My name is Slim. Just Slim.

It's been long enough. Now that a full week has passed, it's time I come out of hiding.

I'll start with last Tuesday. Elder Almond and spent our final moments together touring Pittsburgh - one last time for me, and the first time for him. We saw a couple of sights, but mostly just aimlessly wandered around. At one point, though, we met a gentleman who came up to us and kicked off a conversation with:

"It's a great day to be on God's beautiful Earth, isn't it?"

We chit-chatted for a bit, and found out that he was a wanderer, moving from place to place. His next destination, incidentally, was Salt Lake City. We gave him the suggestion to check out Temple Square. He seemed to be very interested - he has a lot of faith, but is looking for that 'something more' which eludes many.

We went to the final transfer meeting when Elder Almond was assigned his new companion and I.... Well, I just sat there. I watched as each of the new missionaries, probably the most nervous people in the chapel, were assigned one by one to their companions. I remember vividly what happened for me on that day, and it was slightly nostalgic to see them go through the same thing.

After the meeting, we drove to the President's house, where we chilled for the rest of the night. We relaxed, we had temple recommend interviews. Sister Topham made us dinner. After dinner, the mission president, his wife, and the 1st counselor and his wife had a little panel discussion with us. We asked them questions about life after the mission, about what was now expected of us - basically, it was just a chance to get some good advice from people who have been there. The night ended with a showing of "The Best Two Years".

We were up bright and early the next morning, and on our way to the airport. We had a mostly uneventful flight to Minneapolis, but on our connecting flight, we met a gentleman who's daughter had just entered the mission the day before. We were able to give him some idea of what awaited his daughter during the next year and a half. It was a remarkable coincidence.