June 14-2010

Say hello to my second Transfer in the Mission!Transfers are six weeks long, and at the end is when Missionaries get a call to see if they are staying where they are, moving to a new area, or getting a new companion. Luckily I do indeed get to stay with my marvelous Trainer Hermana Green for another Transfer. I hope I can stay with her until she leaves in October to go home, but I don't think that's terribly likely. Okay news on the week let's see... hmmm....Well I went on my first Exchanges last weekend. Exchanges are when Companionships swap companions for a twenty-four hour period. It is a fun way to see how things are done in another companionship, and what another area is like, to gain more experience. I was the one that was swapped, so I went to the area of Crosstimbers where I had never been before and Hermana Thomas was my companion. She is pretty awesome. But it was interesting to be with her because while I am a Greenie, she was a Veteran and is going home on Wednesday. What a contrast! We talked a LOT and I was trying to syphon off all the knowledge and experience and such that I could in that time. While on exchanges I went to the Pulga for the third time, I'm kinda-sorta getting better. The Elders that were there before us paid the icecream vendor next to our table so we could each have one of these things that I can't remember the name of. But it's like sweet, milky with a hint of fruit flavor liquid in plastic and frozen. It was SO nice after standing in the heat and talking to people for hours! You bite a corner off the plastic and it's like a big otterpop. Yum! They're only a dollar, so I think I MAY have a new Pulga tradition to help me be excited for them.I don't know if I remembered to talk about Squirt before. So there's this little toad that we saw on the grass next to our apartment while we were walking in one night. It had been raining so it was a good moistness for him I guess. Then we saw him again another night and Hermana Green tried to pick him up again. I guess she squeezed him or scared him because he peed ALL over her hand Haha! So his name is Squirt, and now we see him with good regularity. Last night in fact. If it's rained that day it's almost garenteed that he's going to be out on that grass. I guess that's all for this week. Today is the long-awaited day of Ruben's BBQ! Ruben is a member who is very awesome, comes with us to appointments and is an all-around wonderful fun guy. But he ALSO puts on a BBQ once a Transfer for missionaries to either say their goodbyes, or also their hellos depending which week it's held. And I've heard about this wonderous event for six weeks now and I'm so excited! Eeeee! I'll tell you how it goes next week probably, and I'll have pictures from it!Viva la Vida Misional!~ Hermana Smart