3 December Emails!

Hi Mom & Dad!

Dec 16, 2014

How are you?

Today is p-day because tomorrow is transfers.

I got your package!

Thank you so so so much! 

The clothes fit and are super cute and the music is perfect.

And Chocolate is always appreciated. :)

Nothing really exciting has happened.  We have a handful of interesting investigators that we aren’t sure what to do with, but i’m sure the spirit will lead.

I love the sweaters!

ooo< I like the blue one :) And maybe the samony one?

So, yesterday was zone conference.  The picture you got was form one of the ladys who was serving the lunch.

Zone Conference - El Paso TX

Adventures?  Hmmm. not really much.  Everyone we are teaching went to mexico for vacation.

Time is most certainly flying! :)

Today has been super crazy.

So something really random happened this morning that shows that Heavenly Father really does work in mysterious ways.

One of the members who we work a lot with is in the Army and today was her graduation to become and officer.  She doesn't have any family so we decided to go.

It was really interesting, but the amazing part happened before the graduation started.

We walked into the waiting area and there were dozens and dozens of people in uniforms all around. Normally its super hard to tell them all apart. There was a group of them right in front of the door, right in my line of vision. And one of the girls and I looked at each other and guess who it was??!

Harlie Baumgardner and Sister Emily Mangum

December 23, 2014

Christmas plan? 

We are supposed to make it a normal day and proselyte. But that's really hard.  WE might just end up contacting all day

How are you?  You home enjoying the break yet?

We are so ready for Christmas here.

This past month the mission has been going Christmas Crazy.  With the new “He is the Gift” initiative, we have been handing out tons of the new pass along cards and our mission president has asked us to go Carol Tracting.

Basically just caroling.  We haven't found any new people from it, but other missionarys have.

But last night we did get Christmas cookies twice and get invited in for dinner.  So that was interesting. :)

We have been spending quite a bit of time just contacting, which can be fun.

Yesterday was our zone conference.  It was really good, but then I got called up for the 5 minute talk.  

I suppose it went alright. hopefully I wont have to do it again though.

Any fun plans for the holidays?

We have been doing lots of caroling too with the Carol Tracting i told you about.  Although, I much rather do it to people who I know.  Its kind of awkward when the people you are singing to stand behind the open door (or sometimes close it in the middle of the song)

I’m not sure when we will be able to call.

A family invited us over, but they are also having a set of elders over and we aren't allowed to have dinner at the same time, so i’m not sure.

I will try to make sure its before 4 here.

I also don't know if I will be able to Skype this time.  President is only giving us a half hour to talk to family

As for my new STL calling we have been going on exchanges.  We had one last week and we have another one this week.  Then next week we get to go up to Albuquerque for Mission Leadership Council.  Mostly its just whenever the Zone leaders need to have something handled with a sister, they go to us.  We are just in charge of making sure the sisters don't kill each other.

Tonight the senior couple is having a gingerbread house making competition thing today, so that's what we are going to do :) 

December 25, 2014

Skipping with Emily on Christmas Day 2014

December 30, 2014

This week has been fairly slow.  Most of our people are still out of town.

We have just been running around doing errands all day because we have had almost no time for the past 5-6 p-days.

So that's been nice.

We just happened to be home when the UPS guy delivered two GIANT boxes to our door.

Neither of us recognized the sender and it was addressed to some sort of company.  Definitely the right address though. :\

We are going to go around and check with all the neighbors to see if anyone ordered something recently.

Tonight we do have a dinner! Yay!

Then we have a lesson with a less active.

Sooo, funny story.

The member that is coming with us asked us to tell him what we were talking about and what we will ask him.

So last night I was sending out a text to the members coming to the lesson saying "we will be talking about the word of wisdom and law of chastity and would you mind bearing your testimony on..."

Then after I sent it, I went back and realized that I accidently sent it to the less active we are teaching....

whoops :\

Awkward

Some exciting news, I found out today that the recent convert family that I worked with all the time in White Rock is going through the temple in a couple of weeks!

Yay!

Sounds like this next week or two will be tons and tons of fun! :)

The long drive to Albuquerque is tomorrow!  It is a 4 hour drive and we are going up the night before the MLC meeting.  

We drive up with the other two sets of STLs in the south.

The ones from the El Paso stake and the ones from the Las Cruces stake

Not too sure about new years.  Missionaries probably have to be in early but we will be driving to Albuquerque.  They worry a lot about drunk drivers here.

