Dear Shanell,

Guess what?! I am now Assistant to the President! President Gray called me into his office on Monday, September 29 and called me to be an assistant. He told me I must be beyond reproach and a few other things. I really began to feel the responsibility and I became quite overwhelmed! I thought being a Zone Leader was tough! Ha! It is really cool! I am looking forward to the challenge.

The other two assistants are Elder Jackson and Parker. Elder Parker is going to get moved out of the office at the end of this month so Elder Jackson and I will be President Gray's assistant then. Right now there are 3 of us. I am in charge of re-doing all the statistic sheets for the mission and I am in charge of 1/3 of the mission. We help President with transfers and it is really neat! After we prayed today and again and again, etc. we finally decided where the new missionaries would go and who would be their trainers. After we announced it, one of the new missionaries said, "How did you know w were supposed to be together?" Apparently he felt he knew his new companion was going to be Elder Norris.

Elder Vladusic is a new elder and when he joined the church at age 19, his dad gave him a broken nose, withdrew his inheritance (thousands of dollars) and kicked him out of their Catholic home. His father is very high in the Catholic church and he doesn't even believe in God, but he does it for the money. Isn't that sad! Elder Vladusic is cool! He is from Melbourne, Australia and he knows two of the missionaries that were in the MTC with me that went to Melbourne on their missions.

I don't get to do much work as a missionary because we're always busy working in the office. We are very busy! That is okay, though. As long as we can help others baptize. I love to see others have success. It gives me a good feeling to help other missionaries get baptisms! I've already seen a lot of success so now it is time to help them. I feel like I've grown so much out here!

Love,
Elder Wallentine