Dear Family, Friends, and others,
I hope you remember my promise from my last letter, explaining the likelihood of my having perished before this letter arrived. Lucky for me, it was not actually me who was initially in harms way this week, but rather the Elders in the South Lake ward who first contracted coronavirus. Their getting coronavirus has put the entire Zone into immediate quarantine lasting two weeks. If that wasn't enough, just last night two Sisters got terribly sick as well. I am not feeling any symptoms yet, but it is still kind of worrying. The announcement that one of the Elders had coronavirus was released on Thursday morning, and the mission nurse was flooded with calls minutes later. We were put in quarantine, but since Elder Leatherwood had a prescription he needed to fill that afternoon, we got permission to visit Walmart before entering quarantine. So we quickly called the bank, pooled our money and went to Walmart. We had a long list of foods we needed to get, including, but not limited to meat, bread, milk, and twenty boxes of pasta-roni. It has become quickly apparent that pasta-roni is the ramen noodles of missionary life. We got some toilet paper, a deck of cards and a couple of dice, and went home. We couldn't resist stopping at Braum's (for ice cream) on the way home though.
Then we got home and started making phone calls. That's what we have been doing-- a lot of phone calls, and a lot of personal study. It actually hasn't been that boring yet. I miss the member meals, and going to the church to practice piano, but we have been doing okay so far. The members have actually been dropping off the dinners, and they have been delicious all the same.
About a week ago, I had the foresight to grab a travel set of chess from Walmart, and during or after dinner I will play a round with one of the other Elders. I can now proudly say that I have been walloped by everyone else in this apartment several times. Elder Leatherwood is teaching the other elders Mau, a game that is fun only because no one knows the rules to that game. It was played in Camp Bartlett and I didn't really like it, so I made black licorice while they played. Actually, I think they started to regret playing without me because one of the rules is that you can't speak while playing, so while making the licorice I began to vent about the difficulty of making it, and how it was made, and generally just started to ramble at them while they played in silence. They haven't played since.
We got transfer sheets just last night, after an excruciatingly long wait. One Sister moved in, one moved out, and that was it. I'm pretty grateful that I'm not training after one transfer like Elder Bodily. I also am beginning to regret joking about the cold. Not because it's cold, but because it was ninety degrees yesterday. At night. I think I offended someone, and they are trying to punish me.
This week was a little lackluster other than the quarantine, and I just hope I have something to write about next week. I guess a highlight that did occur, I had my first piece of Domino's pepperoni pizza on the mission. I was missing that a lot. Aaron, I love how your printer model looks, its going to be amazing! I hope that you continue practicing your piano, and I'll try to keep up with you. Mom, thank you for your letter. I hope you guys still have time to play tennis in the evening. Send my best wishes to Rachel with the rest of her internship. I hope you all are safe and well. Best wishes,
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