12-20-09

Hello family!
Yes, there has been a lot of change in my life here. It is a very beautiful place, but out here is Springfield it has an interesting smell to it. It is definitely bigger. So what happened with transfers is that we have to get a member to drive us with all of our luggage to a "transfer spot" which is one of a number of locations up and down the I-5. From here, your stuff is loaded into a tailer attached to a 15-passenger van and you are taken to another transfer spot on the I-5 where you are picked up by a member that dropped off someone else that is being transferred and then you are taken to your new area. So for myself, I had to get a ride to Roseburg. What happened is on Tuesday another elder and I went to Roseburg and loaded our stuff on the Transfer van, but we still stayed in Roseburg overnight. So we actually worked tuesday night and wednesday morning in Roseburg's area. It was fun. However, because our stuff was on the van, we had no other clothes so we slept in our suits and had to go without a shower the next day. It was pretty crazy. Then wednesday afternoon the van came back north and picked us up and off we went. When I got to my new area, I found out that we are kicked out of our apartment until after the 1st. This apartment is known in the mission as "The Mansion." It is probably the nicest in the mission. The members we live with are very wealthy and so they built the basement floor of their house as a missionary apartment. It was only finished a year ago. But, they had a lot of family coming in for Christmas so we have to move out for a while. So, we are living in another apartment with 2 other elders and I don't have a bed. I sleep on the floor haha. It is very cool though because one of the Elders was with me in the MTC. My companion is very good. He is from Utah. He is a good missionary, but his trainer was definitely not the most obedient. It is difficult to break him of some of his habits. The most difficult to break is the idea that we can just hang out at members homes. Aparently they did that quite frequently. There are just a lot of things like that where he has been taught incorrectly so It makes it hard for me to teach him what is right. I'm going to ask some other missionaries and President Macdonald on how to deal with the situation. My new area is very different.
We cover 2 wards and a branch. Sundays are shot as far as proselyting goes. We are in meetings from 8:30 until 4:00. That is a big change. I also have to try and work equally in each area, but it doesn't always pan out that way. Ah, the joys of the balancing act.

I'm glad you liked the christmas package. I'm still waiting for Dad's gift. For christmas calls, I'll probably call around 3:00-4:00 on christmas. So that would put it at about 4-5 for you. Let me know if that works. The members we are calling from have free long-distance so the phone card isn't necessary. I'm running out of time on the computer so I have to wrap this up.

Yes, I lost 10 pounds. I'm feeling better, but I still have a couple issues. Nothing major. I'm working on putting the weight back on. Crazy about Lamoni. I can't believe he's gained so much weight. Elder Parkin is also a district leader now. I get to see him a lot more often. I actually see him later today and we are going on exchange this wednesday.

I love you all. Have a merry christmas. I'll talk to you on friday!

Love, Elder Mullenax