Emergency Transfers

3 de Septiembre, 2012

There is a lot of big news for this week. We had emergency transfers,
and I got moved from Guadalupe. Thursday night, Elder Garfias, Elder
Ragland (we had exchanges for 3 days with our District Leader) and I
were in the house talking. Around 11 at night, our zone leaders called
us and said that we had emergency transfers, and that I was leaving to
the other stake here in Durango. They told me to pack up my things
cause I would leave in the morning. I pretty much didn't sleep much
that night as I was packing up everything I owned and deciding which
things to leave behind because I didn't have much room. So I arrived
here in the ward Industrial in stake Durango de Valle. My companion is
Elder Macedo. He's crazy tall, and we get along pretty good. We had a
baptism Saturday, name's Victor. We've been working crazy hard and
have set a lot of baptismal dates in the last week. This week we have
two coming up. Next week we have another two. The following week we
will have at least 5, maybe more. I can't wait. I feel like we´re
having a lot of success here. The area is huge! It takes at least an
hour and a half to cross the entire area, but that's walking fast (our
definition of walking fast is basically a good paced job for most
people).

So I finally posted sent a picture of how we do laundry here. You have
a bucket, water, soap, and a broom handle with half a coke bottle
attached. It's actually pretty effective. After washing in one bucket,
you wring out each article of clothing one by one and soak it in a
bucket of soapless water. After thoroughly rinsing the clothes out,
you wring out each article again, and you hang it up to dry in the
sun.

Before leaving Guadalupe and before finding out that I was going to
leave, we ate dinner with Hna. Mejia, who is like our mom. Our
District Leader, Elder Ragland was with us on exchanges. After eating,
he went to use the bathroom. When he came out, he said he needed a
plunger..... I thought he was kidding but he was pretty serious. He
was to shy to ask Hna. Mejia for a plunger and asked me to do it. I
told him that it would be better if he asked, as I'm usually too
direct and don't use tactics at all. He insisted, so I went over to
Hna. Mejia in the kitchen and said loudly with my hands stretched
forth "Hermana, we've got a problem!!! Elder Ragland needs a plunger."
Elder Ragland (normally afro-american brown) turned straight red,
Elder Garfias burst out laughing, and Hna. Mejia's son stared with his
jaw dropped, forkfull of food almost in his mouth and asked "uh... for
the bathroom?". I said yes, and he came back with a plunger. While
Elder Ragland was unclogging the toilet, we didn't realize what Hna.
Mejia was doing. After he fixed his problem, she came running in the
house with a bucket full of soapy water and a towel (we're not exactly
sure why, to be honest). Elder Garfias and I just burst out laughing
and Elder Ragland tried to explain to her that it wasn't necessary.
She left the bucket there and we were about to leave when we
remembered another thing that we were going to ask for. A week or so
before, Hna. Mejia's daughter showed us that she makes homemade,
special ordered stuffed animals (and other stuffed things). She showed
us an awesome Jigglypuff (from Pokemon) and it was so real! So after
fixing Elder Ragland's problems, he and Elder Garfias asked for a
pillow in the form of a Book of Mormon. Elder Conde asked for a Taz
(from the Looney Toones). I asked for a Blastoise (also from Pokemon)
with it's mouth open and it's tongue hanging out. I'm gonna have to
retrieve it from Guadalupe one way or another.

As far as this transfer goes, neither of us knows is one of us is
going to stay for the next transfer, or if both of us will stay, or if
we will both leave. Who knows but God and the President.

The nice thing about our house here is that we have a microwave!
Pretty awesome. We also have to working fans. In Guadalupe, our house
was on the second floor, so we rarely found cockroaches. Here in
Industrial, my second day here I was ironing my shirt. After
finishing, I started to put it on when I found a monster-daddy of a
coachroach in the sleeve and shouted "¡¡No manches!!" and whipped it.
Unfortunately, I launched the cockroach directly into my open suitcase
full of clothes. It scuttled away, burying itself in my garments. I
then had to search for the cockroach, throw it out of my suitcase,
chase it down into the next room and splatter it across the floor. The
next day I found 3 more. Pretty exciting, huh?

I should receive all my letters this sunday. I haven't been able to
receive any for about 2 months because the Leaders haven't gone to
Torreón and our mission president hasen't come to visit us for a long
time.

Well, I gotta go. Hope to hear from you all soon!
¡¡Adios!!