Wow. What a week. Monday was Preparation Day. Tuesday I ended up

going to Tahlequah (in Oklahoma, where NSU is located, Cherokee

country). Wednesday was full of meetings and planning. Thursday Elder

Valai-Tufuga went to Rogers (just north of Springdale), and on Friday

I went to Fayetteville (just south of Springdale). Saturday we had

three baptisms: one each for Springdale, Fayetteville 1st, and

Fayetteville 2nd wards. Everything was smooth, and there were quite a

few non-members there, including Juan Paz, one of our Spanish

investigators, who is really increasing in faith. I was asked to

teach the 1st lesson in Preach My Gospel about the Restoration of the

church while those that were baptized dried off and changed. Everyone

said it was really good. Our baptism was Gabriel Loredo, 9 years old,

the son of a recent convert family. They're really awsome. They asked

me to do the confirmation on Sunday, which I did, and everybody said

that it was good.



So now last week is over, and I have no idea where it went. It seems

like a combination of temporal hastiness and temporal lethargy; I was

in Tahlequah not one week ago, and yet it seems like it's been quite

a while since then. I'm not quite sure what to make of time these

days, but I am glad that I don't seem to have a real sense of its

passing; it means I'm focused on what I should be doing.



So, Friday I begin training Elder Albert. This transfer has been

nuts; my Spanish has improved, and my Marshallese has gone kind of

downhill; but last night I noticed that I could read Marshallese

rather quickly out loud (at least, under my breath), even though I

didn't really understand what it was saying. Hopefully Elder Albert

will be able to assist me in learning Marshallese more quickly.



On a random note, I've decided that I would like to have the skill of

being able to make basic wood furniture. Like, a table, a really

simple dresser, or a small chest. I just think it would be cool to

get some wood, screws, and some hinges or something, and make a piece

of useful furniture out of all that.



My bike is doing a little better; it's no longer trying to shift all

the time, but the berings in the back wheel are gone (I can here them

knocking around quite often, and my wheel is getting wobbly), and the

chain still slips a bit. I'm wondering if I should just get the back

wheel fixed, and then later replace the gears; but if I can get

another 4.5 months out of it, it will have lasted me for a year, with

the only major breakdowns being two flat tires. Pretty impressive for

$130.



No mastering on the origami; I just have a bunch of small envelopes,

and need to shove a piece of paper in there somehow; so I just fold

it in some random manner. Between the box of 100 envelopes that I

bought back in Fort Smith and the 100 that you sent me, I'll probably

have enough of them until the end of my mission.



So, yeah, my birthday is coming up. I plan on buying a couple of

music CDs (I would have bought them already, but I'm waiting to see

if anyone sends me any). So, I'm almost 24, and I've noticed that

things are changing. The hair around my part is looking a bit

thinner. Maybe the Lord is just making my hair a little easier to

part, but I'm sure if He's having me lose hair to do it, they're

numbered. So far I've found 5,682 strands of hair in my comb. Just

kidding. I don't keep count.



I've been thinking a bit regarding the fact that I will be 25 when I

return home. I'll probably be able to get grants, which is a plus,

but I've realized that I will be a fresh RM, a college grad, and will

have a bit of savings. Throw in a good job, and theoretically I

should be one of the most eligible bachelors in a college word, and

girls should be flocking around me. Ugh! All those girls playing with

my mind...it frightens me. Ah well. Moving on.



Today I don't have much to buy - milk, cheese, bread, and a small

plastic bottle to store a small amount of shampoo so that I don't

have to lug around the whole bottle--an ingenious idea that I came up

with in the midst of all these exchanges, which probably won't happen

again (unless I somehow end up as a district leader), but I'm going

to follow through with it anyway. Since I have so little to buy this

week, I'm going to treat myself: I'm buying a package of Pilsbury

chocolate chip cookie dough, for $2. Cheap and good, I find it the

perfect item to buy to reward myself for being so frugal with the

Lord's money (and for being able to survive on so little, but with a

great amout of help from the members, and other missionaries, due to

exchanges).



I feel that at this point I'm just blabbering on, so I'll close.

See you next week! Brady