The Days are Long - but the Transfers Fly By!

*Elder Clark, Sister Quinn, President Quinn and Elder Swindler - transfer day*

You know the saying: “The Days are long but the transfers fly by!” I’ve heard this said many times by our missionaries as they try and fit all their belongings into their two suitcases and maybe a few extra garbage bags for things while looking for their transfer journals to have signed by fellow missionaries. And it’s true, here we are at the beginning of another transfer. If feels like the last six weeks have flown by. Yet, as I sit and think about all the door knocking, KIs for conversion and record breaking baptisms, it feels much longer.

*Elders Hayes and Swenson - transfer day*

Missionaries, missionaries, and more missionaries. Tuesday is our version of a high-speed family reunion where all the missionaries who are being transferred and their companions meet at in the morning at the mission office on Badger Rd. They come in at 11:00 sharp and are supposed to be gone by 11:30. They love seeing each other (we do too). They hug, slap backs and trade ties. We have to gently or not so gently shoo them back to work. It is like herding cats.

*Transfer day at the Badger Building. Missionaries greeting each other.*

*Lots of missionaries on transfer day getting ready to make a “tunnel” for the departing missionaries to run through. Congratulations for a mission well served!*

*Hermanas Austin and Campbell with Sisters Scott and Dunlap*

*Elders Platt, Valle, Batz, Rondina, Chandler, Giron, Ritchie and Graves - transfer day*

Tuesday evening is the farewell dinner at the mission home. What a sweet and sacred experience this is to visit with these amazing missionaries. It feels unreal to them that they will be seeing their families within 24 hours and maybe even watching a movie! It’s hard to say “good-bye” and much easier to say “see you on Facebook!” We’ll stay in touch, but we really do miss all of them!

*Dinner for the departing missionaries - Mission home deck*

*Departing Missionaries: Elders Galvan, Gravatt, Davis, Wallace with the Quinns and Sisters, Brady, Lee, and McMaster*

*Slumber party with Sisters Lee, McMaster and Brady - love the matching pjs given by a missionary mom.*

*Sister Lee’s family picked her up at the mission home Wednesday morning. It was wonderful to meet them!*

Wednesday we’re at the airport, banner in hand, to welcome our new missionaries. I love watching them walk through the security doors - wide eyed, very jetlagged, and wondering if they packed enough skirts or ties.

*Airport pick up of new arriving missionaries with mission banner, . So exciting!*

President Quinn and I interview each new missionary and confirm the decision of who their trainer will be. That evening, after dinner in the mission home, we take a quick photo of each missionary to text to their parents to let them know their missionary is here in Santa Rosa safe and sound. We get lots of love and heart emojis back.

*President and Sister Quinn with Sister Mitchell - picture ready to be texted to her parents.*

Thursday is new missionary training. During the Chic-Fila lunch, with drum rolls and lots of laughter, and sometimes knocking each other over as they hug, our new missionaries are introduced to their trainers. It is fun to watch this interaction. After the day long training meeting they're off with Preach My Gospel in hand, ready and excited to finally be out doing the work.

*New Missionaries: Elders Clements, Yachtman, Schwieder, Payne and Shelton with Sisters: Mitchell, Johnson, Watson, Dalby, The Quinns, Youngberg, Bartlett, and Beattie*

This week we had an added bonus with our daughter Hannah, her husband Ken and their three children Elaine, Sam and Alice coming to visit! It is wonderful to be with them! Our grandchildren are really growing!

We had fun Friday meeting Hermana Brimhall and Sister Risser for dinner at Gott’s Roadside. Saturday we did a little road trip to Los Gatos to visit the Hodgmans, Hannah’s mission leaders and the current Oakland Temple President and Matron. It was fun to visit over hamburgers and homemade baked beans and hear stories about Hannah’s mission as the original Sister Quinn. The Hodgman’s built a new beautiful home. I loved seeing all the special decorating touches by Sister Hodgman. She is very talented. We love one of their mission sayings, “The greater the agency, the greater the growth.”

*Quinns and Francises with Sister Risser and Hermana Brimhall at Gotts Roadside*

*Ken, Hannah, Alice, Sam, and Elaine with President and Sister Hodgman in their backyard in Los Gratos.*

We drove home by way of Baker Beach to put our toes in the ocean and have a nice photo shoot with the Golden Gate Bridge. We were disappointed to see San Francisco doing the San Francisco thing with fog so heavy we couldn’t even see the bridge and wind making it pretty cold. Can you believe it’s June? Wasn’t it Mark Twain who said, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco?” That made sense today at the beach.

*Hannah and Ken with Elaine and Sam at Baker’s Beach*

It’s been a nice Sunday. We enjoyed seeing friends at the Rincon Valley Ward. I finished off the evening by speaking over Zoom to the Bay Area Service Missionaries. It was nice being able to do that. Mission life is busy, beautiful, and, as you can tell, sometimes a little bananas! Have a great week. Thanks for reading this update. Sister Quinn

*If you look closely you can see the lower part of the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s really there!*

*Grammy and Grampy with Alice Francis at Baker’s Beach. Such a cute “scrunchie nose” smile from Alice*

Here are some more photos from the week:

The Days are Long - but the Transfers Fly By!

Trainers and Training Wheels