The price of leadership is loneliness. G.B.H.

My gosh everyone! I'm leaving! Not only am I leaving, I'm going to Vermont! Ha, just kidding. But there are some wild changes going on around here. Right now Hartford has been split in half give or take, and we covered the generally south portion. Well, now our ward is only going to have one set of missionaries instead of two! And now there will be 2 sets of Spanish missionaries instead. Wild stuff. When I came to Hartford I was doubled in, and now as I leave 6 months later, I'm being doubled out! Wild. So the 2 Hartford Elders will now cover a very large and VERY densely populated area. They will be real, real busy. But they'll be two good Elders, so all will be well. It'll be tough to pass off our investigators to 2 new Elders. I think it will be tougher on the investigators actually, having to get to know new Elders. I think for the most part not too much will get left in the cracks though.

But man, I am going to MISS the people here! The Hartford Ward, I've really come to love it. Some amazing wonderful people here that I've learned a lot from and will be sad to say good bye to. Lots of good stuff happening here too so it'll be tough to leave it behind. And Natasha! My gosh I am going to miss that girl. She is so awesome and is doing such an amazing job at being a recent convert. Always comes to church, goes to activities, says her prayers, tries her best to read... she's on the right track and I am so happy for her! So proud! Ha. I'll be tracking her down a year from now, I hope to stay in touch with her. Definitely. Bishop here is awesome too. Happiest guy in town. I love it! I love awesome people!

I feel extremely blessed and privileged to have spent 6 months in the city of Hartford as a missionary. Truly. I've had many amazing experiences and learned SO much. For one, I think its a cool thing to be able to serve in the capitol city of my mission, but also just for the general experience of living in a sketchy interesting city as diverse as Hartford. To be exposed to the lifestyle people live here, even though I don't like it one bit. Its sad, but its something to see that people really do live like this and be close to it for a time. We are truly truly blessed far beyond measure. Seriously.

So, I guess ya all are probably curious whats going down, given that I'm leaving. I'm going to another city! So thats cool. Its called Waterbury. And all I've been hearing is that it is awesome. So thats nice. I guess the work is going really, really well there right now and apparentely the ward is just wonderful. Unofficially, the best ward in the mission! Ha, we'll see. At any rate, I'm excited to that big time. But I might get a little chubby eating at members houses a lot more (cause we don't very much here) and having a car (cause here we walk the better part of the time). So probably don't send me any more sugary treats. My companion - this will be the challenge. He's a newer kid. Been out 2 transfers (3 monthsish). I guess he kinda struggles. Serious A.D.D. President talked to me for a few minutes about him and the areas he needs help. Its kinda makin me nervous, but I think it will be real good too. President told me he's in need of my leadership. And that certainly feels good to hear. He told me in my last interview that he put me with Elder Pikyavit for a similar reason, and I know I've helped Elder PIkyavit a lot, so hopefully I will do the same for this guy. Elder Mansfield I believe.

But yes, the winds of change have come again. When we got calls last night, oh wait - it was funny - we got to eat dinner at the mission home! President told us if we were getting tranfered, but not where and with whom. He did it real slyly and slowly, getting us all excited and worried and curious and all. It was pretty funny, I know he was getting a big kick out of it, just watching us try to pry him for any info. He slowly told us some different things. Anyway, then we had to wait like 2 more hours to find out the rest, so it was a stomach churning two hours, just wondering and wondering and thinking and all. I had so many emotions before and especially after I found out what was going on. I couldn't fall asleep last night either (and as a missionary I sleep better than I have in my whole life it takes like 2 minutes of laying in bed and I'm gone, every night). So I've still got some mixed feelings about it all, but mostly I'm into it. It was definitely time for a change. I could feel it.

I will be sad to leave some of the people here. We're teaching this guy Ken, the nicest guy in Hartford, and we just set a baptism date with him 2 days ago. And he is way solid and I know he'll get baptized this coming transfer. So it would have been SWEET to see him get baptized because I would have been there for the whole thing. I found Ken myself street contacting back in like, October I think. So that would have been really cool to see the fruits of our labor, but he's the man and will still get baptized. I'll miss him too though, he's a pretty amazing guy.

Well what else...I could go on and on this week its been fantastic. Zone conference. Yes! I had a special moment of realizing how much I really love the Lord. And many other things. We've been studying 2 Nephi 2, 9, & 31-33 and we had a big discussion about them all and it was so awesome.

Gosh, and then Wednesday night we taught this incredible lesson! You can't even imagine this week. It felt like it was 3 weeks long. So many awesome experiences, personal progression, learning, teaching, screwing up, trying harder, repenting, good feelings, etc etc etc. It was great. This lesson though, it was to this wonderful couple in their 50's - the Wells - who lost their youngest son to a drug overdose about a year and a half ago. The lesson was a hard hitting Atonement discussion. We were extremely bold with them and made some excellent progress. These two are kind of on the slow track to recovery and forgiveness and being at peace, but we've been able to help them a lot and it makes me so happy. Elder Pikyavit was sent to Hartford to be at this lesson, and share some experiences of people he has met on his mission, with the Wells. Its amazing how much the Lord will be in your business when you get into His. How much you can see the hand of the Lord when you seek it rightly. So cool! I can't even believe it. Again - such a blessing to have spent this time here in hartford.

Alright I think I gotta run now so love you all and hope all is well and things are good and people heads are up! I feel so blessed to be a missionary it completely blows my mind how great of an opportunity this is and has been. Truly beyond my wildest dreams of what I could know and feel and become. I couldn't ever possibly understand it any other way but my experiencing it and I wish everyone could have this same opportunity. I can't believe I nearly missed out on it. I'd hang my head low for the rest of my life if I ever found out what I'd of missed out on. LOVE.

David in Waterbury.