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12 November 2012

 

Dear Homefront,

 

This week was really slow out here in Goochland.  I mean really slow.  We're back in the process of finding (the grunt work of missionary work) which has been kinda difficult with it cooling off so there's not too many people out and about.  But we're trying to keep up our hopes.  We helped the Pinkstons some more with their house.  Almost all of the sheet-rock is up so now they're working on mudding the walls and waiting for the plumbing inspections so that they can finish hanging the walls that have pipes in them.  We also helped the Maldonado's some more with the animals.

 

Transfer calls came in yesterday.  I'm staying here in Goochland but I'm getting a new companion, an Elder Anderson.  I don't think I've met him yet, and from what the Assistants said, he's a fairly new missionary.  Look's like President is putting a lot of trust in me.  I hope I can live up to it.

 

I also finished Jesus the Christ this week.  That book is a beast to read but at the same time it's such a spiritual feast.  By the end, I almost couldn't put it down.  Elder Talmage's discourses are just so amazing and detailed.  I can't imagine ever knowing the scriptures the way he did.

 

I also ran into a couple mishaps this week, but don't worry, I'm fine now.  Just some bad luck.  When we were doing service at the Maldonado's I was breaking up some bad boards to put in their burn barrel (they burn their trash).  Well, one of the boards didn't seem to appreciate the fact very much and decided to perform a counter-offensive by having part of itself fly up and hit me on the side of my head.  It gave me a fair size lump and a pretty bad headache but not much past that.  The lump disappeared by the next morning and the headache lingered a little but it's mostly gone now.  The worst part wasn't getting hit, it was in Brother Maldonado's (good-natured) teasing that it looked like one of his chickens had laid an egg on my temple.  The other mishap happened at dinner last night.  We had a delicious rice dish which I ate too fast (just like my father) and caught the hiccups.  Brother Emanuele offered me some peanut butter and honey, a sure-fire cure to the hiccups.  The problem occured when I tried to swallow.  The peanut butter tried to go down and a hiccup tried to come up ... unfortunately the hiccup won the battle, which caused me to splutter and cough (peanut butter up the nose is not a pleasant sensation).  Thankfully, it did the job and the hiccups lost the war, just not quite in the way intended.

 

Other than that, I'm fine and dandy.  I hope all is well out there.

 

I love you all.

-Elder John Y. Roberts

 

PS:  I was wrong, Bro Bushman probably wouldn't know the Maldonados.  When they lived in Utah they had a home teacher by the name of Brent Bushman, not Brett Bushman.

 

PPS:  The purchase at RadioShack was rechargable batteries.  My batteries seemed to be dying so quickly (I honestly don't know why) so I thought that in the long run rechargable ones would cut my cost ... unfortunately, half the purchase became obsolete when the one flashlight I had that ran on AAA's fell out of my backpack one night and broke when it hit the driveway.  I try to keep track of money ... It just gets away from me sometimes ... I'm sorry.  Guess I'll just have to get a wife that manages finances like you mom.

 

PPPS:  Love you.