Saturday, May 16, 2009 - The Usual Unusual

Hey,

It was great to hear from you on Sunday! Even if it was only an hour. I got the pictures you sent, and I saw that you pulled out that stupid Harry Potter toy again...

But I also didn't have time to write last time, so now I'm a week behind.

Which reminds me, I've lost my journal-writing habit. The last day in my journal I think is January 4th. I've still been writing down what happens every day, including what I ate and how many steps I took, but it's all in my planner, or on different bits of paper, which is kinda sad. Hopefully, I'll be able to catch up one day.

But anyways, we had transfers. It was fun as usual. This time though, we had an incoming group of nine - my largest one yet. When Elder Hewitt was first made the mission secretary, his first group was twelve - my group. I'm not quite there yet and I'm not sure I ever will be, but we are getting more big groups. The next one is supposed to be eight, and after that, ten. Also, President commented that that group (the one coming in July) will be the first group where the missionaries will go home after they (the Robisons) will go home. That's a weird thought. It also means that President and Sister Robison have almost been out a year.

Speaking of the Robisons, right now, and for the rest of the weekend, the whole family is here! All five kids (no grandkids, though) are in Lubbock. One of the sons is living in Africa, helping kids with AIDS, came to visit. So he called the rest of the family and told them to come too. So they're all in town. They went to stock up on diapers and other American commodities, they went golfing, out to eat, more golfing... It's funny; even when they "take a day off", they're still super-busy. I told President not to wait another year before having another P-day.

On Wednesday, Elder Northey and I were really hungry because we (as usual) were late in having lunch. So we stopped at a fast food place called Taco Villa. As we were walking in, someone who was walking out saw us and said "hey Elders". Turns out he was a member from a different ward. We spoke for a moment (and he was surprised that missionaries had a pick-up truck), then walked inside. While we were looking at the menu, a lady walks up to us and gives us each a five. Turns out she was a member too (ironically, of the same ward as that other guy). Not only did she pay for our lunch, she gave us each a chocolate bar before walking off. We were really touched by that. We thought something like that only happens in Utah.

Also, the other day we were speaking with Brother Peterson, who is the one who runs all the Quick Quack car washes in West Texas. He told us of his mission and about the technical details about car washes. It's a lot more complex than meets the eye. But he also told us of his love for pure cane sugar Coca-Cola. So Elder Northey decided we should get him some to thank him for the car wash passes, etc. (They're only sold as imported from the Mexican supermarket.) He really loved it.

On Saturday, the Sisters in Snyder put on a mini-EFY for the youth in their branch. They asked us and the assistants to help out. So we went out there to present a workshop. Ours was "the whole armour of God". Elder Northey made one out of cardboard and aluminum foil. There was a good turnout, too. For a tiny branch as Snyder is, there were quite a few people. They really put a lot of work into it and did a good job.

At Chief's house, Elder Northey and I had the whole place to ourselves for a while since Elders Rasmussen and Philpot moved out. After a week, though, we now have Elder Craven and his greenie, Elder Pitts. Elder Pitts is from Nevada and very big. He also doesn't act as "green" as most new missionaries. In any case, things are back to normal in the basement. Well, as normal as normal is. (Which reminds me, did I tell you that the rat problem in the ceiling is pretty much gone now?)

On Sunday, we got to deliver the Mothers' Day scrapbook to Sister Robison. Elder Sosi (in Abilene) had the idea of getting everyone to make a special scrapbook page with their own picture(s), their testimony and a short message thanking her for being their missionary mother. A lot of missionaries made one and mailed it in. I was surprised at how many submitted something. Sister Hansen put it all together in page protectors in a binder. On Sunday afternoon, we went over to the Hansens' and Sister Hansen was just finishing her own page off, we wrapped it up and went to the mission home. Sister Robison loved it so much, she cried. She read every page by the next day. Anyone who was late but still wanted to give something are planning to bring it to zone conference (or already did).

The weather has been its usual unusual. It's been really hot most of the week; now it's humid and getting ready to rain.

I would also like to take this opportunity to once again express my love for vanilla soft serve ice cream. There's nothing better (ice cream wise).

Also, we got new cars! Actually, we got two and neither are cars. The first was the new Colorado. We went to the dealership to get the new license plates for the new Silverado. The rep said that our new Colorado was ready that afternoon, so we went and drove home with it. ...and, it's maroon. We were both weirded out by that. I never expected to see a maroon mission vehicle.
About an hour later, we went to pick up the new passenger van at the Ford dealership. We got about six miles away from it before it overheated. They sent a mechanic to look at it and the tank of coolant was empty. He topped it off and we got another mile before it was gone again. So we had it towed back to the dealership. The next day they found that it was a faulty temperature sensor, causing it to use up all the coolant. It's fine now. We had to walk home, but we needed the exercise (and it wasn't far).

Speaking of vehicles, Elder Northey just got a new DVD in the mail from the Church. It's the new vehicle safety training video. We just watched a bit of it and they're really modernized. They're still kinda cheesy (I don't think any training video can't be), but nowhere near that of ten years ago. The AV department went all out on these. There's live action scenes, demonstrations, even jokes. It'll keep missionaries paying attention and from falling asleep, that's for sure.

Lastly, I finished memorizing 2 Nephi 2. The whole while, I've learnt a lot. That chapter is a treasure trove of knowledge about the Plan of Salvation. Now I'm looking for the next thing to work on.

Anyways, hope y'all will have a great week!

I love you!

-Elder Brandon Wong

Something I wish I knew before my mission: that memorizing scriptures is actually fun! Who invented TV, anyway?