In Awe

I am in awe. This was probably the best week... of my mission. Possibly. I don't know. I've had some pretty amazing weeks, but this one... it's up there.

Laney’s ‘notes’ from conference read like some of the modern poetry I was forced to read in the English department at the University of Utah. Very interesting stuff. I’d love to show it to a psychiatrist.

Speaking of. I think it’s best that I go into the English department. Jan. 15th huh? So what do I do, anyway? I didn’t even think about this before… I probably should have. I’m sure there are some people who are thoroughly disgusted with my lack of foresight about my whole life.

So the Kung Fu test happened for some but not all?! Chantal wrote me about how he kept changing the dates… I hope Jensen get’s the opportunity to test soon. Study hard, m’baby! I’m o ashamed, I don’t remember ANYTHING. We are going to have to whip my bum back into shape, I’m telling you…

Everything sounds like so much fun. And all the food sounds delicious:)

I had a very amusing freak-out moment once when I was still back in Crosstimbers. It wasn’t a bad freak-out, it was more just very, very funny that my whole life suddenly came to me in a flash and I found myself sitting on the floor of an apartment in the ghetto of Houston, in an ugly jody-dress with a black nametag and some chick talking about the eternal salvation of a couple of cholos. And I just paused and looked up at Hermana and said, “How did I get here? Where am I… WHO THE HECK ARE YOU!?”

Every once in a while that happens. I really can’t figure out how I ended up a church lady, but hey! All’s groovey. I’m blissfully happy and fulfilled and I’m pretty sure I might actually be sort of like a good person. Maybe even a messenger of Jesus Christ.

Wow. I sure do miss you all a LOT sometimes. It’s weird to think that Christmas is sort of coming up… I’m excited to hear all your voces dulces again.

This was an incredible week. One of the best of my life. I had two, really amazing baptisms that I got to go to, a temple trip… I met some new amazing people and I feel like the ward here really sincerely wants to help with the work here. It’s an amazing new place… I miss my old areas, I always do, but I LOVE Louetta.

The two baptisms were Silvia, who’s story I think I’ve already told… if not, I’ll write in on the back of the photo I’m going to mail home. (Probably next week with another package.) and Victor. Victor is AWESOME! Yet again, I’ll have to send that story with a picture. But it was a very powerful weekend we had. And I’ve got another baptism this next Saturday as well. The field is really coming alive out here. I’m so excited to be a part of this work.

I am also so excited for Nanette! That’s so great that she’s coming down here to gorgeous Houston. She’s going to be such an amazing missionary… the East Mission Huh? It’s the Houston East mission, but here, we just call it East. Sometimes they refer to us as North, but we’re just “Houston” really. Anyway, we might actually see each other if they do another multi-mission conference, like the one I just had last transfer. I met lots of missionaries from the East and South mission then. But those aren’t scheduled in advance, they just happen sometimes, and we usually don’t hear about it until a few days before. And yes, Elder Costa came and spoke to us at that last one, he’s very entertaining and very inspiring.

Oh! Fun fact: Sister Willis, one of my new companions, loves the Mighty Boosh. I sort of snorted in the car after remembering a random joke from the show, and I started to explain it to her and she was like: “Oh my gosh…. You just discovered a really deep part of me because I LOVE THAT SHOW!”
It was excellent. I’m pretty sure we’re the only two people in Texas who’ve ever heard of it.

My story telling habits are now pretty well known. It seems that whenever I run into a new missionary they look at my tag and say, “Oh. You’re the one with the stories.” So. Now, I occasionally host story time. I’ve tried encouraging others to share, but they just want to hear.

Just FYI. I don’t know anything about how transfers work, but I had a funny thought the other day and I think… maybe… I’m not trying to prophesy or anything like that, but I DID have this thought and I wanted in on the record just in case I’m right.

I think… I might go English next transfer.

I just did the math and I realized that in order to keep all the English sister’s areas open (and there’s only five) one of the Spanish sisters is going to have to switch to English for a while, and I just have this feeling it might be me. I have evidence to back it up too—President only sends Sisters English when their Spanish is good enough that when they go BACK Spanish speaking after a transfer or two, they will still remember everything and be able to communicate just like before without loosing any ability. He also doesn’t like to send sisters English right near the end of their mission, but more in the middle… and out of all the sisters, I’m probably the only one in the middle, with good enough Spanish and who would be totally okay with it.

Honestly, I think going English would be really interesting. Most Spanish Speaking missionaries are ardently against it. like… violently, violently opposed to ever teaching white people, but I think I’d be okay with it. it could be interesting to go teach white people in the belt-buckle of the bible belt for a little while, and I know I’d learn a lot.

But then, Hermana Willis pointed out, “Because you’re okay with it, it probably won’t happen to you. It’s more likely to happen to a Sister who will throw a huge fit about it and then learn a lot and grow as a result.”

So, she’s got a point. Whatever. I’m just saying, if you get an Email from me and I’m all like “HEY folks! I’m getting banished out to college station to serve English for a while!” just know, I’m totally cool with it and prepared for that kind of a change, and I’m not one of these lame “Spanish-pride” missionaries who are dissin’ on the English missionaries while still trying to figure out how to roll their rrs and use subjunctive tense.

I wanted to try and explain all the spiritually wonderful stuff that happened this weekend… but it’s hard to write about for some reason. I’m working on getting over that, sorry:) But I’ll include at least some explanations about the baptisms.

Also, there was one other baptism this weekend that touched my heart… I didn’t get the opportunity to go, but all the same, I’m so happy I got to be a part of it in a sort of round about way.
Do you remember Veronica? My recent convert? I walked up to her in a parking lot and then she and her two children who were old enough got baptized with her? I love that woman so much.

She joined the church, terrified that she was going to be spending every Sunday sitting alone on the bench, because her husband used to listen to missionaries but had sent them away forever when they started talking about baptism (this was years ago). She had always been curious about what they were teaching him and about why he had been so opposed to the church, so that’s why she invited us to come and teach her. Anyway, she wanted to her husband to be with her in the church. But he refused to have anything to do with it. He didn’t come to her baptism or anything, and whenever we were over there, he wasn’t. I’ve never actually met the man…

Then Elder Dorion and Elder Morin white-washed my old area after Hermana Frieszell left. And Veronica still had a number of recent convert lessons that she needed, so they were over there all the time. Vernoica’s husband, did NOT like it. He would get drunk and make up all kinds of things in his head about what was ‘really going on’ between his wife and the Elders. So, they were welcome over there. It was really horrible for Veronica, but she stayed strong, coming to church and bringing the kids and talking to the missionaries when he was out.

Then… apparently kind of out of the blue, he called the Elders up one night, tearful and repented and explained that he and his wife had been talking and he knew the church was true (had apparently known if for a really long time) and he knew he needed to defeat all of his vices and get baptized.

And yesterday, he was baptized!

Alright… there’s my stories for this week. I’m overjoyed. I really want to bask a little in the glow of the Lord’s success in this campo for a bit… but, I sort of can’t. Not for very long at least. There’s a lot more work to be done.

I LOVE you, my darling, sweet family.