First some business:
First, I need the Weights' address because I forgot to copy it down before I threw the box away. I need to thank them for the package.
Second, I'm sorry I forgot to give my address for Terri.[1] It is
[redacted] 15th St 'E' {note again that the E does not mean east}
Lewiston, ID [redacted zip code]
I should be here at least another four weeks, unless there is an emergency transfer, but Elder W. doesn't know the area that well now, so even if an ET did happen, I could likely stay.
The last few days I have been aware of my mission mortality. Yesterday was my nineteen month mark, and for some reason nineteen months is a much bigger punch in the stomach than eighteen was. I also had a dream that it was the end of this transfer. At the end of this transfer, one of my past companions, Elder Andronicus D. (I had to give him another name since there's more than one Elder D. now), goes home.[2] I was with him when he'd been out as long as I had left--fourteen and ten months were what we each had. And next transfer is the last transfer for several missionaries who were still very young when I came out. And the group who came out one before me got their documents for going home (commonly referred to as "trunkie papers") this week--meaning I'm next. It's very depressing.
I also just had a dream that combined all my areas except my first into one. When members ask where I've served, I rattle off a long list of areas, which I never dreamt of happening.
This week we went to Lapwai, our Indian reservation, and visited a less-active member (but he's all white). At his work a bat had flown into a window and damaged itself, so he picked it up and brought it home. When we went there he was wearing gloves with the bat crawling around on his hands. He was petting it and saying how soft it was, then held his hands out for us to pet it. I was a little leery at first, but then I realized it was probably the only time I'll get to touch a bat, so I did, and it was soft. My companion declined, but when the bat got more energy and began flying around the room, it touched him in flight. It was funny to watch the cats in the room stare at the bat when it would rest by hanging on the wall.[3] I hope the bat lives; it seemed to be losing its guts out its back end, but that was before it started flying around. Maybe he just had faulty organs.
We also had to kill several wasps' nests this week. My companion thought they were yellowjackets so we bought a yellowjacket trap, but he didn't know wasps could be yellow.
Since it did last week, I thought I'd get an extra ten minutes today. But no such luck. I do have more important stuff to write. Oh, well.
Love,
Elder Melville
First, I need the Weights' address because I forgot to copy it down before I threw the box away. I need to thank them for the package.
Second, I'm sorry I forgot to give my address for Terri.[1] It is
[redacted] 15th St 'E' {note again that the E does not mean east}
Lewiston, ID [redacted zip code]
I should be here at least another four weeks, unless there is an emergency transfer, but Elder W. doesn't know the area that well now, so even if an ET did happen, I could likely stay.
The last few days I have been aware of my mission mortality. Yesterday was my nineteen month mark, and for some reason nineteen months is a much bigger punch in the stomach than eighteen was. I also had a dream that it was the end of this transfer. At the end of this transfer, one of my past companions, Elder Andronicus D. (I had to give him another name since there's more than one Elder D. now), goes home.[2] I was with him when he'd been out as long as I had left--fourteen and ten months were what we each had. And next transfer is the last transfer for several missionaries who were still very young when I came out. And the group who came out one before me got their documents for going home (commonly referred to as "trunkie papers") this week--meaning I'm next. It's very depressing.
I also just had a dream that combined all my areas except my first into one. When members ask where I've served, I rattle off a long list of areas, which I never dreamt of happening.
This week we went to Lapwai, our Indian reservation, and visited a less-active member (but he's all white). At his work a bat had flown into a window and damaged itself, so he picked it up and brought it home. When we went there he was wearing gloves with the bat crawling around on his hands. He was petting it and saying how soft it was, then held his hands out for us to pet it. I was a little leery at first, but then I realized it was probably the only time I'll get to touch a bat, so I did, and it was soft. My companion declined, but when the bat got more energy and began flying around the room, it touched him in flight. It was funny to watch the cats in the room stare at the bat when it would rest by hanging on the wall.[3] I hope the bat lives; it seemed to be losing its guts out its back end, but that was before it started flying around. Maybe he just had faulty organs.
We also had to kill several wasps' nests this week. My companion thought they were yellowjackets so we bought a yellowjacket trap, but he didn't know wasps could be yellow.
Since it did last week, I thought I'd get an extra ten minutes today. But no such luck. I do have more important stuff to write. Oh, well.
Love,
Elder Melville
