Now for this week's letter.
I'm sorry to hear that Nick is having difficulties hearing. Tell him
to keep at it, because it'll be worth it. And tell Liz happy birthday
for me. David and Betsy, in ENGLAND??? Who am I gonna hang out with
in Logan when I get back? Maybe it'll have to be Elder Morgan and I,
who is from Hyrum, and was actually trained by Susie while we were
dating. It's rather odd to see someone I knew before my mission out
here.
So, what's this about Natalie and a tumor? I haven't heard anything.
All I knew is that she was pregnant. So, bring me word, eh?
Here's the history of the Springdale area. There were two
companionships: Spanish and English. The English elders were both
taken out, unreplaced. One of them was Elder Erickson, who was my
last companion, so the Spanish elders have been doing both Spanish
and English work for the past 6 weeks. Elder Jaynes and I were
"shotgunned" in, as we call it, which means there were no elders when
we got here (at least, ones that did only English work). In 5 weeks
(next transfer, which are every 6 weeks typically), the Spanish
elders, Elder Brewster and Eder Apaza, will be shotgunned out (both
going home), and two Spanish elders will be shotgunned in to replace
them. We will also get out two native Marshallese islanders. So
that's kinda what's going on with the area.
I'm not sure what to say about this last week. Oh, Elder Jaynes, who
has ridden his bike a total of thrice on his mission, broke his bike.
Apparently a pedal wasn't properly screwed in, and it took of the
threads on the crankshaft. Luckily we were two blocks from Springdale
Bicycle. He had it glued in first, but that didn't work, so he has to
get a new set of pedals and gears. Sounds like it'll be about $70.
Ouch!
In the way of my bike, it's squeaking, as if some metal is about
ready to give way, perhaps, but I'll keep riding it until it breaks.
If it lasts me 6 months, I'll be satisfied. If it lasts me a year,
I'll be really glad. I doubt it'll last me 2 years. I think I'll take
your suggesting and buy a bike locally if mine breaks. I currently
have about $430 in my account, so I should be okay for now.
Send me Spoken Marshallese. I need all the help I can get. I just got
a book called Practical Marshallese that's really good, and Brother
Mecham printed off the 60-page Peace Corps training manual, and
they've both really helped me. I owe the author of Pratical
Marshallese $25 for the book. I'll let you know where to send the
money to, and who to make the check out to next week.
So far I can say "Hello," "Is life going well?," "I'm good," "See you
again," and "Thank you very much." Apparently Elder Jaynes and I are
reading and pronouncing Marshallese pretty well (well, at least
Hannah Kaminaga was impressed). Joe Kaminaga is a member from the
Marshall Islands, but his wife Hannah is an investigator. They're
planning on going to Hawai'i for a couple weeks, and said they'd buy
us a couple of Marshallese Bibles there. Such nice folks!
Elder Jaynes and I have a prime opportunity to do some work on the
29th of May. That's when the president of the Marshall Islands visits
Springdale, and they have a celebration for three days. By then we'll
have the native Marshallese missionaries, so I think things will go
really well. They'll have lots of food (probably mostly in the way of
fish...raw fish), so it's something new I can try! Oh, by the way, my
second-to-last week in Fort Smith, I tried a Vietnamese noodle soup.
It was alright. It had a couple pieces of squid. Squid isn't bad, but
it's nothing to be excited about, in my opinion.
It's good to hear that everyone kinda freaked out when they didn't
hear from me. Sorry. Maybe that'll teach you to write me some
letters, ha! But, seriously, more letters couldn't possibly be bad,
so write me.
Since my birthday is coming up, here's my birthday list:
Mormon Tabernacle Chior - Love is Spoken Here
Special Witnesses of Christ DVD
Church History DVDs
Mormon Tabernacle Chior - Our Favorite Hymns II
Lex de Azevedo - Variations on a Sacred Theme II
Finding Faith in Christ DVD
To This End Was I Born DVD
General Conference April 06 - English DVDs (not multilingual)
General Conference October 06 - English DVDs
I really would like the first three, especially the first one. Also,
a CD with a bunch of talks from apostles and prophets would be good.
Talk to David about that one. I may add to this list next week.
Anyway, it's probably about time to get going. We still have to clean
and do a bit of laundry. Oh, and I hear The Testaments is coming out
on video soon. You can buy it for about $4.50 from the Distribution
Center. So go out and buy it, watch it, and then write me! See you
all next week!
