Llamas and Emus and Burros, Oh My!

Dear friends and family,

I am sorry to have distressed you all two weeks ago (President's Day). I did indeed write a lovely and long email--in fact you ought to assume that it was the most moving and beautifully composed email ever written, full of uplifting and encouraging stories and great personal insight--but apparently that got erased somewhere in cyberspace. Alas. In it I did answer Dad's questions about my bike, my area, and my companion. In short:
Bike-Got it, assembled it, rode it (and in a skirt too).
Area-Surrounded by 3 Volcanoes, very large (I haven't even seen half of it).
Companion- Sister Rowlands; from Salt Lake City; went to the U but I've forgiven her because she says she always wanted to go to the Y; very cheerful, bright, bold, and smiley; knows sign language; does all the driving (no Mom we don't need maps but thanks for offering).

Now for this week. Well we actually had snow this week. Yes snow--even in Palo Cedro (well it was more like slushy ice, but still). Then we went up to all the Disney streets in Shingletown to meet with our new Ward Mission Leader and got to tract in 6 inches of snow. I was going to take a picture to prove it, but I realized I didn't have my camera with me. Up in Round Mountain where we have two investigators there was at least a foot, in fact our usual exchange to take us up there was in Florida and most of the people in the ward we called to see if we could get a ride were far too scared to attempt it. But its been quite warm this weekend.

Llamas and Emus and Burros, oh my!
One of my favorite things about this area is that it is just so random. For instance there are a surprising number of llamas--Sister Rowlands loves llamas. And since we have to keep track of so many other numbers each day (ie # of lessons taught to investigators with members present, # of other lessons taught, # of referrals received, # of referrals contacted, # of new investigators, # of lessons taught to members, # of exchanges, # of OYMs or Open Your Mouths) it seemed only natural to take tallies of the number of llamas, burros, and others we see each day. A typical day is about 5 llamas, 2 burros, 1 emu, and 1 OYM. We see far more llamas than people. This week, however, we saw some truly special people in an hour or so of tracting on just one street we talked to: a bona fide cat lady (her house smelled awful), a gnome lady (she looked like one and her yard was full of gnome lawn ornaments), a random English lady who was polite but uninterested, a man who I guess thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses because we talked with him for a while and then he proceeded to tell us that those Mormons are essentially Communists, a creepy Christian Scientist who wanted to meet with us again, and more.

So today was the day we found out about transfers. Sister Rowlands was really quite sure that we would both be staying and we thought that if anyone would be leaving it would be me. Silly us. It turns out Sister Rowlands is going down to the Southern most area of the mission tomorrow and I am getting a new companion: Sister Ah Puck from Hawaii. I guess I just can't get away from those Polynesians. I'll definitely miss Sister Rowlands but I look forward to working with Sister Ah Puck. So my mission "Mom" is leaving and I meet my "Step-Mom" tomorrow. I feel very strange using these mission metaphors, but I'm getting used to them.

Love,
Sister Sorensen