Week 36 - First Transfer

  Well, this week will present many changes for Elder Schaff. He has been transfered to a new area, his first transfer since arriving in Fresno. He has been asked to serve south of Fresno in the towns of Selma, Parlier, and Kingsburg. Elder Lopez will be staying in Fresno, so they will both have new companions, but Hayden forgot to mention who he has been teamed up with, so hopefully he will tell us next week. This is what he wrote this week-

Google Map of Selma, CA

  "Alright, so if you told me any other week that I would be going to a new area, I would tackle that challenge with determination and excitement. However, I have been told I'm going to another area this week. I still have excitement, but I guess it took hearing the words, "Elder Schaff, you're being transferred" to remember all the good things that have happened to me in this area, or at least be thankful for all the trials and challenges that have refined me.

  So honestly, I am a little bit nervous to enter a new area and have a new companion because I now realize how great a blessing it has been to be serving with Elder Lopez. We've been working hard and had an "up and up" attitude where we have striven to lift each other up and help each other improve without tearing each other down.

  It's sad to say good-bye to all my investigators and less-actives I've worked with. It's strange, I always felt that I didn't really have much of a significance to them, because I'm not Hispanic or anything, but as soon as they heard the news, everybody is thanking me for what I've taught them. I guess here everyone remembers at the last moments how great things have been! (Myself included!)

  I've heard that my new area is a small town with a majority population of Spanish speakers. We will see if that is true. It's been crazy to pack everything up!

 Hey, if you're looking for spiritual insights, read Alma 38:5,10-12,14 (This is a Book of Mormon reference) really struck me. Give it a read.

  I said I'd talk about Sabbath day...... well we've had great success applying those blessing in Leviticus. It is a diamond in the rough, those scriptures. Leviticus, if you are familiar with the Bible, is mainly a "how-to" live the Law of Moses (Which has been fulfilled, so that's not particularly useful). But Leviticus chapter 26 explains the blessings of living this day. The promised blessings are archaic, so you need to "liken" the scriptures to yourself as the prophets have invited you to do, to see the power of the blessings. (Unless you are a farmer.)

  We are promised we will have "rain in the due season.....and that the storehouse will be filled until the sowing time." That is a promise that we will be economically secure. It continues that we will have peace in the land. Additionally, it promises that the beasts of the land will not harm us. Maybe not lions in the streets these days, but certainly Satan's spiritual beasts of temptations and sins can be avoided if we guard the Sabbath Day. And it says we'll chase our enemies away. So keep the Sabbath day holy and get those blessings!"

This has been Elder Schaff!