Thursday, February 4, 2010 - "And since we've no place to go..."

Hello!

Elder Wong here, writing from what I thought was Amarillo, Texas, but I'm not too entirely sure.

Last week, on Wednesday/Thursday, we got tons of sleet - itty-bitty pellets of ice. By Thursday morning, it became slush and snow. All the mission vehicles in Amarillo were parked, and we were stuck in the apartment. We did manage to pass the time by reading our stack of Ensigns and visiting the Ambassador Hotel across the street, and Oliver's Saddle Shop down the block. Friday we were stuck inside also, so we did a lot of planning. Saturday and Sunday we managed to arrange for people to give us rides to appointments and teach with us. (Regardless of weather, how often do missionaries in Montreal do that? Other than my mission prep, I don't remember anyone mentioning doing lessons alongside the missionaries...)
On Sunday, our ward's meetings were cancelled.

Just a few days before the snow, it was sunny and comparatively warm. We didn't need any jackets (or grocery bags lining our shoes). I also got in a bike wreck. My front wheel slipped to the side and I flipped right over the bike. I don't remember it, but I hit my knee somewhere in the process, which got a little cut, and it was sore for a while. Anyways, since the days we were stuck inside, we decided that we couldn't just sit around doing nothing. Elder Pearce had black boots and I had Wal-Mart bags over my socks (I found a crack in each of my new shoes!), so we decided to go walking. After a long afternoon of nothing, we came back with wet feet. Then we decided to go biking. So since that time, we've been riding our bikes in the snow. If it's not too wet and if it's not too slippery, we do fine, and we manage to get places. Sometimes, it's actually kinda fun. It's funny: we can ride our bikes in the snow better than most Texans can drive in the snow.

Then it started to rain. We tried biking out in that, but we got wet and consequently, very cold. Not only that, one man we tried to visit, whom we had been teaching for quite some time, asked us not to return. Needless to say, it was a miserable day.

But I did get the package you sent last Friday. Thanks for all the info and also that talk. Elder Cherrington had a friend that sent him the full version, given at BYU, and there are some things in there that aren't mentioned in the Ensign. You should check it out.

In other news, Elder Christopherson's companion, Elder Butterworth, finally arrived. Elder Christopherson is so relieved to have an official companion. Elder Butterworth is yet another one of those missionaries that came to the mission while I was in the office.

One thing I forgot to mention when I first got here is about the signs all over the city. I've spoken with many missionaries who would tell me about these signs with random messages on them placed all around town. Now that I'm serving here, I've been able to see quite a few, and find out what those missionaries were talking about. They've been put up by a man named Stanley Marsh. He's some rich dude who loves to spend money and is more eccentric than he is rich. He made the Cadillac Ranch, which is a bunch of cars half-buried front-first in the ground, and people are invited to come and spray paint them as they will. Anyways, he also put up signs (all of them diamond-shaped, like construction signs) in hundreds of locations around Amarillo, each with a quote, random saying, picture, or something.

A couple days ago, I got "the call". The call that I used to make while I was in the office. Sister Hansen called and asked which airport I wanted to fly to at the end of my mission. (You could tell she was tearing up a little over the phone.) I told her YUL. (I actually told her PET, which is what I thought they renamed it to. No one told me that the initials didn't change. I could've had a free flight to Brazil!)

Anyways, I hope all is well at home. I'm still looking for ways to send my pictures home.
Take care, and remember that the Church is true.

Love,
-Elder Brandon Wong