McKay Now a Florida Gator

Hola familia!

This week has been rather exciting. Last week I heard that I was being transferred and nothing else, so I figured this would be a routing change up with a new companion. Surprise!  I am now a Zone Leader over the Gainesville Zone!  I live just a couple miles away from the University of Florida "Home of the Gators".  Perhaps I'll get to head up to their football stadium sometime and take some pictures in the Swamp.  Supposedly, this is also the hottest area in the mission since we are right in a little bowl and the ocean breezes don't touch us.  Being transferred here just before the summer months could be deadly.  =P

I'm actually pretty excited to be here.  I had two things I wanted to do on the mission: 1) serve in Georgia and 2) work with a college student my age to "pay it forward" and hopefully put someone new into these white shirts and ties. I got number one 4 weeks into the mission and now it looks like this is my chance to work on number two with some UF students! Woot!

I'm now serving with Elder Brandon Mecham from California.  He has been a Zone Leader here for the last two transfers and is helping me get oriented with everything. He seems like a great companion though and we should get along fine. With all of the things going on this month with trade-offs, district meetings, leadership trainings, zone leader councils, etc, it seems the time actually spent in my own area will be a lot more limited than I'm used to.

My new address is

1505 Fort Clarke Blvd, Apt 15-207

Gainesville, FL 32606

Parting photos with my favorite family in Beaufort and our old district: Elder Bishop, myself, Elder Craynor, and Elder Cancel.

Gotta run. Love ya!

Elder M.