Have Ye Experienced This Mighty Change?

There is an aspect of missionary life that, at least from my experience, is not discussed very much outside of missions themselves, but that plays a HUGE role in the life of every missionary. It is the fact that every few weeks (in the case of the Michigan Lansing Mission during my two years there, every six weeks), major changes take place within the structure of the mission. These changes are called transfers, and they are an extremely underrated subject of conversation of missionary life, in my opinion.

Consider this: On a given day, once every six weeks, every missionary companionship in the mission is instructed to be at their apartment so that they can answer a potential phone call from the mission president. If the mission president does in fact call their apartment, it means that things are going to change for the companionship. It likely means that one of the missionaries is going to leave that area and a new missionary will be replacing him or her. Those missionaries who are leaving an area are given just over a day to prepare for their departure; this preparation includes the physical preparation of packing up all of their belongings and getting ready to move everything they own to a new location, and the social preparation of informing those who they care to inform of their departure. In some cases, this is a long list of people, including members of the church, individuals who are investigating the church, and recent converts who just joined the church. It can be a profound emotional experience.

Sometimes on this day of receiving transfer calls, the mission president does not call a companionship’s apartment, and that means that nothing is changing with that companionship for the next six weeks. The missionaries are informed of this non-change through a phone call from their zone leader who has been called and informed by the assistants to the mission president of all of the changes that have occurred in the mission. This is how the information is communicated to each of the companionships in the mission. Or, at least, this is how it was done in the Michigan Lansing Mission over a decade ago. It could very well be different now, what with new forms of communicating and stuff. Transfers are probably tweeted now-a-days.

The feelings of anxiety felt by missionaries on these mornings cannot be overstated. Every single elder and sister knows that their lives could change dramatically in the next 48 hours, and they have absolutely no control over it. They trust that whatever happens is the will of the Lord, and that brings a measure of comfort, but it doesn’t eliminate the feelings of not knowing and of anticipating what might or might not happen.

I remember my first transfer day well. It was early February 2000, and Elder Staker and I sat in our apartment, reading our scriptures, writing letters, and talking with each other about transfers. Elder Staker had been transferred twice before, once from his first area of Mount Pleasant to North Muskegon, and then again from North Muskegon to the area we served in together in Lansing South. He explained to me what it felt like to leave an area, to have to leave behind the people who he had given so much of his heart and efforts to try and teach the gospel. He was the kind of person who felt things deeply, and these transitions were very difficult for him. I imagined what it would be like to leave Lansing and the people we were teaching. There was Bridgette, the young woman who we had been teaching for weeks and who was trying to quit smoking so she could be baptized. And there was Nathan, the man who was engaged to a member of the ward, and who was a quiet and sensitive man, and who deeply wanted to be a part of an eternal family. The thought of leaving was scary to me. Eventually the phone rang and my heart began to race. It was Elder Adcox, our zone leader. No changes to our companionship. Sigh of relief.

This experience would prove to be the exception and not the rule for me. Over the next twenty-two months, there were only two other transfers that nothing changed within the companionship I was serving in, and they both occurred within the first eight months of my mission. Also interesting is that it wasn’t until my fifth area that I had the experience of being the one in the companionship to stay in the area, instead of the one to leave. Up to that point, if there was a change to be made in my companionship, that change involved me packing my things and moving to a new area. Once I reached my fifth area, North Muskegon, that changed dramatically, as I saw five companions leave during my seven months serving there. I began to get very comfortable in North Muskegon; I was there so long (relatively speaking considering the brief stays I enjoyed in my other areas), that I felt as if it were home. I loved the ward and felt like I was around family. Therefore, it should not have been a surprise that after my fifth transfer (this is what the period of six weeks between transfer days is referred to, incorrectly I suppose) in North Muskegon, I was given a new assignment, to serve in Harrison.

That was easily the most difficult transfer of my mission. For the first few days in Harrison, I felt physically ill, and I could hardly get out to work very much because I was so devastated at having to leave my beloved North Muskegon. Eventually I got over the sorrow of having to leave that I was able to get to work, and I enjoyed my time in Harrison just as much as any other area.

When President Church made the transfer calls, he often used a little lighthearted humor to ease any tension that might be felt. The most memorable of these calls for me came when he called me to serve as one of his assistants. The conversation went something like this:

President Church: Elder Holdaway, how are you?

Me: Good, President, how are you? [Of course my heart is beating fast, as it always is when I’m speaking with President Church on transfer call day.]

President Church: I’m doing well, thanks. Elder, the Lord has a new assignment for you.

Me: Ok…

President Church: I’m calling you to come down here and be my assistant. You’re companion will be Elder Munoa. You two will do a lot of good together.

Me: [Speechless.]

President Church: Do you accept this new assignment, Elder?

Me: Yes, President. Of course.

President Church: Good! Because if you didn’t, I’d have to come up there and ring your neck!

Me: Ha!

I think I expressed to him later how much his little joke helped me with the shock I felt. The assignment gave me an opportunity to learn about transfers from the other side. Elder Munoa (then Elder Eales) and I would meet with President Church in a series of meetings in which we would consider all of the missionaries in the mission, and discuss what changes to make. We met three times total, and the last time would be at the tail end of a 24 hour fast. Once we had everything arranged, we would pray and ask for confirmation that the changes we were proposing were in accordance with the will of the Lord. Those were powerfully spiritual meetings. The impression I came away with after experiencing those meetings was that each and every one of the missionaries was remembered, and no moves were ever made arbitrarily or without sincerely considering the good of the missionaries involved.

I have tried to convey this feeling on many occasions when talking with new or prospective missionaries. Transfers can be difficult, they can be exciting, they can be frustrating, and they can be bewildering and unpredictable. But they are an integral part of missionary life and missionary work.

Elder Holdaway in President Church’s office with President’s official laser pointer. During transfer meetings, we would discuss potential transfers and President Church would point at the missionary cards with the pointer and indicate where to move them.