Letter from Tacoma #6: December 7, 2015

 Wow... number 6... I'm wondering if I should stop counting these or not.

Anyways, hey family! How's everybody? Oh wait, that's a dumb question 'cause I just read a few letters from home, haha! I'm glad to hear how everyone is warming up for the holiday season, and also how Black Belt testing is getting on a roll. But wow, Ryan, already getting a job, a car, and an apartment? No rest for the weary, huh? Well, that's probably better than me, 'cause I figure when I come home in October of 2017, the first thing I'll do is binge read all my books I left back there. Yeesh, who knew I'd really start to miss those lovable bindings of paper and ink?

But I better get back to the present, so I can just watch everything fly by. So, something a bit sad happened in my district this week. One of the elders from a different ward, named Elder Pendergast, whom we a lovingly call "Pende", had to go home, due to depression and anxiety problems. He'll only gone a few months, and he has sworn that he'll be back, and I certainly hope he does. Pende's big into lots of things like me, mostly Pokemon and a few other games, like Fire Emblem. He's a good friend, but I didn't realize that until the night before he had to leave. He called us up during nightly planning, to tell us the news of his leaving, say he loved us, and that he'll miss us while he's gone. It was a bit sad... until he mentioned that he'd be able to see Star Wars 7 before we could. Gah! You just had to mention that, didn't ya, Pende!

 Oh yeah, and in other news, last P-day while we were buying groceries, I decided I wanted to buy a scarf as well. Given how cold it is when you're tracting every night from 5 to 7, always in the dark and sometimes in the fog, with a little rain added on top, and no car from door to door (to save on miles), I figured I'd best get more stuff to bundle up with. And I'm glad I did, because I have come to love my scarf. Seriously, why haven't I owned one before? It's soft, it's warm, looks super classy while wearing it casually; It's like a nice security blanket you wrap around your neck.  Pardon my 'Linus' comment, but it's true. For the whole last week, I've been wearing this thing everyday, even when I'm indoors and my coat's off. Haha, I'm thinking I'm totally going to rock the scarf long after my mission is over... though maybe not in the Summer, because let's face it, that be smoldering hot!

​Aren't I stylish? Seriously, I love this thing. 

Anyways, something funny happened last night. Sunday night, Elder Hansen and I drive back to Bishop Miller's house, our 'Mission home' here in the Key Peninsula, after a fairly short day, what with church and the Christmas Devotional (Which was fantastic!). So, we grab our bags out of the car, head inside, and we find this:

​The dogs had somehow gotten a hold of both mine and Elder Hansen's 12-week books. For those of you don't know, 12-week is what we call the greenie course, or training for the new missionaries during their first twelve weeks. After personal and companion studies, we take another hour to learn and, ugh *gag*, roleplay, from these manuals. The Millers certainly weren't happy with the dogs, and Elder Hansen was a bit peeved that he'd have to order new books for us from the mission office. But I never liked 12-week to begin with, so I was just fine with it. Score one for the dogs in my book!... Oh wait, they tore up that one, too!

Anyways, I'm running out of time, so I'll let you guys know a few things. First of all, transfer calls came, and it looks like I'll be staying here in the KP with Elder Hansen for another 6 weeks, but I could probably be transferred somewhere else after this transfer is over. It's getting colder and colder, and raining more often, but it feels great to me! I loved the cookies, the rice krispies treats, and the piano cd I got in the mail, and I'm thinking about everyone every now and then! I hope you can follow the spirit and decide on a place to live, Mom and Dad!

But until next Monday,

I love you all!

Thanks for reading!

-Elder R. Austin Moe