Horizon, TX, Transfer 9, Week 1

Side note from Kira's mom: Young men--DO NOT EVER leave a missionary apartment dirty for the next set of missionaries to come in. It is very rude and totally unacceptable! I've already told my boys that if they EVER do, I will personally come and hunt them down and make them pay for their behavior. Can you tell what is coming in Kira's letter???

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, it has been quite the week. I hope you've got a bit of time, because I can guarantee that it will be a novel by the time I finish this--and I thought that last week's letter was long! So sit back, relax, and maybe grab a bowl of popcorn to munch while you read my story for this week.

Monday: I said the last of my goodbyes. I saved Karina, Dayana, and Evelyn for last. They had us over for lunch, and then we shared a lesson, and were there for like 3 hours. I just didn't want to say goodbye. I grew to love them so much, and was very NOT excited to leave them. Karina gave me a pretty pair of earrings as a going away gift. Lots of tears were shed. The rest of the day was spent packing, and I had a hard time squishing everything in, but it was successful. And I even made it to bed at a decent time--like before 11:00 which is amazing for the night before transfers.

Tuesday: We were up way early--like 4:30 early because we had to be on the road by 5:45 to be to the office by 7:00 for the trainer's meeting. I bid Santa Fe and Rio Rancho goodbye as I drove past, because I really feel that I won't be going back up north except for temple day and when I fly home in January--and then I won't go as far north as Rio Rancho or Santa Fe. I met Sister Jardine--a very excited new missionary from Logan Utah, who graduated from BYU-Idaho with a degree in Emergency Medicine. Yep--my companion is a paramedic. Which means if I ever almost die again from dehydration I'll be safe. We have several friends in common--if anyone knows Lindsay Jardine you should give us a shout out--we'd love to hear from you! Then I said goodbye to Sister Michel who is now back in Mexico. She gave us pictures of the baptisms they've had in the branch over the past several months--and I was totally shocked to see that one of our eternigators was baptized. I wish I had a picture of my face. They say she's really strong and doesn't miss a week. That was sweet! Then I loaded into the AP's van with one of the APs and 5 greenies--my trainee and 4 brand-spanking new Elders on their way to Las Cruces to meet their trainers. That was the most spiritual, uplifting car ride I've ever had. They were... well, Sister Jardine was while the elders all slept, asking Elder Ellsworth and I all sorts of questions about the mission--no talk about girls left at home or what we'd heard about sports teams, etc. like the transfer van. When we got to Las Cruces, we went into the bathroom where we met two new Sisters, Sister Knight heading to Santa Fe and Sister Cope heading to Rio Rancho. That was pretty sweet! We have more sisters in the mission! Woo-hoo! Sister Knight has I think 8 months in the mission and Sister Cope went into the MTC 2 weeks after me, so we'll probably go home at the same time. And there in Las Cruces I collected the keys to our TRUCK!!! Oh Yeah. I have a truck again--a 2010 Chevy Colorado. And it was filthy. We've washed it twice in less than a week, and it's STILL dirty. We're going to make round 3 today. Then we got on the road to Texas and REALLY felt like I was breaking all sorts of rules. I saw Mexico. That was weird. We met 2 other sisters in El Paso, and headed even further south. Then we got to our apartment. Remember how I constantly complained about the apartment in Santa Fe and how "nasty" it was? That was nothing compared to this apartment. There were two notes left from the Elders who were here "2 Tarantulas in house: 1 alive, 1 dead." and "washer broken, wash clothes in tub." The tub was covered in black mold. There were cockroaches EVERYWHERE. The apartment smells like something died in there--which it probably has. There was a science experiment going on in the refrigerator. We went to Wal-mart and bought lots of disinfectant cleaning supplies and gloves and headed home to tackle the mess. We cleaned the shower and fridge. Little by little we've been working at cleaning things up. We're going to attack today.

Wednesday: We did more cleaning and tried to figure out our area book. but it hasn't been touched in months--it was covered in dust when we got there. We filled the bed of our truck full of garbage for round 2. We went and met both of our Bishops in the English and Spanish wards and the Mission Leader for the English ward. They are way excited to have us here and so willing to help us work.

Thursday: We had district meeting in Spanish, pues, Spanglish. We have some amazing Elders in our district. It was the best district meeting that I've been to in a long time. Elder Moore loaned us his GPS which has been a lifesaver and helped us get oriented to the area. I'm going to miss that when we give it back. Then we went to lunch as a district after district meeting. Like I said--the Elders are awesome. We also visited members and got 4 member referrals, and were able to contact 2 of them. That night we discovered that we can see Ciudad Juarez from our bedroom window. That was crazy.

Friday: People have discovered that I play the piano. They called and asked if I'd play the piano for a funeral. We went and bought a microwave and sanitary dishes. We were going to wait for zone conference, but when we called the office they told us NOT to wait. (side note--mom, I put $66.83 on my discover card for those. I'll get reimbursed, but I need more money in my checking account). We had our missionary coordination meeting for the English ward. That night we cleaned more in the apartment, and discovered that the drip pans on our stove were totally rusted through. And our stove is old enough that we can't buy replacements for it. We've got them covered in tin foil to work for now.

Saturday: We did weekly planning because we were at the funeral all day on Friday. We tried to contact some people on our list. Then we went home and conquered the stove top.

Sunday: We had church, a meeting, more church, dinner, and back to the church for a fireside where they asked me to play the piano. I got mostly unpacked. That just hasn't been a priority--but I felt guilty cleaning on Sunday so I unpacked. I was quite depressed at our numbers--the lowest numbers that I've had in a day let alone a whole week on my mission.

So yeah. Crazy week, no? I bet I won't have another week like this my whole mission. What an adventure this has been. I'll send pictures after we get things cleaned up so my mom doesn't freak out completely, because what I've described in this letter doesn't compare to the pictures. Use your imagination. But don't call the office. They know about the war-zone we've entered and are very sick of hearing from us.

Have a great week.

Love you all.

Hermana Good