This email was sent by Sister Welker on December 4th.  We received it on December 3rd.

Week 69: Good-bye Taranaki

Yep, I got transferred.  Sadly, my companion and I realized that would happen Monday night, and so this whole week has been really long.  Saying good-bye is honestly the worst part of a mission.  And it feels as though you have to say good-bye just when you get to know people.

Tuesday at 5pm is when we got the news.  I was told I was going to Hamilton East.  This whole time I've always joked that President has wanted me as far away from the temple as possible, and now it's less than 30 minutes away.  So there goes that joke.  I can't use that one anymore.  Hamilton East is right next to a university, so we have heaps of YSA (young single adults) in my area.  The area is also much smaller than Taranaki.  I went from only have 80 people coming to church in the  branch to almost 200 people coming to church and it's a ward.  The church is a big deal here.  Everyone knows who Mormons are and has seen the temple before.  It's funny, I imagine that serving in Hamilton would be what it feels like to serve in Utah.  So it almost feels like home.

My new companion is Sister Schwendinger (sh-when-ding-er).  It's taken me the past four days to pronounce her name right.  So most times I just call her companion or sister haha.  But I'm getting better at using her name more often.  She's from San Diego, California.  She has 6 other sibilings.  She has two younger sibilings so that means she's a middle child.  But she also has a twin sister serving in Flordia at the moment.  She loves reading books and was in student government in high school.  She graduated in 2016 and has been on her mission for a little under a year (Gisbone was her other area).

I'm currently emailing at an internet cafe, so I won't be sending any pictures this week but hopefully I can send some soon.

Thanks for all your love and support!!

Sister Mandy Welker