Yay! Emails! And yes, I did get that letter this week, thank you :) I figured it must've bounced since they didn't know where I was and my name wasn't assigned to the mailbox yet. I got the 2nd one though!  I was going to bring my thing to get the address to you so you can send it directly there, but it sounds like you already have one. Transfers are every six weeks, but I think I'm going to be here for 12 weeks with my trainer since that's how long the training program is.

 

For the 4th our ward is having a pancake breakfast, hoorah! It'll be awesome. The chilluns are going to have a bike parade too, so that'll distract them while mom and dad have food :P Should be awesome! We even saw fireworks this weekend, there was a big show put on over by our church so we caught the tailend of it (we live on the 3rd floor and see over all the houses). It was neat!

 

All the ward members (oh, and I discovered there's more like 40 deacons) are super nice. We have dinner plans every night and if something falls through then there's a good list of people who are adamant that we call them if we need food. I always feel kinda embarrassed asking, but Sister Brown is already friends with most of them so she doesn't find it as weird as I do. Guess that's my pride or something coming through? I don't know. XD

 

Oh, and we're not teaching very many people right now, but Rocklin is a pretty afluent area so EVERYONE is gone cos it's summer. It's really weird. Also, everyone is crazy into baseball so tracting on Saturdays (which is normally a good prosylting day cos people are supposed to be home) is useless cos everyone's out playing or watching or... whatever. So we try to keep ourselves busy with service and everything. We do have a family we're trying to get a date for though! But the dad doesn't really believe in organized religion so that's hard for them. They were trying to wait to see if he'd change his mind, but it isn't looking like it. :( Maybe someday when he's impressed by what the church is doing for his kids. They're the Cole family. It gets kinda confusing sometimes though cos there's already a Cole family that're members, and then these that're not just yet. Haha!

We have a baptism on Saturday! There was another family in the ward, the Penny's, and they went inactive for tenish years, and then their kids decided to start taking the lessons. One's 17 and the other's 14, so that's fun. n_n

 

You didn't tell me President Weston called you!! I told him thanks and he said you guys were awesome :3 Mom mentioned sending the bassoon in her letter, I'd call him and talk to him about it. I was actually thinking about that last week and was invisioning that conversation... "Hi President! Want to hang onto a bassoon for 18 months? :D?" Haha. He might go for it, I have no idea. Shipping it would make me anxious though, if you do decide to go that route, don't tell me it's coming. Haha! Reeds would be nice though, I'd be grateful for those for sure.

 

I've decided you should get a smartphone, if not only because people in my ward take pictures of us missionaries on occasion and go, "Now give me your parents number and I'll text this to them!" and then we all get sad when I tell them they have a dumb phone (or in mom's case, doesn't even get pictures). So at least one of you should get one. Maybe Dad cos he already knows how to function an iPad. Haha! One family said they'd get it on the computer and send it off that way, so I gave them your email. I told them to mention me in the email somewhere, but in case they don't, keep an eye out for that. It's coming from a Hodgson, for the record.

 

I've acclimated to the alergies now! I still have to blow my nose more than ever before, but at least I can breathe and stuff. Who knew, allergies. Pft. Too bad I can't keep an eye on the pollen count or anything. At least it didn't stick for too long!

 

Aye mom, my warddrobe is as I expected. Although two of the skirts are super thick and that doesn't translate well to the California weather, so I'm keeping an eye out for more skirts. If you find any that would be cute to send my way you're welcome to! I'm still hovering around 16/18, and if the length would go to your knee (or above it, let's be honest) it'd be perfect for me. Just so ya know~!

 

Hmmmm, I'm trying to think of what else. If my phone hasn't died yet, will you text Lindsay Weaver and ask her for an address at which I can write her? I forgot to ask. Also Lyra. I told them both I'd write and I forgot. (Or maybe if you post this they'll see it and just write me. XD)

 

There was something else I wanted to say and I forgot what it was. Oh! Haha, mom, that was the lesson that me and my companion have been using to get the ward members to let us serve them. It's great stuff! I liked that someone mentioned that it shows the humility of Ammon, cos even after he chopped off those arms he didn't take them back to the king himself and say, "look what I did!" but kept doing the things he'd been asked to do. I'd never thought of that before!

 

Well, time's about up so I'll finish up now. I'll see if I can print some pictures at walgreens and send them back to you this week, unless I can figure out how to get pictures from my camera to the compy. ¯\[°_O]/¯ oh well.

 

That's all for this week! I love you so much! Thank you for your prayers, I pray for you too! <3

 

Love love love,

Sister Nelson