Dear everyone. Maybe that's a bit too broad. Dear everyone who comes across this letter. Dear everyone who reads this letter. Yes, that's right. Dear everyone who reads this letter, I am well. Thankfully. My companion and my pea plant are also well. Thankfully. Starting off this week, I had to call mom the moment I rolled out of bed on p-day morning. I luckily had 30 minutes or so with her as she drove down to Lake Powell with the Clawson's. I'm glad she enjoyed the trip.
That day we went to a nearby park despite being in quarantine for a couple of reasons. Number one: We were leaving the apartment and there was no one who was going to stop us. Second, being we had received the wonderful news that due to no other Elders or Sisters showing any symptoms whatsoever they were cutting quarantine short, technically ending on Tuesday instead of Friday. We explored the edge of Grapevine Lake and got the longest straight line view I have seen since coming to Texas. We got some pretty cool tag pictures, trying to imitate Chris, and now the other Elders are obsessed with taking a cool tag picture whenever the opportunity presents itself.
I got a few more golf balls too. That day, we got a few referrals, all but one of which we had to pass along to the Spanish elders. The one we didn't though was for a woman named Maguy, from central Africa. We called her, and she said she wanted to pray with us. When we were done, she agreed to meet with us Saturday morning. We were pretty excited about that. We did acknowledge the fact that there was a good chance we would have to give her info over to the African specialty Elders who spoke French. We talked to them about it and they jokingly said, "Another? You know we have our hands full, right?" But they happily agreed to work with her if we were having any troubles. We drove over to meet her on Saturday morning and right before stepping out of the car we told her we were here, and she quickly texted back that she was sick with the flu and needed to go to the hospital. We were a little surprised but she agreed to pray with us again over the phone and then we drove home. We also tried to contact Damon again but was unable to reach him. On Wednesday we had dinner with Bishop Radandt ( Pizza :) and his son showed us his 3d printers, and some stuff he was printing like crazy. He had several full size iron man, storm trooper, and black panther masks. He had a Bane Covid mask, several light sabers and many other cool things. So I was able to chat with him about that. I really enjoy all the member meals, and it just wasn't the same for them to drop it off either. We met with a young couple who actually reminded me a lot of Chris and Kristen, but who fed us tamales and jumbleia? (Jambalaya, I think.) It was very spicy rice with shrimp and sausage in it. They had cookies for dessert and told us about how the lady right below them had heard that they were having missionaries over so she brought the cookies up for us.
Well, after the dinner we stopped by to say thank you and ended up chatting for an hour. She was actually from Idaho and used to live right down the street from Elder Youngstrom and they talked a lot about home. She was well acquainted with Logan too, and turns out her daughter lives on the hill up to USU, right behind Smith and Edwards furniture. This world is a little too small, and it's a little unsettling how many people are from Utah or Idaho. Well, it's pretty cool I guess. Elder Leatherwood is still doing Pathways homework for at least an hour a day at the church, and I am just all right with that. Since we are still technically in nationwide quarantine, we are supposed to have two hours of free time a day. I would happily give up the second one for my hour of practice at the piano in the evenings. It has become my daily unwinding time.
I really enjoy it and make sure I get my hours worth. Mom was kind enough to send me some easy hymns to practice and even helped me figure out warmups at the piano on Friday. I now have my music neatly clipped in a folder now instead of crumpled into my bag. They even sent me a metronome, but after a couple of practices where it nearly ended up in pieces I've decided to take things a little more slowly.
After that I'll usually try some Facebook finding, but I have decided that none of this social media nonsense is my forte. There are so many social rules we break, and so many social rules we have to keep, and all the unspoken rules of social networking drive me bonkers. Thursday, we were at a member dinner in the evening, and for some backstory, my pea plant looks happy as a pea plant when I take it in for the evening, but is a bit wilty in the morning. I was not able to put two and two together until one of the sisters of the ward had an amazing collection of succulents, and she shared with us the fact that when she kept them in, or even just pulled them in at night they suffered, but when she left them out twenty-four-seven they grew wonderfully. Since then, the leaves on my pea plant have been crisp and green all day. The only sad part is, now its not really an indoors plant that brings joy to the apartment like I was expecting. But now it's doing great. I don't even have to water it. Sigh. Well, at least I know as long as I have a soup can and some dirt I can grow my plants.
We have Zone conference this coming week and we need to clean the car today. We also have to fill out forms to get our flu shots. One of our ZL's mentioned that and the whole zone shuddered. Turns out everyone here hates needles. Several tried to donate blood and passed out. It feels good to know I will be able to bravely handle the injection of life-saving medicine with nary a wince or a grimace. I might even get a "You've been brave!" sticker. Whenever the subject comes up, people assume I donated for the money. Despite not being old enough for that, they never assume it's out of the goodness of my heart. I guess it's not, I mean, without those boxes of chips and chocolate I don't know if I'd donate either. The first time I did it at school was so I could get out of class for an hour.
Anyways, today was p-day, and I always have a lot on my shopping list even though I never get to most of it. I was able to restock my Band-aids (I had only two out of ten left over), my paperclips, and pens. Plus a frisbee.
We needed something other than pickleball, which isn't exactly my favorite (sorry dad), so here's to you Chris! and Loren! and all the other cool people I know who are super good at frisbee! Like all of my cousins, and siblings-in-law! I guess I'll get some practice. Speaking of sports my dad plays, Elder Bodily and I have taken to playing a game of chess most nights. It reminds me of what dad said about his mission and about him playing a lot. The score is something like 6-1 in his favor. I finally won one by accident. (He developed his rooks while my bishops were still around, hehehe). Like I said, accident. We're not gonna discuss the other games. Anyways, thats about a week for me. Calling fifty people, talking to two. Yeah. Well, if you did stumble upon this letter and accidentally read it all, feel free to notify your local publisher if you liked it, or the society for banned literature if you really didn't like it. I wish you well in any case.
Excellent and funny note, I read it all!
ReplyDelete