Transfer #5 Begins

Well, today was transfer calls.  Last week on Tuesday night I got an email from the mission headquarters that said "please answer these questions by tonight".  The questions were about college (where did I go, how long was I there for, when do I expect to graduate, what was my major, etc.).  There wasn't any explanation as to why they wanted that information, and the only reason I could think of was that maybe they were thinking of putting me on the tech staff.  Usually, when they transfer elders to the mission office, they transfer them a week early so that they can be trained before their predecessor leaves, so I'd been anticipating an early transfer call since Wednesday.  My heart would skip a beat every time the phone started ringing.

Then this morning (Monday) I got a call from our zone leaders, and they said I was staying in Sagamihara.  I wasn't really surprised, because I'd heard before that when both elders stay in the area they get their transfer call from their zone leaders instead of the assistants to the president.  Our zone leaders sounded like they were a little confused, though.  After they talked to me they talked to Elder Watanabe and then he was confused when he got off that call.  "I guess we're staying here unless we hear otherwise," he said.

Then we got a call from the mission office (not one of the assistants' cell phones, where transfer calls normally come from), and it was Elder Berube (the tech staff) who happened to be helping the assistants with transfer calls today, and he told me I was transferring to Kichijoji on special assignment--I'm joining the tech staff.  And then asked I him about the email I got last Thursday.  Turns out they needed to have my college information for national health registration or something like that--nothing at all to do with transfers or tech staff.  

Then we went to the church and met the other elders in our area, who apparently had the same thing happen--our zone leaders told them they were staying, and then they got a different transfer call from Elder Berube.   And then some point our zone leaders realized there was a mistake somewhere and called us to find out what was going on. 

Transfers are exciting.  XD

So, yeah, I'm going to the mission headquarters in Kichijoji, and I'm going to be the on the mission tech staff.  Elder Berube is going to be my new companion. Over the last couple of transfers they had just one elder doing tech work full-time (it was Elder Berube last transfer), but now they're switching back to having two elders handling both tech work (including writing/maintaining mission software) and normal proselyting.  That's why I didn't transfer early for training--Elder Berube's not leaving, so they'll still have someone who knows what's going on.  I transfer on Thursday, so next week I'll write more about what the tech staff does.