June 27th 2009 Quail, 'herding cats', and horses

Oh goodness, where to start… hmm…

This week has been interesting, but I think that’s normal, eh? It doesn’t seem like I just talked to you all on Sunday. It’s kind of weird.

On Tuesday, I went on exchanges, it was pretty fun, but exchanges can get quite hectic, especially when we have to figure out how to do everything that we need to do when we need to do it, so on Wednesday we were on exchanges in the morning and in the evening and actually together in the afternoon.Thursday we had Zone Conference at ‘This is the Place’ Heritage park, and it was a lot of fun. The training part was really good and about how to get more of the stories from the pioneers (and I’m getting distracted by the sisters talking about what to do for the rest of p-day so if I sound a bit less coherent than usual, that’s why. :P) Then after words we had an hour and twenty minutes to wander around and do what we wanted. It was quite fun, I was somewhat reminded of Renaissance fair, except it was cleaner, and more free (meaning that people weren’t walking around with revealing clothing and every little thing didn’t cost an arm and a leg)It was a lot of fun, and they had animals there, like horses, peacocks, lambs (one of which had just been born that morning.) tiny goats, etc. They had several houses that were made up to look like the cabins that

I’m now officially passed off in ASL. I almost forgot to meet up with sister Shawcross (who’s the coordinator of that language), but she paged me and reminded me.

Several times this week, I had tours where I felt like I was herding cats… meaning that people would wander off in a different direction while we were talking and trying to lead them to the next stop. It was rather entertaining at times, and somewhat more annoying at others. I had to let people know, several times, that because they were only half hour, or 20 minute tours that we couldn’t see everything, but they could come back. That made it a little easier.Hurrah for summer… >.>

Oh, and my companion just reminded me of some other exciting things about summer time. Namely birds. More specifically baby quail. We were walking along, heading from the south to the north when all the sudden my companion made a squak, ‘hey watch out!’ or something like that. I stopped in my tracks and about 4 inches from my foot was a tiny puffball of a baby quail. It was about an inch and a half big, and like a round little ball of fluff. They’re really cute. The poor little thing also stopped in its’ tracks and hunkered down, which made it look even more like a little ball. The momma or the papa bird called for all the little birds, and all 15 or 20 of them ran. We waited until they went so it wasn’t likely that I’d scare another one.

And one of the sisters just said this:“that’s the other part of being a temple square missionary, we judge wedding dresses.”Because we see so many wedding dresses here. Sometimes that’s a subject of conversation when things are slow, “What do you want your wedding dress to look like?” “Would you take wedding pictures before or after the actual wedding?” “Have the wedding reception the night before, or after?” etc. It’s kind of funny.

Something else that was somewhat funny is that when I was on exchanges with sister Shugart, she asked me what I had learned from Sister Cox so far, I answered by making an animal noise. Sister Cox tends to make animal noises at random times, especially when she’s stressed or annoyed at something. After I gave that answer I gave her a real one, and that was to always be working/moving, etc.

It’s kind of funny, I’ve lost track of the last time I got a physical letter from someone… I take that back, I think it was when dad and sister Senator sent me cards for my birthday. I think it’s funny the different reactions sisters give depending on if they get letters or not. Some sisters get a lot of mail, some don’t. Some who do get mail, don’t want it because it distracts them, while others complain that they never get anything. I think that mainly the new sisters get most of the mail, especially so they are less likely to get homesick, then it kind of pitters off after a few transfers.

Speaking of transfers, earlier today I almost called a Quarter or a Semester a Transfer, because we were talking about school. Twas kind of interesting.

It was really great talking to everyone on Sunday! I was excited to hear from everyone and get a small update by voice rather than email. I’m glad that everyone’s alive and kicking!

And my zone leaders are goofs. I love them to bits, and to some extent because they remind me of sisters. They tease each other and have wrestling fights, and sometimes even food fights (they have photo evidence… oatmeal in hair is rather messy.) They work so well together, and I’m not sure if it’s because of their playing around, or in spite of it…

Any ways, loves ya alls!

Be happy n all that!