Crosstimbers

Hi everyone! What a week… I really want to tell you everything, but there’s so much. First off, everything back home sounds like fun. I had an apostate moment and looked at dad’s blog, all those pics are so fun! Which reminds me, why don’t I have any pictures of you from the last six months!? Well, I’ve got one of Jensen in her cute marshing my mallow shirt, but that’s it! That’s so fun that you got a redwood tree mommy, I’ll have to go with you when you return it to Marin. There’s a few missionaries from up there (not Marin specifically) and they talk about it sometimes and I get all wistful.
Also, I was curious to know if I could have any of the pictures from MY baptism. Did we take any? I feel like we did, but I can’t see them in my mind. Anyway, we talk about baptism and I usually show people pictures from the two baptisms I’ve had, but I was thinking it would be a good idea if I showed them ME getting baptized.
Would you all do a favor for me?
Watch the movie bedazzled and pay specific attention to the drug-lord bit and just giggle for me. I’m bi-lingual now you know
Aside from that I really just want to tell you about my new area and companion!
Sooo… remember how I told you that Gunspoint was the ghetto of Houston? Well, Gunspoint is the ‘CULTURAL’ ghetto. Very hip-hop. “Hi can I give you this card? Wow, nice grills.” – like that.
My new area, Crosstimbers (near 5th ward Houston, which is where George Foreman is from) is ghetto in the way that it’s poor, dirty, falling apart and everything is in Spanish. I’ve seen dozens of abandoned houses, most of which have caught fire at some point, everything is coated in graffiti, so giving away pass along cards goes more like this “Puedo darle esta tarjeta? Oh—No, no tengo dinero. Quiere una manzana?”
It’s very sad. There are ladies of the night everywhere and the drug lords ride by in real nice cars. Pretty depressing.
But, people are way more willing to talk about God when they’re poor. I’m touched by how humble these people are, even if they don’t accept everything they’ll let you talk to them and they’ll try to understand.
We’ve got a baptism this weekend. Two sisters Pati (18) and Antonia (14). The sad thing is that they were originally teaching another sister, Juana (Pati’s twin sister) but when they asked her if she woud get baptized she said she’d only do it if her twin got baptized with her, so they started teaching the other two sisters, and now Juana doesn’t want to get baptized STILL, although she admitted that she knows that the church is true and that she also knows she’s going to get baptized someday, but she just doesn’t feel ready to do it right now. I’m worried she’s planning to leave home. Their family is a pretty big mess right now and she’s got a boyfriend who lives in Alabama. She’s going to Georgia this week (she’ll miss her sisters’ baptisms) to stay with an aunt, but we’re all pretty sure she’s actually going to see the boyfriend and may or may not return. Her mother know about all of this (we talked with her about it) and doesn’t want her to go, but sadly, she’s really not that great at the whole parenting thing.
Hopefully, we’ll figure something out. In any case, Pati and Antonia are amazing girls and they’re all squared away. Pati has changed a lot. She used to just mope around the house, hated everyone, didn’t think her sisters cared about her at all… Very sad, but since she’s started learning about the gospel she says that she’s happy. She has hope for the first time in years and she and her sisters have grown closer as a result of having something to share besides a room.
I’m in the coveted Houston Zone. It’s the only all-Spanish zone in the mission. Everyone was jealous, but I don’t really get why, nobody really speaks Spanish unless we’re with natives (which I think is lame) and yeah, we baptize more here but there’s also a ridiculously low rate of people who stay active. They’re all about numbers. Makes me a little sick to be honest… but it’s alright, I know they’re working hard at least and the people who get baptized here and DO stay active, are awesome.
My Greenie-breaker, Hermana Forsling, is way fun. Her style of teaching is way different from Hermana Frieszell. There’s no formality at all, she’s just chatting with them. It’s good from some people, but I can see how she’d be pretty ineffective with many of my old investigators in Greenspoint. I do have to figure out a way to interrupting her and get her back on tract sometimes though. Or point out that we’re running out of time and have half a lesson to teach still.
She’s awesome though. She’s a cosmetologist, so she’s already helped me out with my hair and nails. She used to race cars for cash in Los Angeles when she was 13, made a good amount of money too apparently, but then figured out it was not only illegal, but legitimately dangerous when she saw someone else crash. Houston driver’s are TERRIBLE. If you think Utah drivers are bad, come to Texas, get good and stressed out and then go back to Utah and be blessed with patience for others for the rest of your life, I’m telling you… It’s nice to have someone driving who knows how to maneuver around idiots. I’ve been teaching her Kung Fu in the morning. I should get her to teach me how to really drive, though I think her advice would be something like “Go really fast, but not too fast and don’t hit anybody or anything with the car.”
So, everything’s pretty shiny. I’m still getting to know her and my new area. I’m glad my package and everything arrived. I was sad I couldn’t hang onto that stuff, but I can’t believe how much space I do not have in my luggage anymore… I’m probably going to need to send some more stuff home soon. I’ve got a big box of letters I’ve gotten from people that I want to keep, but maybe not WITH me through my whole mission.
I hope you get the job at Kimber mom, you would be so great! I was thinking about good old Kimber the other day… I’m really glad I went there and also that I left when I did. You never know when random knowledge from Kimber is going to come in handy. For instance, Elder Brisco asked “What year did the Book of Mormon end?” and I said “421.” And they all stared at me.
Kimber hook date.
Very nearly useful when you’re trying to save souls.
My new apartment complex is on Jensen St. I’ll have to take a picture of myself by the sign.
My new apartment is a lot bigger and nicer than the last one. (We don’t actually live in our area, I think they thought it wasn’t safe). And the dishwasher works which is a step-up.
