Mission Stories - Transfers

For a missionary, time is divided into hours, days, weeks and months just like with a normal person (though the experience of time does become slightly skewed as days are long like eons yet weeks just fly by without noticing). But the most important unit of time, which is unique to the system of a mission is a transfer. Usually a transfer is a period of six weeks, but in the Sweden Stockholm Mission it is nine weeks. I think this is because of the Missionary Training Centre: a non-Swedish-speaking person called to serve in the SSM enters the Provo MTC in Utah for nine weeks in order to learn the Swedish language. So perhaps to match the rhythm of new missionaries coming from the MTC, the transfers in Sweden are at the same regular intervals.

These nine-week periods rule the life of a missionary, because it is for those nine weeks that one is assigned to work in a specific area and with a specific companion, and only highly exceptional circumstances would cause the change of area or companion during that period of one transfer. Each transfer also has one Zone Conference and one Sharpening (another kind of conference). Transfers happens at the end of a transfer, and that means changes in the set-up. So transfers is the thursday of the last week of the transfer (aka transfer week). By this time one will have been informed of the new set-up (whether one stays or moves, or whether one's companion stays or moves), and if there is a change the companionship travels (usually by train) up/down/east to Stockholm main trainstation, Stockholm T-Central.
^{Everyone still on board? Quick recap of the vocab:
'a transfer/the transfer'=one 9-week period. E.g. "This is the best transfer ever!"
'transfers'=swapping of places. E.g. "Did president tell you any news of transfers?"
          Sometimes it is obvious from context that one is speaking of a plural of 'a transfer', e.g. "I was in Sundsvall for four transfers."
'transfer day'=the thursday when people swap places, happens once every 9 weeks. 
'transfer week'=the week that has transfer day.}

So transfer week usually looks like this: Monday is not P-day as it usually would have been, but is a regular workday. Tuesday the president calls (at any point in time of the day, he starts early in the morning and calls every companionship in the mission, so about 50 or 60 calls - starting with the new Assistant and other leadership positions). Usually this means that tuesday is a super-antsy day before the call, and even more antsy after it. Because we love other missionaries and are infinitely curious, it also means that there is a lot of texting and calling going on, to find out what is happening with other people. Wednesday is transfer P-day, which means cleaning and shopping in preparation for the new transfer as well as packing if someone is leaving the area. This is also when the Zone Leaders give travel details (mainly train times and order numbers for the printing of tickets). And thursday is the day of transfers itself. By friday everyone should be back in their new/old areas with their new/old companions and back to work.

I hated transfers so much, the stress and the packing and the interruption to the work. But transfers is fun too, I have to admit. At the trainstation in Stockhom there is this round, wrought iron railing -thing, around a round hole on the floor, so you can see down to the lower level. This is what we call The Ring. On transfers this Ring is surrounded by tons of missionaries and even more luggage (as every missionary tends to have 2-3 pieces of luggage). The Stockholm Zone Leaders are in charge of the show, they know when everyone is expected to arrive, when everyone is expected to leave and with who, they take care of any phones or keys that need to exchange hands, etc... So when you arrive in Stockholm by train as a missionary, the Zone Leaders send down some other missionaries to help fetch you and your bags from your platform, and they also send help to get you and your bags to your train back. The time between these things you are welcome to do what you wish (within missionary limits of course), and the most people choose to simply stand around and talk to all the other missionaries. We don't see each other very often, so it's important socialising time. It is not uncommon for stuff to exchange hands ("I forgot X, can you bring it to the Ring?" etc) and for people to write in each others' buddy books (which is like your guestbook, but you have it with you instead of keeping it at your house).


So on my mission I had 8 transfers in Sweden, and 3 weeks in the MTC, la:

Area	Companion	District Leader	Zone Leaders
MTC	sister Anderson	elder Webb (with elder Tulip)	n/a1
Sundsvall	syster Hegstrom	elder Holland (with elder Barlow)	elder Kroff and elder Bennion
Sundsvall	syster Hegstrom	elder Harris (with elder Blaylock)	elder Kroff and elder Bennion
Sundsvall2	syster Cherrington	elder Harris (with elder Bracken)	elder Bennion and elder DeBaltzo
Sundsvall	syster Kelly	elder Espinoza (with elder Bracken)	elder DeBaltzo and elder McRory
Norrköping	syster Gotberg	elder Grace (with elder Chester)	elder Conlon and elder Blackhurst
Göteborg	syster Johnson	elder Arche (with elder Bailey)	elder Blackhurst and elder Christiansen3
Örebro	syster Maxwell	elder Walraven (with elder Shear)	elder McRory and elder Murri
Örebro4	syster Brown	elder Hepburn (with elder Shear)	elder McRory and elder Jorgensen

¹The others in that district were elders Tomachewski, Turner, Quesne and Richards, and sisters Peterson and Daines.
²This transfer we didn't have the car (Betty) because neither of us was able to drive, but we got the car back for the next transfer after Betty had many adventures in Skellefteå. The sad end of Betty was when the sisters crashed her on the one-lane highway on the way to Hudiksvall. Soon after that Sundsvall became an elder area, and Norrland became a man-zone :C
³Elder Bailey left during that transfer and first we got elder Grindstaff as district leader for a bit, but then elder Arche was in a threesome in the other district and our D.L. after all. The other members of that district were the senior couple elder and sister Anderson. And at one point elder Blackhurst left to be an assistant and was replaced as zone leader by elder Landeen.
⁴This was an exceptional 13-week transfer.


My last district represented in the lions that my companion bought in the toy store. I'm the one lying down (because it's my last transfer and I'm dying) and trying to keep my baby (my companion) out of trouble. The District Leader is trying to teach us with his paw high in the air ("My tank is empty!"), and his companion observes coolly.