Dear Family

Quite a storm? Well, in Tulsa, yes. I hear they had 10 inches! Here 

in Fort Smith? Not really. Well, I got to see freezing rain for the 

first time, and there was a bit of snow, but I think Logan can get 

worse at times. My coat, gloves, and Rockport shoes are great: not a 

drop on me. At least, not on the parts they covered (I'd post a 

picture of me that I had my companion took, but there's no front USB 

ports on these computers, and I can't get to the back ones). It 

started raining Wednesday at about 7:00 pm Central, and it was really 

torrential. Thursday it got really cold, and kept raining. At about 6 

pm, it turned into snow (tiny, measly flakes, not like in Utah). 

Elder Morrill and I went tracting for a while, and left our bikes 

chained to a stop sign. Then we had dinner at 6, and then went back. 

I had snow in my helmet, and our helmets and bikes had ice on them. 

Most of the snow was gone by the next day.

In the way of Marshallese, it's classified as an Austronesian 

language, so it's related to the Polynesian languages (I'm not sure 

if it's technically one, though, as I don't have a lot of linguistic 

data on Austronesian languages right now). I hear there are 8,000 

Marshallese in Springdale, AK, and 5,000 in Oklahoma City. In fact, I 

hear there are more Marshallese out of the Marshall Islands than in 

them! Oh, and by the way, I need printed copies of those articles I 

sent you. I can't really print them out. Maybe I'll talk to President 

Seal about it....

 

The closest Wal-Mart is in Forth Smith. In fact, the church building 

is just a bit North of it! It's out of range with bicycles, and 

actually not in our area, but the Zone Leaders, who are over Forth 

Smith 2nd ward, pick us up in their car and haul us around town on 

Preparation Days to Wal-Mart and the Fort Smith Public Libraries. Be 

sure to let me know if you do send some pictures so I can pick them 

up (we typically e-mail before we go to Wal-Mart). Also, be sure to 

let me know what Heather and Angie want for Christmas, and what their 

address is, and Heather Fausset's address as well.

Oh, and I had some genuine tamarindo that I made myself. Essentially, 

you break of the shell, and just let the thing sit in water for 

half-a-day. Then it becomes mushy, and you kind of mush it up to get 

the fleshy stuff off, and the hard seeds out, and then add some sugar 

and water to taste. It was alright, but I doubt I made it that well.

Well, Elder Morrill thinks I'm "boring" and "stiff," but really I 

just have a hard time interacting with people I don't know. I wonder 

if he'll ever see me as anything else, because once I know what 

people think about me, that's typically the only side of me that I 

show them. Mostly, here I can't do the things that I really enjoy 

doing: playing the guitar, reading, listening to rock music, watching 

movies, hanging out with people, etc.

I'm sure I told you about April, but I'm not sure about her husband 

Chris. Anyway, they're really interested in what we have to say, and 

are really progressing. We taught them on Wednesday night, when it 

began raining. We were hoping to teach them on Friday, but April's 

father collapsed at work, and she and her husband have been trying to 

figure out if he's okay, which hospital he's at, etc. Johnny Moore is 

still smoking, but he says he's cut down to a half a pack per day.

This week's been kinda crappy. Most of our appointments have fallen 

through, and I've screwed up a couple of times, which gets Elder 

Morrill pretty put off, but it's mostly because he interprets it as 

meaning that I don't really want to be here. I do, I'm just afraid of 

screwing it up for other people. If I chose to come home, it's 

because I'm feeling like I'm just screwing things up over here, and 

that it would be better if I just leave. I'm going to do everything I 

can to prevent that from happening, though.

Anyway, I'm not quite sure what else to say, other than 

congradulations to Becky and Jeff for their new son, and to Darrin 

and Mandy for the house their going to build, good luck to David and 

Cindy on finals, and I hope everyone has a good week until I write 

again next week!