Love you

Em

Happy Veteran's Day

Hi Mom & Dad!

Dad, I’m so glad that you are really enjoying your new job!

I hope you are getting settled in, in Pittsburgh!
It sounds like this new phase of life will be an adventure and be really really good!
How long do you expect to live at an apartment, before you start looking for a house? Until June?  Have you been looking at the different areas of Pittsburgh? Found any that look nice?  Are you thinking Suburb? Rural? Small town?

Mom, How is seminary?

It sounds like you both have been able to have some amazing scripture study.
I have been trying to read the whole standard works before I come home and its really really cool to be able to learn and to get new insights. I can’t wait to be able to do some more in depth study on some of the scriptures

Today our p-day got moved because yesterday was a holiday and some libraries were closed.

The pictures are super cute! Mina and her animals! :)

The new companion is Sister Montini.

She is from Michigan and goes home at the end of this transfer. :\
She is super sweet and actually reminds me a lot of Aunt Emily.
Which is funny because her name is Emilee.
No idea why there are 3 of us. Apparently President is closing a lot of areas in the mission. And Sister Montini goes home in 5 weeks. In this next transfer 16 sisters go home. Most of my companions will be going home soon. It’s kinda crazy.
It’s kind of stressful being in a trio again, but not nearly as bad as last time.

We have been doing a lot of contacting, trying to find new people to teach. it results in meeting a lot of fascinating people. From every single different walk of life.

This week has been interesting. Finding new investigators and working with some new people. It’s always fun.

It’s amazing how everything just seems to work out sometimes. Everyone is in the right place and the right time. We have experiences like that all the time. This week we stopped by a less actives house and he said "I knew you would come. I was reading my scriptures and I prayed and I just knew you would show up."

Today we got to go to one of our members weddings. It was simple and just at the courthouse. But it was definitely a well- spent p-day.

I don-t have pictures yet, because they used my camera, and they are getting some pictures developed now.  Hopefully next week :)

We have an investigator named Brad who is super awesome!
He is a lawyer and is so prepared to be baptized. Everything we teach him, he is like "Yah, that makes sense."

The lessons are going great!
He has tons of really good questions and really has a desire to learn.
A lot of the time he will ask questions that are super in depth and things that we don’t really know how to answer.
When we taught him the Word of Wisdom he informed us to feel like he was living the word of wisdom, he was going to give up all caffeine.  Which he is still doing.
Hopefully he will be baptized on the first weekend in December.
He is close to baptism. The only thing that is holding him back is the fact that he thinks he has to (or just really wants to) read the entire Book of Mormon before he is baptized.
His questions include things like "When helping to make a law, how much should my religious beliefs influence that decision?"  And just other things that I have never even heard of before.
He prays reads, comes to every activity he can. In gospel principles we divided into groups and each group was discussing the priesthood and he had to take charge because none of the members would do it.
I think he believes the Book of Mormon. I think when we asked him he said things here and there made sense. And he definitely recognizes the spirit.
Golden investigator
Brad is single, we only teach YSA. But He referred himself through mormon.org.
Crazy! Apparently he had a really good friend in law school that introduced him to the church.

One of the problems the YSA ward is having is just getting people to attend. And when really really strong new people join the church the leadership is all over it. I think they assign everybody visiting and home teachers even before they are baptized.

Any ideas on how we can get more active YSA to come?  They go to church.

But almost all of them just go to their home wards. They just don’t feel like coming to the YSA congregation for whatever reason.

We always try to encourage people to read the Book of Mormon in an effort help them feel the Spirit.  Which sometimes sort of works but it doesn’t drive them to attend with us.  Atleast they attend.

Love you!

Em

Baptism!

Hey Mom & Dad!

How is the new job Dad?
I hope you are enjoying it.

How’s Seminary going mom?

Coats, sweaters? I hope not. I really truly hope it doesn’t get that cold down here, but I haven’t seen it drop below 72 yet, so I think I’ll be ok.

This week has been kinda nuts, a lot of appointment fell through or cancelled or just didn’t show. So that is always fun.  But the high point of the week by far was Joe's baptism.

 

The picture is of Joe and my Comp and me and the Spanish Sisters that passed him off to us.  Hermana Calloway, Hermana Pipkin, Joe, Sister Thompson, Me
 

El Paso Zone Conference

Well, we got transfer calls last night and this next transfer should be interesting,

Both Sister Thompson and I are staying but we are going to be in a trio. Again.

My comp is really upset and worried, but i feel completely fine.

