16 May 2011

Dear family,

HOW ARE YOU!?

Guess what?
My COMPANION FAINTED THIS WEEK! while we were on a tram. It was... Ok, I was laughing because this would be my SECOND companion to faint. So it was funny to me. Otherwise, maybe not so much.

This is the story:
We woke up early to go to the police station for some visa stuff. Sister Creager wasn't feeling so well (which she told me after she fainted), hadn't slept well the night before and felt hot already, we left the house late so we walked fast. We got on the tram. It was a rainy-ish day, so the tram heaters were on, or it was just stuffy, and as we go along people are getting onboard. So in a short time the tram is full. Sister Creager is hot, she doesn't feel well, and all of a sudden a little claustrophobic. Closes her eyes for a second (oh, we're standing ok, hard to explain. but there's a part of the tram that has flexible "walls" so that it can turn, and that part is kinda cushiony, so we're standing next to and leaning up against that) I turn and look at her because she starts leaning against me, which is fine, but surprises me, and I see that her eyes are closed and that her head is lolling and she starts to slide down the wall, by this time it has hit me that my companion has fainted, so I'm saying "sister creager?? Sister creager??" and kinda holding her up/sliding down the wall with her. Croats start swarming, sister creager wakes up, they're all talking to her, trying to help her stand up, telling her to sit down (someone gave up his seat for her, that was nice) and then realizing that she doesn't understand them. She says, Oh thanks. (in english) And sits down. I'm standing right behind her chair and am like, I can't believe that just happened.... So we go to a cafe and buy juice and then go buy some food from a bakery ( we didn't have time to eat that morning) and then head all the way back home and she spends the rest of the day sleeping.
It was an experience.
Is there like, what am I doing to make all these people around me faint?? I dunno. I think it's pretty funny. Now, but not when it's happening. So that was the most exciting thing.

Another good story: we were tracting and we found a very large building. We went in, and up to the top floor, floor 16 or something. But it was the end of the day so we only tracted a couple of floors and no one but old people were answering, so we call it quits. We go to the elevator and call it, it comes up, we go to open the door and it won't open. So we're like, that's kinda weird. The elevator came but the door didn't unlock. (I hope this story makes sense, because I just realized that elevators are different here. There's just, a door that you open, instead of the doors sliding open.) So we go around a corner to the second elevator (it's quite a large building, so it has 3 elevators) and call it, and it comes, and AGAIN we can't open the door - and that's when we realize that you need a KEY to use the elevator. A KEY! We didn't need one to come up, but you have to have one to go down. It was extremely strange. So we walked down however many flights of elevators -- we actually kinda fled down them, because the building was a little scary and I got scared. It was very weird, that's the first time I've seen that.

Good things that happened this week: On Thursday we got the bright idea (the Spirit told us) to call members whose birthday were in the month of May, we look through the member list and there are THREE people with birthdays THAT day. So that was cool. We got ahold of two of them and they were both pleasantly surprised and happy to receive birthday wishes from us. That was really awesome.

And last story: Sister Nelson and Sister Hači had a lesson with two guys and it went kinda bad, but after that they went to the bus stop and saw the two guys, and they were pretending to be missionaries! They had the Book of Mormon that the sisters had given them and they were trying to talk to people on the street, so they saw the sisters and came over and said "I can't believe you do this everyday, this is so hard, no one is stopping --" so they were, so funny, trying to be missionaries. I guess to see how it was, I dunno. It was funny to hear about.

Today, so far, is a good day. I'm sorry if Amelia woke up early to read this, because we're here at the library a little later than usual. So you've probably been awake for a while :/ We got up early and went to the police station (since we didn't make it on Friday) and then helped out at the old church building, to clean it up. We have an old building, where church used to be, it's an apartment, and they're cleaning it up because that is going to be the new mission office. The mission home will be separate somewhere. I don't know details. Oh, and we heard that the mission president's name has been announced, but we won't hear about it until Friday. For some reason that I don't know. So you could all find out who he is before any of us. Again, I don't really know details. So anyway. Now we're here.
Happy Birthday Jolie! yesterday. I didn't even think about it last week, and then yesterday I was looking at my calendar and was like, it's her birthday tomorrow! because the whole day I thought it was a Saturday. I dunno know why. And then realized that her bday was that day, as in yesterday, and I forgot.
Happy know-whats-happening-with-the-future to Amelia and Brent! Wow, moving to Texas. That's a strange state... people are weird there. I actually think that one of the girls from my ULM volelyball team was from Arlington. Or two fo them. Hard to remember. YAY! It's nice to know.

And lastly, congratulations to Jesse's husband's brother on his wedding. That's cool beans. It's cool that you (Jesse) got to go and dance up a storm.
Thanks mom, for sending a package my way! Something wonderful and magnificent to look forward to. Sister Creager got a letter from her brother SIX DAYS after he sent it. He's in the MTC right now. SIX DAYS! I can't believe that. So maybe this will be fast, too.

How's my new area? Good. We've got the most important trams down, and have ventured a little more out into our wider area. People are nice. We've moved all into our apartment. Mostly all settled in. Enter apartment: to the left is the other sisters' bedroom and a "getting ready room" without beds and with all the closet space. straight ahead is the bathroom. To the right is the living room, around the corner is the dining/kitchen. And then there's a rickety spiral staircase, small, that goes to the upstairs. Where we live, it's kinda like a loft. We have mattresses on the ground and slanting ceilings. We don't have any furniture so we furnished some bedside tables from some cinderblocks in the sisters' clsoet (which is a little scary. hasn't been touched in a while. full of old clothes and shoes and random stuff) and we bought some fancy boxes for our study materials. So it's a little home now. Pretty nice up there, really. I like it. New companion? well the two sick days we had this week gave us the opportunity to get to know each other a little more. Sister Creager is great. It's been good with her. AND that is that. I'm pretty sure. So. cool.

LOVE YOU ALL!

Have a gerat week. Give the kiddies and babies hugs and kisses from Auntie Keshie --
LOVE, SISTER LAWS