The crazy just never seems to stop. Elder H says it the best. "This transfer is just crazy." The week itself was a nice one and a fun one, but it's been nuts.
After my previous email, we had FHE at the P's. They're a very nice family that live over towards Hazelhurzt. Where is Hazelhurzt? I don't know. I just know we were headed that way. We were given a ride by the W's. They are a very nice and very funny older couple. They are both quite the jokesters. Sister W brought pies to FHE and we asked why. Brother W responded, "she had to bring something sweet besides me." It was quite funny. We had a great time and talked with the members there.
Tuesday was a pretty mellow day. Except I was attacked. On the street. Let me 'splain.
It began one simple morning as we were riding our bikes to go see a less active member over on the other side of town. We were only a few minutes away from our trailer when I accidentally ran over broken glass on my bike because I wasn't looking. I stopped my bike to check for leaks. I set my bike down on it's side and picked out a few small pieces of glass in my tire. Luckily, the tire had not popped as the glass had not made it through the tire. After I had finished getting all the bits, I picked up my bike and began to ride. After a few moments, I realized that my handle bars looked strange. I slammed on my brakes and jumped off my bike. I realized that I had set my handlebar down on an ant hill. My bike was literally covered in ants. I brushed off a few ants that had clambered aboard me and luckily I was bit only a few times. I gingerly walked the bike back to the trailer, trying not to touch it. The hose was picked up and I waited patiently as the hose built up water pressure until it was enough to shoot forth out of the nozzle. The ants seem not to notice nor care towards their impending destruction. I think they were thinking "Man this is a nice bike. Let's take it." In reality it was more like "WHERE I? HARD! WHY? NOT EDIBLE!" and other ant-y thoughts like that. The hose shoot forth in a blaze of water. The water pressure washed the ants away, never to be seen again.That's pretty much the whole story. Wednesday was a similar to Tuesday. Not in the number of ants I fought but what I did. We've been working with a Miss D and she's a very nice lady.
Thursday was the crazy day. We woke up at 4:30, showered, and dressed ourselves. We wore suits as we needed to look our best. We jumped in the car and made the 30 minute trip to Douglas. We waited in Douglas for a while until Elder F and Elder F were ready to go. We went in the van and made the three hour trip to Tallahassee, Florida. We arrived and went to the Stake Center. I really needed to go to the bathroom but, being the 5th tallest in the mission, I was called to stand in the back for the mission picture. We stood there for a solid 20-30 minutes while they tweaked and piled on more people. Finally I left and went to the bathroom anyway. I came back and they were still tweaking. I won't tell you of the great joy and happiness that restroom break brought me but I assure you it was great. After 10 or 15 more minutes, we started taking pictures. After 6 to 7 minutes of just flashing picture after picture, everyone stumbled off the bleachers and into the chapel. We opened the meeting and President Jensen talked for a little bit. Then we had an amazing lunch provided for us by some people. It was great. The turkey and rolls were amazing. I still like Mom's stuffing much more. Stuffing down here is weird. I don't know how to describe it. It's almost like bread...paste. We had a great time and enjoyed some wonderful entertainment by other Elders. We heard trumpets and flutes, pianos and lovely voices, as well as a Harry Potter themed skit. All good fun. We watched 17 Miracles for our movie. It was good and I really liked it. I do wish we had gotten to see Elf but 17 Miracles was really good. It was just an awesome meeting. We listened to more music and an interesting song called "Where's the line to see Jesus?". It was quite thought provoking. We had some great talks and some testimonies from three Elders who are leaving before the next mission conference. It was an amazing meeting. After Elder H and I helped clean up, we piled back in the van and began the long journey back to Alma. We stopped by Steak n' Shake and I got a shake. It was good - mint oreo I think. We also stopped by Taco Bell (zone leaders idea, not mine). I just got a hard taco and it was good. We made it to Douglas around 11. Elder H and I still had to drive to Alma but we decided that it would be better and safer to sleep in Douglas. Needless to say, I am never sleeping in Douglas again if I can. Tile floors are nice but they are cold and very hard. I had a blanket which allowed me to survive. I didn't sleep much that night. Right as the alarm went off on Friday we were up. Elder H and I wanted out! We left around 6:35. We drove back to Alma and showered and cleaned ourselves up. Elder H was really feeling quite poor and I was still a little sick from sleeping on the floor. As we finished our first appointment, he was looking and feeling quite ill. We talked to President Jensen and he advised us to take a sick day. So we did.
I hated it.
The whole day was awful. If I can, I'll never take a sick day again on my mission. I read many pages of Jesus the Christ to point where my head was full! I drank plenty of fluids and things like that. But I sat in a chair and didn't do anything all day. It's kind of hard to explain why I hated it so much.
Luckily the sick day was soon over and we were back to work.
Saturday was a fun day of teaching, pine cone throwing, pine cone baseball, and L. We went to Sister W's to talk with her and found her picking up pine cones with a grabber. Pine cones are very poky and sharp down here. They will stab you and it hurts. Don't touch them. I did and it stung for the whole day. She had one of those grabber things that you pull the handle and the claw closes. It was cool. So we picked up pine cones and I started throwing them in the bucket with the claws as the bucket became farther away. I only made a few in the bucket but I was always pretty close. I would come back after a dozen or so pine cones and throw the ones that had missed (all of them) in. I threw one in and I heard a WHACK! and saw my pine cone land and roll right back to me. I look and standing over the bucket was my companion, baseball bat in hat and with a grin on his face. He was clearly challenging my pitching skills. I stepped up to the plate. In most pitching situations, you have the use of your hands and can actually hold the ball. This ball would hurt you if you touch it. Evil, evil ball. So I had to throw with the grabbers. That made my aim as well as power very.... not effective. He hit a few but they were mostly balls on my part. He had just a few strikes by the time we were out of pine cones. We talked with Sister W and had a good time. We went and saw a few other people. One person we've been trying to contact for a while just wouldn't answer the door. He did wave at us through the window though. He's an elderly gentlemen who lives alone so he usually likes for us to come over. Elder H was still feeling a little sick so we went home early that day and did companion study (we had done weekly planning instead and forgot to reschedule companion study).
Sunday was fun! Church was good and we had lunch afterwards at Sister W's. I wish I had taken pictures but she had the nicest silverware and dishware I've ever seen. Oh. Another thing. Here in the south, they have nice dishes. I think it's an England thing from back in the day. They were gold and everything. We had a great time in her trailer and had a great meal. A few other members of the branch came and they were very funny. Brother D and Brother L were funny. Sister W and her Massa (I'll explain later) prepared an amazing ham. It tasted kind of similar to Local Boyz but had more of a ham-y sort of sweet flavor. It was good! One of the guests there was eyeing the ham before we had started eating and Sister W looks over and saw the wandering eyes and said "touch the ham and die." Sister W is just a big jokester and it was really funny. We all laughed about that one. A week or two ago, Sister W was called as the missionary meal coordinator. We have had more dinner appointments in the last week than in the first two or three weeks of my time here in Alma. It's been pretty incredible.
Picture time!
Auntie sent me some little growing creatures. The first two pictures were of that process. The last picture is very dark. But it is of a bunny. It was just so close and we saw it. It held still for like a minute! It was awesome!
Bye and I love you all!
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| Critters from Auntie |
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| Critters from Auntie Expanding |
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| A Bunny Rabbit? |