Both of us have had bad experiences with a trio before and it doesn’t help when all the other missionaries are like "ouch a trio, that hurts"

But, it will be good. I really do feel like it will be fine. I have a sneaking suspicion that i may be playing peace keeper between my two comps for the entire 6 weeks, but that will be fun....

We have had some fun experiences this week. Last night we ate dinner with a lady who didn’t speak any English at all. Luckily my comp speaks a bit of Spanish and her kids spoke a bit of English, so it was ok.

We got another amazing investigator this week. His name is brad he is really smart and ready for baptism, but he doesn’t think he is. He has a baptism date for the first week of December, hopefully he will be ready and excited by then :)

This picture is of my district. We were all wearing vampire teeth (provided by Elder Guymon) and it’s so so so funny, But the person who took all of the pictures lacked the ability to focus the cameras. She took probably about 10, all different cameras and all of them where blurry.
I know you know a bit about Photoshop. Is there any possible way to clear it up at least a little?

Sister Mangum & Sister Thompson - El Paso

 Thanks for the money. I didn’t get as much as I needed or hoped for. My comp was done shopping. I’m going to try and make what I have last for the last couple of months.

Love you!
Em

El Paso, YSA Ward

Hi Mom and Dad!

Wow!  That’s crazy!  You are moving to Pittsburg!
I think this change for the family will be really good.  It will be a lot of work and craziness, but that’s ok.

My new companion is Sister Thompson from Ketchikan Alaska.
She has been out about a year.  About a month longer than me.
She has been here in this area for a few months, which is nice.

Sister Thompson - New Companion in El Paso YSA Ward

So, there has been a lot of change here too. I’m in an area that I never even considered, and I’m still not quite sure how I feel about, but I think this could be my most favorite area of all.  It’s almost the exact opposite of my last two areas. Any guesses? :)

We can see Mexico from our house…border patrol is everywhere.

I haven’t decided about how I feel about my new area yet.  I think I’m still in the adjusting phase.  Everyone says that it takes a bit of adjusting time for these type of Wards, even the elders said it.  For some odd reason I ended up in the University of Texas El Paso YSA ward.  Not sure who thought I would be a good YSA missionary, but here I am.

It’s just so different.  And its super weird being in a Ward/branch when they are all the same age as you.  I have always been in Family wards.  I’ve spent a couple of days in a YSA ward, but not full time, which is different.

I’m not sure if we are allowed on Campus, I can’t really seem to find it, but I know it’s all over the area.  We do have quite a few people we are teaching.  The problem with YSA's though, is that they are Flaky.  It’s kind of annoying.  Super in and out. Off and on.  So we have a TON of people but almost all of them are only sort-of, some-of-the-time. 

Actively teaching?  About 5, but the former teaching section of our area book is massive and we are constantly getting referrals from other missionaries and picking up new people.  But we mostly work with recent converts and less actives. People in YSA wards are sometimes really hard to work with.

Tonight we have a lesson with a boy we met on the street. He lives in Juarez, Mexico and doesn’t speak much English, so that should be fun.  I do wish that I knew some Spanish. I think I will probably learn some because here, the people who speak Spanish, they SPEAK Spanish and they actually don’t speak any English at all.  Actually the UTEP students speak both, jus the locals who only speak one or the other.

Since the First Presidency has been pushing YSA wards. We have the records for every YSA in the stake and we cover the entire stake, but just attend the YSA ward.  It’s actually interesting and very different to what I have done in the past.  We don’t attend ward council for each ward, but we are trying to set up meetings with each of the bishops to get info and such.

We live very very downtown. The area is old apartments and residential areas. It’s actually kind of sketchy.  I feel perfectly safe but it is downtown El Paso. 

My address is;
1501 N Stanton #1
El Paso, TX 79902

Even though it is a YSA ward we do get fed, mostly fast food, but beggars can’t be choosers.  Also there is a senior couple over the institute who do a lot for us. They are CES missionaries. Our church is at the institute building.  I guess the regular building is under construction.  I think the institute is connected to UTEP, but it’s open to people all over the El Paso Stakes.  It’s right across the street from campus, it’s really nice.  We do a lot of lessons there and do a lot of stuff at the institute.

It’s a bit warmer, but not dryer here than White Rock.  Its monsoon season here.  It rains and rains and rains.  And El Paso has no drainage system so the roads just turn into rivers and when the water is gone, there are mountains of rocks and dirt all over the streets. 
It’s very muddy here.  Yeah, it’s fun, especially when it backs up traffic.  It takes us FOREVER to get across the City

Love you!
Em

Transfers

Hi Mom & Dad!

