What Was That Again?: In Which I Play With Poisinous Snakes and We Plug the Font With Bricks

Transfer week is a really odd thing because I'm pretty sure that the beginning of the week actually happened last year, not just a few days ago. However, logic tells me otherwise, so I shall accept that. Maybe.

Lots of goodbyes, but lots of new friends. It's quite disorienting, but I have about 30 million more changes just like this one in the next 16 months, so I should get used to it, right? By the way, today is my two month mark away from home. Hooray!

We said goodbye to Sister Zamacona, and Elders Peterson and Vought, which was sad. They're done, though, and have many more adventures to partake in, so I guess it's okay, even though I miss them and stuff. We got to meet our new District Leader on Tuesday at the Nature Center where we give service. His name is Elder Barney, he's been out 16 months, and he's a pretty quality guy. He's never been a District Leader before and he's been in the same Zone for the past 16 months, so we were a bit worried about him, but he's doing really well. I like him.

While we were at Nature Land, I was being quite the arteest and taking nature pictures. I'm quite talented, you know. I was looking around and saw a wee snake in the leaves. It was small, and every time I've seen snakes before and freaked out people say they're harmless and make fun of me, so I decided to be a brave explorer and take pictures of it. It wasn't moving, so I got closer and closer - and then it decided to jump, which made me jump, which made everyone ask what was happening. Elder Murdock came over and said, "I think that's one of the poisonous kind. See the Hershey kiss pattern? Yep, that's a copperhead."

Oh.

I felt like a complete and total idiot. The Nature Land people came and took it to a safer place and I just tried to pretend it didn't happen.

That night we got to teach Raymundo. He actually showed up this time, and we taught him the Plan of Salvation. While we were talking about trials and struggles, we asked if there were any times in his life when he had gone through something hard but had learned a valuable lesson from it. He said that when he was growing up in the Dominican Republic, he played baseball and worked hard at it. He wasn't progressing, though, and told his dad that he wanted to quit. His dad told him to come to the church with him and pray (his family is all Catholic,) and though Raymundo wasn't too keen on going, he went anyway. He said that he prayed and prayed and nothing happened, so he stormed out of the church in tears. As he walked away, a man walked past him and slipped a small piece of paper into his hand. Raymundo had a hard time translating it into English, but it said something to the effect of, "Don't rush, pray about it." Because of that, he kept at it. He was able to play all through school and is now playing for Lone Star College, which is right next to our area. What?! That's just cool. The Spirit was so strong and he told us that he felt it and that he wanted that feeling more often, so we were all excited, and then he pulled out the baptism card again. He thinks that he doesn't need religion if God is in his heart, and he really doesn't see the need for baptism because he's already been baptized. UGH. I just don't even know what to do about that boy. He said he'd read and pray, though, and he's been good about that, so we'll see.

The other Sisters in our District are training, but they're in a biking area, so we drove them to the transfer meeting on Thursday. It was quite the adventure. We met Elder Cornwall's new companion, Elder Martinez. He's been out before, but about 6 months in he tore his ACL and meniscus, so he's been home for about the same amount of time. We heard all kinds of stories of how he did it, like getting hit by a car, but it turns out that he just stepped on it wrong while playing soccer on P Day. We told him that he needs to adopt a better story. He would be a really cool guy if he hadn't told us last night that he only likes Sister Quist - not me. Now, he's on my list. He'd better watch himself.

The Imperial Oaks Sisters are training a girl named Sister Pugh, and Sister Laws who lives in our complex is training a Sister Nielson, who is from Logan and knows all of my Logan friends. They're great. Sister Pugh was showing me all of her bug bites on the second day and I totally felt for her. Don't tell, but I bought her some anti-itch cream at the store today as a welcome gift. I'm pretty nice, I know.

When I got home, I had THREE letters. It was the best day. I got one from my good friend Elder Jack in Germany, and he told me that he had an Elder Bret Smith in his District - the same Bret Smith that I was in love with my entire jr. high career. He said that Elder Smith knew it was from me because he recognized my handwriting... Yeah. So, the two loves of my teenage life have found each other halfway across the world.

Saturday was the Imperial Oaks Sister's baptism, so we took them over early and figured that we'd kill a bit of time and pretend to help until the service started. We arrived and found their Ward Mission Leader without shoes and slacks rolled up to his knees. He informed us that the font was not plugging correctly and would not fill, so we had an hour to fill about 2 hours worth of water and solve the plug issue. Ooookay. We tried many unsuccessful things until one of the ward members brought some bricks with which we sort of stopped the leaking. We then used every available water source to supplement the filling. We had buckets in the cleaning closet, the kitchen, and we even made the Elders go out to the spigot at the pavilion outside and use that. We filled it in the nick of time (it was still running during the opening prayer and hymn and the baptism went first in case the water went down,) so all was well.

Things are going well here. We've felt a little more excitement from the ward and are hoping that we're right and it'll translate to more member help. Our contacting is just not working, so we've been trying to get creative. We also mentioned to our bishop yesterday that President Pingree had asked about putting a set of Elders in our ward as well as a set of Sister, and the bishop got all fired up - he's really excited, and the ward council seemed excited to help us as well.

My thought today is to re-listen to or re-watch Elder Ballard's talk from Conference. Often we receive instructions from the Spirit or things are suggested during Conference, but very rarely do the Brethren come out with a firm, universal commitment. An apostle of the Lord asked each and every member to bring someone to church before Christmas. That's a big deal! It doesn't mean that they have to get baptized or even that they have to take the lessons, it only means that they need to come. There are people waiting to hear the message of the Gospel, or we wouldn't have been given that challenge. Take it to heart and remember that the things that we're asked to do are only given to us to bless us. Do it, Bandy!

So, I love y'all, and you're great. Keep being good and WRITE MORE LETTERS, DERFS.

Love, Me.

Sister Laws and Sister Zamacona love each other.