someone else picked it up in the mission home. He sighed a breath of relief.
After a brief pause, he fixed his jaw and resolutely declared, "Well, we have a leadership conference tomorrow. How does that go?" They all rolled up their sleeves and got to work. The jet-lag and the sheer change was a stress to the new mission president. But, Elder Anderson noticed that a quiet change started to come about him as the meeting progressed, particularly after a powerful prayer from President Irwin at the beginning. The atmosphere changed from stressed and unfamiliar to loving concern for each missionary and a very solid plan regarding how to bless the lives of the missionaries the most, an outright miracle considering that President Irwin hadn't even met most of these missionaries ever before in his life. Even details like moving the meeting ahead by 20 minutes so an elder could catch a later train and get some more sleep were considered. Elder Anderson immediately developed a great love and respect for his new priesthood leader due to this great example, and it was clear to him that the mantle of priesthood leadership and power had completely moved from a very broad pair of shoulders to a very British pair of shoulders.
The leadership conference went off excellently, focusing on being a christlike leader and becoming like the savior. The Church had also begun to roll out a new program for missionaries to learn how to use Preach My Gospel more effectively. This new program would be in the hands of all missionaries by May of next year. But, when at the MTC, president Irwin had received the new program literally right off the press with several other exciting new tools. The Czech Prague mission was among the first missions to begin using the new, intense program, and it was now on President Irwin, Elder Doxey, and Elder Anderson to learn the new program and implement it immediately. They all sensed excitement in the air when talking about it, since they were the ones who would push the program into widespread use and knew it would be an incredible blessing to millions of people. In fact, while Elder Anderson was writing his letters home on Saturday he couldn't wait to wrap up and run to the next room to get started planning with the new president for the new changes and for a week full of zone conferences. He was very grateful for all of the amazing opportunities afforded him by missionary work, and he couldn't wait to get started changing the mission and blessing the lives of Czechs, Slovaks, and missionaries with such a grand new chapter ahead of him.
Love,
Elder Brent Anderson
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