How is your week?

This week has been fairly interesting.

We got transfer news on Saturday, I was right, I am leaving White Rock but interestingly my companion is leaving too.
We think the area is being taken over by Elders.  It should be an interesting transfer.
From what we have heard, there are crazy things happening all over the mission.

I am excited for a new area, even if it is sad saying goodbye to some people here.
Hopefully it will be full of fun new experiences.

And the White Rock ward just got a new bishopric.  So it was a really long Sunday.
Trying to get everything situated for two new missionaries is actually a lot of work.

My birthday was really good.  The person who was feeding us dinner made a giant peanut butter and chocolate cookie. And the little girl was dancing around singing "it’s your birthday"

Love you!
Em

Temple Work

Hi Mom & Dad,

Hope all is going well for you!  We just had Bible study.  It was good.  It was a slow night (soccer has started) and we only had one girl there.  Her name is Yanina and shes an exchange student from Germany and an active Catholic.  So it was an interesting discussion.

So several months ago President gave us permission to do family history in our down time.  So we have.  And I've found a few people who need work done!  :)

I've included the temple paperwork.

The woman who needs all of her work done is from mom's Icelandic line; Gudny Amadohtir.

The man who needs all his work done is from one of Dad's English lines.  He also needs to be sealed to his parents.  His wife's work has already been done, so he's already sealed to her but they had 9 kids.  2 are already sealed by someone else but the other 5 still need completion.

I hope that everyone is getting back into the swing of things with school and everything.

Things here are plugging along.  On Saturday and Sunday was Stake Conference.  Saturday night was all about missionary work.  The Mission President and his wife spoke and all of the Stake Presidency spoke.  And the Stake President seems to just love calling on random people to come up and bear their testimonies without warning.  Last Stake Conference he called up Marcela who is a recent convert and she did just great, but apparently she bawled afterward.

This time he called on Tom, who is the one I taught!  He did awesome!  He was asked to share his conversion story.  So he talked about his friends and how he and Dallin (who is on a mission in California) played cards and he started going to Seminary.  Then he was like "then I met the Sisters.  Sister Grigg and Sister Mangum.  Sister Mangum is in the back there"  And everyone turned around to look.  Embarrassing!  A member sitting next to me elbowed me and was like "Call out! Haha!"

We've been doing a lot of walking and talking to people recently.  Which is okay.  You do meet a lot of very...unique people that way.  Sometimes its fun, but its always memorable.  :)

Anyway, Love You!  Hope you can get down to the temple soo to do the work!

Love,
Em

Family History Success!

Hi Mom and Dad!

This week has been alright. Still slow, but I did have a really cool experience doing some family history research.
If I sent you a name, would you two like to do some sealings and maybe Jessica and Warren want to do baptisms and get all of his work done?
I reserved his name, so I’ll have to send it to you. 
His name is Thomas Theaker.  He is the son of a grandparent somewhere in Dad’s line.
For some reason he was missing :)
He needs all of his work done and needs 7 kids sealed to him and his wife
President gave us permission to do family history in the hours that we can’t contact, so we've been doing a little bit of it :)

Zone training was last Friday.  There were some good messages.  It was entirely devoted to strengthening your faith and attitude.  We also got a bunch of new mission rules.
President Miller gave a really good talk about spirituality. It was all about "getting out of the Boat." He compared it to the story of Christ walking on water. 
Peter had the courage and made the choice to get out of the boat and walk to Christ on the water.  Sometimes to gain a testimony, we have to actually do something to get it. It takes action.
Same with the story of the Israelites crossing the River Jordan (We've been doing that at dinners) 
They had to get their feet wet.

P-day today I’m trying to get all my music organized. 
They just changed the rule on Music. Now its only hymns, so I am trying to get the CDs all on my flash drive so I can pull off the hymns and put them on a CD.
I expect there to be clarifications within the next few weeks. But the rule we got on Friday said "Only hymns found in the LDS hymn book"
But then the Zone leaders made us a CD that had things like "Amazing Grace" and "Come Thou Fount" 
So I’m not sure the exact new rule.
They did say that the Primary stuff ok as well.
Today is actual a nice relaxing day. ;)
One of the first in forever!

No progression with our new investigator yet.
We haven’t actually taught her again because she is out of town.
But we are ready for when she returns.

