Elder Joel Preston Barker ~Columbia, South Carolina Mission~: I will go, I will do!

Hey y'all,
This week has been somewhat of a crazy one, let me tell you.
We had a pretty good start to our week in Summerville, except that is has been very cold and rainy. I have been battling a cold for about a week or two now that seems to keep coming back whenever we get soaked and cold while biking in the rain, haha.

We were biking home from the library one night after Mormon.org time, and eating lunch with our new district leader and his companion, and right as we started, we noticed that Elder Connolly had lost his bike light somewhere on the way there. It had fallen out of his pocket. We spent the whole ride home looking for it, and when we didn't find it, we knelt together in our study room and said a prayer. We got some flashlights, and started walking back where we came. We walked for a little over an hour to get back where the library was, and we enjoyed ourselves the whole time. It was about 8:30 and very very dark, so I bought my laser pointer out and we looked at stars for a while, then scared some ducks with my awesome laser! (Thanks Mom and Dad!)
We got a ride back to our apartment, and got invited to go do some service painting a house. We gladly accepted. We got picked up by a youth who went out on his mission, but was sent home for medical purposes. It was awesome to get close with him because I knew what he was going through. We painted for a while and had a blast doing it. We got to back the second day to finish what we had started.
We got a call Wednesday afternoon, and we were told that Elder Connolly and I would be transferred the next morning to a new area. It was hard to hear, and we were both so sad to go. I love Summerville, and enjoyed every hard time and trial I had while I was there. I grew a lot and learned even more. It was a very emotional couple of days, hearing that our oldest dog passed away at home, and then having to leave our area, pack up by the next morning, and white-wash an area I had never been before. We didn't get to really say goodbye to hardly anyone; only a couple of people, and a few by phone.
Our new area is Camden, which is back in the Columbia Zone. This marks the 3rd time I have served in this Zone, first Hopkins and then Windsor Lake. Camden is very country. Not as small as Union, but has a pretty similar feel.
I will miss Summerville a lot, but..as Easton Corbin says, "I'm a little more country than that" haha.
We were accepted in by the ward very well, and very quickly. We have been shown nothing but kindness since we got here. Members taking us out to eat because no one had signed up to feed us and they knew we hadn't really been able to shop yet. We got to go do a service project Saturday morning for a man in the ward who had a ton of yard debris and felled trees on his property. He wasn't home, and we got to surprise him. We met the bishop for the first time that morning. Blue jeans, a ball cap, and driving his tractor with a front end loader. He spent pretty much the whole time picking up giant logs and taking them to the burn pile, until he got bored of that, and started to push down 40-50 foot dead trees, uproot them, and drag them to the pile. Haha he would finish by saying "Don't worry, I got this one, y'all can get the next one!" It was awesome. That's our bishop. Church was great; the 1st counselor who was conducting has a full beard and raises bees as a hobby, so we get a whole lot of home-made honey, which makes Elder Connolly very happy because he raises bees.
We have a ward that is primarily and older generation, but that is totally okay with me because I love listening to stories from older people. They are always so wise and have so many things to say :) I love the advice they give too :P
Well, I will wrap this up so I can send it off! Today all 6 of us Elders are all going to throw a football around and play some basketball. There is even a disc golf course right next to our apartment!

I am loving Camden, but I will always miss being in Summerville. Charleston was an amazing place, and I will miss a lot of people down there. I made so many friends, and love so many people in the Low Country.
Have a great week everybody!
-Elder Joel 'Sunshine' Barker