So, it's late o'clock on Pants Day, and I am just barely
getting to email. It's a long story. Let's start at the beginning.
It all started last Friday. As you might recall, we went and
did service at a member's house. (Did I write about that? I can't remember. Oh
well.) As we scraped weeds out of the cracks in a member's sidewalk - which is
not a pleasant occupation, in case you were wondering - it began to rain. But
not real rain. Texas does this thing where it mists in a rainy sort of way.
It's obnoxious. It wasn't too big of a deal, so we stayed out. I started
feeling a little sniffley after that, and I just chalked it up to staying out
in the rain.
Oh, no.
It developed into what Sister Sylvester and I (not-so)
fondly referred to as the "Collu" - a combination of the cold and the
flu with all of the best symptoms all rolled into one. We got a lesson in with
Megan and Tim on the Book of Mormon and we got to go to mutual with Ellie and
Tim before the illness descended and kept us captive in the apartment for most
of the week. We had an appointment with Ashlee on Wednesday morning that we
really needed to keep, so I was nicely dumped at the Imperial Oaks Sisters'
apartment and we did a quickie exchange so that Sister Sylvester could go teach
her.
It was a really long week. Staying inside as a missionary is
not fun at all - especially when you have people to teach and work to do. There
was one night where we had three appointments in a row that I've been trying to
meet since I got here 4 months ago and we had to cancel all of them because I
was on the verge of death. Not really, but it was not pretty.
But, as it tends to happen, the sick and afflicted
eventually regained health and pushed forward. (Though I'm still not doing well
mentally, as you can see by the state of this letter.) I was well by Friday,
which is all I really wanted, because we had our Christmas conference that day.
It was wonderful! There were a lot of really good talks from the mission
presidency, there were lots of excellent people there, and I confirmed the
rumor that we all know is true - I am Elder Frandsen's favorite. He said so
himself.
The Christmas program in sacrament meeting yesterday was
really wonderful. The bishop didn't want to cause anyone stress by giving them
a big talk or musical number, so there were a few dozen short talks (about a
minute each) and short musical numbers - the combined priesthood quorums even
sang a song. Though, when I say sing, I mean mumbled in a very nice sing songy
fashion. It was really, really nice. I loved it a lot.
So, today we got a call from a woman at a women's shelter
asking for our help. They needed help sending out letters to donors for the
holiday season and asked if we'd like to come today for a little while. We said
absolutely, thinking that we'd get some of our missionary friends to come help
and we'd bust it out speedy quick. Well, everyone either bailed on us or didn't
respond, so when we got there it was Sister Sylvester and I against a massive
pile of letters. When all was said and done, we stuffed, labeled, stamped and
sealed 1,000 letters. We were there from 9 in the morning until 4 this afternoon - 7 hours,
almost nonstop. My brain is almost quite literally moosh. The ladies there
appreciated us a lot, though, and we made a bunch of friends there, so it was
all good. All I know is that I am not ever stuffing an envelope ever again. My
apologies to anyone who might ever want help with wedding invitations or the
like - I will be permanently unavailable.
It's been a good week, even though it was kind of totally
lame. I really owe a lot to Sister Sylvester, aka The Best Companion Ever. It
was really hard to stay inside, and I was really frustrated. I wanted to go
work, and I felt horrible for keeping her inside as well. She never complained,
though. She kept herself occupied, made sure that I was okay, and was more than
willing to stay in when I really needed to. She wanted to be out and working
desperately, but she never blamed it on me, and she was never grumpy about it.
I am so grateful for that. I'm pretty sure that I would not have reacted in the
same way, and I've learned a lot from her example.
Have a wonderful Christmas, everyone! I sure love you and
will be thinking of you!
Love,
Me.
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