Iowa Des Moines mission changes update

First of all, Andrew's email today says that his new companion is Elder Andrew Wing from Centerville Utah. Teresa, after reading the email, replied that Amanda used to clog with a Hannah Wing from Centerville (who is a red-head, just like my Hannah). Elder Wing is a red-head, so if Hannah isn't his sister, she's probably his cousin. I just love these "small world" incidents.

Anyway, according to an email from Andrew's mission president the consolidation is among the Peoria, St. Louis, and Des Moines missions. He doesn't mention Omaha like the Church News mentioned. And someone on my missionary mom's email list had this to say about the changes:

The new boundaries will be that the Peoria, Nauvoo, and Davenport stakes will go into the Iowa DesMoines mission.  The Champaign and Springfield stakes will join the Missouri St. Louis mission.  The area that the missionaries are in at the time of the consolidation will decide which mission they are in.  The consolidation will take place July 1st.

So the Peoria mission is being dissolved and part of it will become the Des Moines mission and part will go to St. Louis. Not that it really matters, but the exciting thing is that the Nauvoo temple will then be in Andrew's mission boundaries.

 
Andrew is enjoying training a new missionary more than he thought he would...the new Elder speaks up and helps, which is more than Andrew said he did when he was a greenie.

Mission boundaries will change for Andrew (and others) this summer

In today's Church News there was an announcement about changes to be made this summer in some missions. Some missions are being combined and others are being created. One of the changes affects Andrew's mission (Iowa Des Moines). Specifically:

North America Central Area
Combine the Illinois Peoria Mission with the Iowa Des Moines, Missouri St. Louis and Nebraska Omaha missions.

So it sounds like Andrew will now be serving in what will be called the Illinois Peoria Mission??? Which is funny because our ward just ordered plaques for the missionaries we had serving and Andrew's just came in last Sunday...and now it has the "wrong" mission listed. He was due to get a new mission president in July anyway as President Talbot will be finishing his 3 years of service. I just looked and Illinois and Missouri are also scheduled for a new mission president in July. But it looks like Nebraska isn't since they just got one last July...they currently have President Milan Foster Kunz. Can't wait to see how this all shakes out.

Hmm. I just found out that a new mission president for Iowa was also printed in today's Church News--Dirk O. Jergensen. Hmm. Like I said. Can't wait to see how this all shakes out.

New mission presidents:

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/58784/Mission-president-assignments-for-2010.html

To see the article about the mission changes, go to:

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/58775/New-missions-10-announced-in-seven-areas.html

Andrew said in his email on Wednesday that he was getting a new companion...straight from the MTC. So, Andrew is now a trainer! Can't wait to get his email on Monday (or since it's a holiday, I'll probably have to wait until Tuesday). He picked his companion up from the mission home on Thursday. Hope all is going well for him and his companion.