December and Pictures

12/9/13

Alright folks, I've got quite the update. 

Two weeks ago Monday, a few hours after emailing, we got a call from the Zone Leaders, which never happens. They told us, surprise, we were switching areas with the elders in the area below us. They had gotten into a wreck with their car (totaled it) and the husband of the member couple they were living with got a job that required them to be away a lot and since there always has to be a third person of your own sex when you're alone with someone of the opposite sex, they couldn't live there anymore. So we switched with them. Our new area is called Venus- when I first came out to Mansfield, I thought Venus was a nickname because it's so far out in the middle of nowhere. Nope, it's actually called Venus. It's a unique situation, too, because Venus covers the bottom half of two ward boundaries (the hope is to create a branch down there) so we go to two wards every sunday (5 hours of church) and two ward councils. Our area is way out in the boonies and 90% of the houses are trailer home. We live in the nicest double-wide I've ever seen. The people here are so genuine though! Sometimes they'll just open the door and invite you in without question. 

So last Monday, I went to a drive-through zoo! Yeah, a drive-through zoo! We petted and fed the animals out of our hands. There were a ton of antelopes and whatever but then we got to the good stuff- giraffes and zebras. The zebras were not shy about letting you know when they wanted to be fed again. They would gnaw on the car door handles and shove their heads in the car. :) The giraffe was the most gentle of all the animals we got to feed. :)

This weekend Texas got a huuuuge ice storm. Apparently this only happens like once in every 7-10 years. But it's literally JUST ICE. We walked out of the house the morning after and everything is crystallized and covered in what looks like a one-inch-thick layer of clear lacquer. When I kicked a plant or grass, it just shattered. We weren't allowed to drive our car (especially because Texas can't deal with stuff like this- no plows or salt on the roads) so we had to walk to be able to proselyte. We could only stay out for about two-hour intervals because the cold was so intense. And since the roads were solid ice, it was hard to walk. Sister Nelson and I invented a new shuffling/skating gait that was actually pretty efficient. We got up to jogging speeds with half the effort! 

We also got transfer calls this morning. Sister Nelson will be transferred out to Waco and my new companion, Sister Gentry, will be coming on Wednesday! 

12/16/13

Alright, friends, I am super stoked about these next six weeks. Wanna know why? NEW COMPANION! She's a thumbs up. Her name is Sister Gentry and she has been out for 10 months (double my experience), was a Sister Trainer Leader (equivalent to Zone Leaders in the chain of command) for the past three transfers, opened an area that had been closed since 2008, and in a past area, her assignment was to take a branch and make it into a ward. So basically she's perfect for Venus and we're gonna rock it out. Venus has so much potential. 

It's very convenient that we just switched places with the elders because we can call them if we have questions about a certain investigator or if we get lost or something, and vice versa. If Venus had a candle scent, it would be sulfur and cigarettes.

We were knocking around on a street (I don't know if a lot of these streets can actually be called streets. More like back roads.) her second night here and at the very last house, a man opens the door with a cigarette in his hand and says he's LDS. What! Yeah so he's inactive and his records had been lost. The elders before us had found two more of those kinds of people. Apparently Venus is the place where inactives go to get away from the church. Well surprise! We're here and we're gonna get you. ;)

Well, that's all, folks. More exciting stuff to come. Every day is an adventure. 

Peace out.