Things I've realized

5/27/08
hehe tunneling smurf, classy. no i havent been getting any emails from granny welch, so thats prolly why im not writing back... this transfer i have realized a lot of things, here goes:
1. 12 weeks is way too long to spend glued to another person. it is also way too long to spend in the same area, especially a small one like this. we have knocked every door already, so were making the rounds again. the bad thing is, i have another 2 transfers here most likely, oh yay. if i dont die from that, ill make it through anything pres blackburn can throw at me.

2. mexicans can party. every saturday and sunday there are at least 10 different parties going on. quincenyeras, mariachis, everything. they like to let people know they are partying, music blasting and you can hear from miles away. not only is it really loud, but all of the 12-18 band members (in matching sombreros and sequined outfits) play whatever they want, all at the same time. the music has no defineable beat, tempo, rythm, or pattern. i like it.

3. brother shipp has a toupee. normally their are a little harder to spot, but brother shipp, a 60ish year old guy in our english ward, has one recognizable from a mile away. he has grey hair, salt and pepper style, which is normal. however, his toupee isnt. it is brown. it sits on the top of his head like a baseball hat, and you can trace the ring where it ends and his real hair begins because it is a solid line where it stops.

4. things we say in english, we dont think about. for instance: another member of our english ward has a fake arm ending in a hook. we were at an activity and he was between me and my companion in a food line. he was struggling to separate two paper plates, so my companion, being so nice, offered help. not, "may i help you" or "do you need help" but "hey, need a hand?"

5. there is a difference between rain in utah and in la. in utah, it washes things, makes them shiny. in la, its the opposite. when it rains, it leaves your car covered in stuff. ours went from silver to brown after one day. it gathers all the junk in the air and leaves it on the car. im no exaggerating here, from a distance, it looked brown.

6. god provides when we work hard. some days we may have dinners cancel on us, or they dont show up. if we work hard, we get fed anyway. almost every time someone has ditched out on us, within the next few houses or visits, someone offers food to us. if someone lives in an apartment with a locked door in front, and we cant get ahold of them, someone always comes in or out the door and can let us in to make our appointment. its really cool how everything just falls into place.

in other news... elder umphress went home. said his knee hurt so he decided to go home, only made it one transfer. maybe hell come back out. an elder in our zone last transfer got sent home also. he didnt do anything, but that was the problem. apparently, the transfer before i came, his companion brought a girl into their apartment and so on and so forth. elder fitsimons, the one i knew, didnt call prez and report him or anything, just let it go. they didnt get along well so he kinda thought that it wasnt his problem. big mistake. its weird how that happens on a mission. apparently, the elder who got in trouble, elder andrews, was pretty shy and anti social, but here he is on a mission with a girl in his apartment. how that stuff happens is beyond me, but it all starts with something little. listening to the radio, staying up 10 minutes or sleeping in a bit, things like that.

gas has reached 4.35 here

the last few days the weather has been bearable. it rained 2x, and then was overcast and windy the rest. nice change. its amazing how circumstances affect outlook, ie. in wyoming, the wind is ridiculously annoying. it makes me want to destroy wyoming from the face of the earth. here, it keeps you from melting, i like the wind here.
ok i think thats all, adios
elder anderson