I thought that with time it would get easier to resist writing, but it’s actually getting harder. I still like of ideas for stories all the time, and I haven’t actually started anything, but I got pretty close once or twice. The only thing that saves me is that I don’t. Actually. Have. Any. TIME. Still, I was thinking that for my preparation-day language study, I might try writing a little of whatever I want in Spanish. Nobody ever practices writing the language for their language study (Hermana Frieszell would sometimes write letters in Spanish for her Preperation-day language study, and I’ve done that too). I was really hoping that being in Houston Zone would help with speaking Spanish more, but no. They’ve all been around A LOT longer than I have and feel comfortable enough with Spanish that they don’t feel the need to practice any longer and if I just speak Spanish alone people get frustrated (because it takes longer for me to explain myself) or annoyed (because they’re all speaking English). And sadly, my companion, I’m pretty sure, doesn’t really do language study anymore. I guess a lot of missionaries get to the point where they feel like people understand them and they stop studying. But that’s total bull. I’m getting better at recognizing when other missionaries mess-up in the language, which they all do, A LOT. And besides, I didn’t feel like I understood the English language very well at all until I finished writing that first book and then when I finished the second I realized I STILL didn’t understand it completely. I don’t think you can ever learn any language perfectly. And Especially since Spanish is my second I NEED to keep studying, even if the rest of my Zone is lame… I think I’m going to start taking little moments out of the day to read Nuestro Legado or Jesus El Cristo. I really don’t want to plateau like everybody else.
Any more news about whatever is going down at the MTC? Our new missionaries are still trapped in there. They said they MIGHT come this week, but we don’t know. Hermana Quitana and Hermana Thomas were getting a baby, so was Elder Rowberry. They’re all quite angry about the delay, and I don’t know if it’s true, but it sounded like the quarantine included all the workers/teachers/volunteer or other staff who had been there at the time and not just the missionaries who are trapped them anyway? Is nobody really allowed to leave, or is it just that they’re not letting them fly?
I really, really am dying to see Jensen’s projects. If they’re up on Youtube or something, I think I can watch them if you send me the link. I’ll say it’s like if you’d sent me a picture. Except it moves
I really miss you all a lot, but I am loving it out here and I can’t believe it but I’m almost a 1/3 of the way through! AHHH! That’s crazy, I feel like I just got here… It’s a little early to talk about this, I think, but the other missionaries are already asking, so I thought I’d bring it up. There’s a choice next year. I can take the early transfer and come home june 16 or I can take the late one and come home 6 weeks later (I’m not sure on the date, I only know june 16, because it’s what’s written on my ministerial certificate and is the date that the mission currently has me going home at) I was planning to try and take the late one home so I could show up just in time to go to San Clemente with the family (BECAUSE WE’RE GOING, RIGHT?!) and get to see everybody all together right when I got back! But then I remembered that Laney’s going to be turning 10 end of june and it would be way, way awesome to be back in time for that… I don’t know, I’ll probably fast and pray about it when it’s a little more relevant, but I thought I’d bring it up with my loverly fambly and see what you think.
Oh, also, if you’re not going to San Clemente next year (or anything of the sort) then I might also take into consideration the option of extending. It probably wouldn’t be the wisest thing, because I’d probably have to come home and immediately jump into school and nobody likes that, and also, I can only extend 21-30 days which isn’t a full transfer and would involve me going home. All. Alone. Which could be soul-crushing. I may need a group of ten/fifteen other dying missionaries to hang out with a keep my spirits up.
I really shouldn’t even be thinking about this stuff so soon, but everyone keeps saying that it’ll be relevant sooner than I think, and plus, so far both of my companions and a lot of the Elders I hang out with are dying, so for them it is relevant and I have to try all the time to keep them from getting trunky. Like poor Hermana Frieszell the week I left was sharing what she’d done in Personal Study that morning and she said “Well, I was reading the last chapter in the book of Mormon when Moroni is all alone and is just like ‘Uhhh… It’s all over. Everyone’s dead. I’m all alone. Bye.’ and I got really depressed, so then I decided to look at an Ensign, but I flipped open to that ‘GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE!’ talk from last conference, and so I decided to make a list of everything fun that I could do when I got home, to try and cheer myself up, but then I got WAY depressed when I was making the list, so I just got in bed and read Jesus the Christ until you called me.”
Drama, drama. Why am I hanging out with all these old people? They’re so cool and they have so much wisdom to impart upon me, but I think I need to be companions with somebody whose my age or younger next transfer to avoid talking about all the stuff they don’t want to do when they go home. (IE: School, work, date…) Hermana Frieszell’s list of stuff she wants to do looked like this: Hang out with all my old companions, make food I learned how to make on my mission for family and friends, write the living missionaries, go to lessons with missionaries every night, cut hair really short, wear jeans again, give investigators rides to church.
Pobrecita. At least she’ll have her clothes back.
Hermana Forsling is getting pretty old too. She’ll be going home in November if she takes the long transfer, which she’s planning too. Hermana Marsh is dying with her and then there’s Hermana Quitana, and Hermana Taylor and then guess who the old ones are? The Hermanas who came out with me and Hermana Blanco and Hermana Hollenbaugh who were both in the MTC when we got there. No idea why, but there’s a HUGE generation gap. So, we really need all those little young missionaries who are trapped in the MTC. I’m already one of the old ones! What is THAT about?
You should write me and talk about how I’ve got plenty of time left to baptize all of Houston. Seriously, I can’t believe I ever considered NOT doing this. Best decision ever.
Well, I love you all SO much, and I’m looking forward to hearing from you soon, but I’ve got to go!
MWAH! Ailsa Lillywhite