Spring-ing Ahead Sets Me Back

Aloha My Familia,
Well, I'm feeling much better this week, no more sicknesses. That's always good. I think Elder Heyborne's getting sick, but he won't listen to me. He follows the fake it till you make it strategy. It's good...but I don't think it works the same for illnesses. And yes, Transfers are next week. This transfer has flown by. Both Elder Heyborne and I hope nothing gets switched up here in Knoxville...but we'll do whatever the Lord wants and all that junk.

This last week we went on exchanges down to Centerville. With the way things are right now with the missionary from Centerville being in a companionship with the missionaries in Oskaloosa (please look at a map to get a reference on the distance there) we both went with him down there instead of splitting up like usual. It was fun and all but Centerville is a very interesting town. It has the largest town square in the nation (or so they claim. I was expecting bigger. Major disappointment. Not to be a terrible tourism rep or anything...), but it has the look of a fairly impoverished little community. They also (I don't know if I've told you this before, but if so, bear with me because I'm telling it again) have an interesting church down there. It's a barn that was converted into a bar and used as the church too for awhile before the bar closed and was officially the church. For some reason it always smells like Arby's there and it makes me really want a roast beef sandwich. Oohhh...Arby's.... They have it here but I haven't gone yet.

AAAaaanyway, the weather has gotten a lot warmer very quickly. It's actually kind of scary how quickly. Yesterday we went to a member's home to get him prepped to teach the new member lessons to one of our Recent Converts and we sat outside in the sun as we met with him. It was way comfortable and I even watched as a sunburn formed on his forehead. It even rained this week. I used to hate rain like I hated dogs (now I tolerate them...mostly. Still just stinking, slobbering firballs who won't just leave me alone. It's like they sense that I don't want to be bothered and so they try their best to get me to love them. Or maybe it's because I'm nice to them once and all of a sudden I'm their best friends. I especially hate big dogs that think they're small. Yeah, doberman, I REALLY want to be tackled to the ground right now, that's just GREAT! And yelling a dog's name at them only sometimes works. I need a dog that is way chill like a cat. Cats are great. I pet them and even as I do that some will just walk away. THAT'S a pet for ya. One that will give me privacy. Anyway, sorry bout that). But now I like the rain. It's nice to just get drenched. Out here, though, there's this thing called wind. I don't the wind. It takes cold and makes it frigid, and takes rain and makes it no fun. Kind of like how the kid that poops in the pool takes a fun thing (the pool) and makes it no fun for everyone else. And that's the conditions of the day this week that we had set apart to walk around town and talk to everyone we saw. Yeah. We met 8 people in our walking (probably because people were smarter than us and decided to just drive everywhere and stay warm). The next day, however, it was very sunny and warm, and a day that we hadn't left much room for walking around. Such is our luck. The mud's still around. Lots of flooding has been happening elsewhere. Muds usually don't stick around too long, I think, but I think this year will be especially bad. Please refer to stories of pioneers crossing plains.

But that's about it for this email. Wow. That was a downer if you don't understand my humor. Things here are going very well. Our main focus was getting the new member lessons set up for our three recent converts. We pretty much have that all lined up, one home teacher just has a terrible work schedule. We picked up a new investigator, but like many of our others, he has stuff coming up to hold him back. His stuff is surgery while one had family visiting, one has a freakishly busy work schedule, and one is just busy. So, besides that new investigator, we didn't get a chance to really meet with any of our main investigators and have a sit down lesson. We did mostly a lot of meeting with members, actives, less actives, and recent converts this week. We have some very solid recent converts here which is exactly the way I like it. We've been trying to meet with one less active who contacted us for help to change his life around, but after the first time meeting with him he's just gotten drunker and drunker. And his house is not a good teaching environment. His friends have been kind of cool, though, one even said he'd like to come to church sometime. Hope that works out. It's sad to see somebody in such a bad spot in their lives. We just hope he allows us to help him out.

So, yeah, now I think I'm done. Hope all is well back at home! No worries, I'm happy, I just have a weird sense of humor, as you all know. And it doesn't help my companion has the same kind of humor. But it sure makes life more hilarious for the two of us!