Email received Dec 21, 2009

I forgot to make a list throughout this week of things to write about so I'm sure I'll forget something - but we'll talk on Fri so we can catch up then! Crazy isn't it?! Well, last week was transfers and Sis Compton went home (it's so weird to think she's just chillin' at home with her family right now...surreal) We thought I might be without a companion for a day as Sis Compton was when I came up to Fallon (the van takes missionaries down on Mon and up on Tues leaving us northern missionaries companionless for a day) so I was planning to stay with a very fun newly-wedded, RM sister in one of our wards, but it turned out there was another sister going south so her leftover companion got to come and spend a day with me in Fallon and then we both picked up our new companions on Tues and she went back to her area. It was really cool cuz it was like we were on splits for a day - we sisters don't get to do splits on account of we're girls and the elders are boys and...yeah. But apparently we are supposed to be doing splits, we've just been told, so we get to actually hang out, I mean work, with other sisters. I imagine this would be easier down in Vegas as everyone's closer together, though now that there are actually more sisters up north it's feasible up here too. It's so exciting cuz we never get to see the other sisters except maybe at Zone Conference once a transfer, and that's only if our zone meets with another zone that has sisters. It's also great cuz I like to see how other people do things, it gives me a better idea of what I should be doing (I think that's one way the Lord was blessing me by giving me a different companion every transfer - so I could see a lot of ways of doing things) and that helps me be more confident in the things I do. But now that I've experienced a variety of styles, I hope he'll leave me put for a wee while, cuz I love Sis Kartchner!!! She's silly and funny and talkative and sings alto and loves the Muppets and I think we'll have a lot of fun together...and work very hard.

Oh, and did I tell you about my last baptism? Wonderful Pat and her husband moved in with her sister (who just happens to live right behind us); turns out the husband joined the church in his youth but hadn't attended in many a year, but he and Pat were perfectly willing to meet with us and she turned out to be one of those rare perfectly Golden Investigators: we met her at the end of my first week here and she was baptized 5 weeks later; we even had to have 2 or 3 lessons the last two weeks to make sure we taught her everything before she was baptized, but she was very happy to do it just before Sis Compton left. What a send-off - baptism on Sat, Confirmation and an ordination of another recent convert on Sun, and away she went! I only hope I can end my mission on such a high note; I'm sure that also helped to keep her focused - she really wasn't very trunky at all, quite the opposite really, we were joking even on Sun. night that she would stay and I could take her place - if I died my hair blonde, Pres would never even notice, right?

Well, I don't have an exact time to call, I imagine it will be in the afternoon sometime, but it's not like you guys will be going out at all during the day (right?) and not a lot of people call on Christmas day so you don't have to wait by the phone or carry it with you - there's one in every room anyway.

By the by, is there anyway someone could look up a skit about Cinderella where the letters are all switched (rindercella and her two sad blisters...at the bancy fall she slopped her dripper)? Sis Kartchner was quoting it and it was really funny, but she doesn't remember the whole thing. Maybe I'll have her do it for you on Fri. Amy may recall my reaction to the Sumo guy on Thou Shalt Laugh - that's what I do when she starts telling the story, which is really innapropriate for the library environment in which I now sit, so I should move on to another subject. She can also play parts of a couple Jon Schmidt songs which makes me drool, I think I would really like a couple of his cds and maybe the sheet music, maybe one day I could play like that...Well...the time has come I suppose, if I think of anything else I can just tell you on Fri. Much Love!!!
-Clister Soward