Transferred!

Elder Blackburn's new address is:


501 E Centerton Blvd. unit 533
Centerton, AR 72719

It appears that Centerton is about two hours south of his first area - it is basically a suburb of Bentonville...we can't wait to hear about his continuing efforts in building up the kingdom of God in that great part of our country.

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"Hey Everyone! Exciting News!
We had transfer calls Saturday night and I got a call from the assistants and I am headed somewhere new! Centerton, Arkansas! Right next to Bentonville. I am super excited, my new companion and I will be living in an apartment with two other Elders... I called the Elders that are down there and they say the area is awesome and they have 4 baptisms scheduled! Wow that is great I can't tell you how excited/sad I am to leave. So do not send letters to Pittsburg.


After finding out I was being transferred I had a rush of all sorts of emotions. Excitement, sadness, determination, courage, and others. I immediately wrote a small note to one of the Ward members who really had an impact on me - I just called him my mission Grandpa. He is in his 60's and he would always help us out on exchanges and was a convert at age 30. He has a super good knowledge of the Gospel and he was always teaching me cool things I didn't know or understand. One time we had a discussion about the idea of attending different classes in heaven or something, I was joking I wanted to attend like "History 101" where we'd watch all the big moments of Earth's history and he said he wanted to attend a class of whoever invented the feather and learn about it because how amazing feathers are. So I wrote him a note and at the end said, "If opportunities for us to meet in the future do not present themselves I will see you at feather building class" and included a small feather. At the end of church he came up to me and shook my hand and with tears in his eyes said "Elder Blackburn, I'm gonna miss you too and when I see a feather I'll think of you." After that moment I realized what an impact this first area had on me. The next hard thing was telling Paul, my 8 year old buddy who I always joke with. He was really sad I was leaving and I felt so bad. It's like leaving another little brother. I wrote down their address so I can write him. 

The investigator we are teaching moved his baptism date to the 14th of July. :) so although I won't be here for it I was apart of it. He is an awesome kid and we just had to bump it back because we need time to teach him all the lessons. He was telling us that he's already thinking of serving a mission ha I love Mission Work. 2 years is so short of a time. It really is. Even though I've only been out for 3 3/4 months the time is speeding up. This week was really neat, we taught a ton of lessons and saw a lot of Kansas ha... I just can't fathom how much I have personally grown... I can't comprehend how it works but you grow so fast and it just happens if your an obedient Elder. In "Elder terms" your trainer is called your "dad" and your "born" in your first area so I was "born" in Pittsburg. ha so in our terms I'm getting a "little brother". So now I'm like a 15 year old and in your last area right before your 2 years is up you "die" there ha ha

I love you all,

Elder Blackburn