October 13

Hi Mom,

Oh yeah, I am back in Alliance!!!!! Back to change Youngstown. I

don't know if I have ever explained really how a transfer works. So

for us, (it will be different for Rooster and Lys) we have to wait

until Monday night around 9:30 to get a phone call from our District

Leader, who had just received a call from the Zone Leaders, who were

just called by the Assistants. Only President, and the Assistants at

this point know what is going to happen. All the District and Zone

Leaders know is if we are staying, being moved somewhere in the stake

or being moved outside of the stake we serve in. So we all thought

that Sister Kunz would be transferred. She even said herself that she

felt like she would be, and I thought it was possible. We were pretty

surprised by the call when they said that I was being "out-staked."

There is only one stake that I can serve in that I haven't, which is

the Akron stake. That is where everyone was predicting since I have

already served in Youngstown and Toledo. Well, you pack your things

We went to the most appropriate restaurant for

me, Danny Boy's. It is pretty good!

on preparation day, and go to transfer meeting on Wednesday.

President speaks to us for a bit, and all of the new trainees

introduce themselves and their trainers, and finally the zone leaders

stand up and announce who will be serving in the zone. They always

start from the Toledo side and work over to the Youngstown zones.

They kept announcing areas, and my name wasn't called over and over,

and finally we passed the Akron stake, and I realized there was only

one other place I could go. I stood up, as they announced I would

serving in Alliance North, and gave a confused/excited look to

President Vellinga. He looked almost as surprised as I was, shrugged

and then laughed. There was a ton of gasps from the other

missionaries. It is super rare, almost unheard of to return back to

an area, especially after serving there for 6 months already. I was

so excited to hear about getting to go back.

My new companion is Sister Byers. She is really great, and very

humble. She is much different than any of my other companions, and I

am excited to work with her.  She and I have had a ton of fun surprising people with funny stories from the past and waiting for them to realize what has happened.

S Bakker and Byers doing a service project

Me coming back has been great for some of the families here.

There are some things that have changed since I left, and I am so

grateful that I get to come back and work hard to overcome some of the

challenges that have come in the last 9 or so months.

It is so weird to be back in my old apartment! I keep walking in

there waiting for it to be freezing just like what happened last year

with the furnace. Sister Byers thinks I am a nut... What else is

new, though?

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Bakker