Our other investigator discussions have ended though.
This investigator has been investigating since I got here.  
His son and daughter-in-law joined the church about a year ago.
He's 80 and some of his kids threw massive fits went they found out he was going to be baptized :(
He comes to church every week and he said that he would continue to come.
Maybe someday he’ll decide to be baptized.

Yeah, transfers are scheduled for next week.  I still feel like a change is coming.  I've been in this area for a really long time. And it’s a small area, so that makes it difficult to stay for a super long time.

Tonight we are doing the story of Naaman and washing in the river Jordan at Bible study.  It’s one of my favorite stories in all of the scriptures.
Probably not very many will remember that story.  From what I have seen, nobody knows their old testament very well, unless it’s a story like David and Goliath.

Dad your talk on standards goes along with Naaman.  There is some really good stuff on that subject!  It’s something, unfortunately, that we have to cover all of the time.  It’s a really good principle that not very many people have a testimony of. That’s why I love the story of Naaman.  It’s the small, simple things, like reading and praying and going to church that make the biggest difference in your testimony and your life.

There is also something else. 
My comp went to LDS Business College too and her major is now gone.
Which makes me worried about mine. 
Can you please check for me?
I may need to find a different school.
Don’t worry I am not thinking too much about it yet.

Love you,
Em

Horray A New Investigator!

Hello Mom and Dad!

It sounds like life is exciting at home. Lots of possibilities for changes.

Life in the mission field has both its good and its bad points.
We did finally find a new investigator, which is amazing and she is absolutely amazing. So excited for the gospel and the things it can mean for her.
We had our first lesson yesterday and she was so so so excited for a Book of Mormon.

Yes, my ward mission leader is awesome! I love him and his family so so so much!  James and Mamie Hammer, they have 8 kids.

Today for p-day we are in Santa Fe.  Right now we are at the family history library using the computers.
There is going to be a big missionary party, but as usual, everyone else is late :)

Seminary is D&C this year?
It’s a missionary tradition that your start D&C before you go home and read one chapter a day.
I did the math for my start day. It’s scarily close.

Love you!
Em

Companion Changes

Hi Mom and Dad!

Well I’m not in a trio anymore.  One of my companions, Sister England was transferred. She getting close to the end of her mission and it’s not odd to do a 6 week transfer near the end of your mission. So now there is just the two of us.  Me and Sister Field.  She is the sister I knew from LDSBC before my mission.

It’s so crazy that school has already started! And I can’t believe I’ll be home before the end of the school year.  One of my comps who was a lot older than me, told me once, one day you’ll look around and realize your one of the old missionaries.  Well, I think it might be getting there.  It’s very odd.

School starts this week here.

So Mom and Jess starting seminary again?  Did you ever look at the institute manual for LDS history? That is really fascinating.  Teach the background and why the revelation was needed. That's what makes D&C interesting :)

I met a guy from Tennessee this week. So southern.  I miss the southern accents.  As we were walking away he was like "Check out Numbers 22, Story of the “talking donkey." Haha, I love Los Alamos

Me and Sister Field - Valles Caldera hike

Valles Caldera hike with the Los Alamos Sisters - Sister Wright and Sister Field

Today we did a group hike with the Los Alamos Sisters.  We hiked the Valles Caldera.  Which is a super volcano.  Very Pretty! :)  We went way up into the mountains. Which is way too far for most of the other missionaries.  It is very close to our area.  We have one of the prettiest areas in the mission.

Valles Caldera

We've been mostly working really hard to find new investigators. 
White Rock is very small and with the increase of missionaries, there are less teaching opportunities.  I really don’t want them to close my area, but if we don’t find new people, it might happen :(  I do believe that whatever happens will be what the Lord wants for the area, but I just wish there was something more I could do to help it along.  We continue praying and doing all we can.  I think it will happen soon, but it’s until then that is stressful. 

The ward is okay with missionary work.  Really nice and trying to be more missionary minded without trying to be more missionary minded.  It’s very odd, but oh well.  We keep trying.  We have tried a few different things that haven’t been done in the past but the ward is big into "Not adding anything new" so often these are unsuccessful.

We don’t do visiting teaching here.  The problem is, this ward has no less actives.  It’s a very odd problem to have. Very odd.  So since we don’t have less actives we try and visit members.  Not very successfully because they are so busy.  That’s why we are always looking for things to do.

This week we were able to do some service.  The sister in the ward where we used to live is packing her house and we helped her pack up all her trains.  Tons of trains!  There were some really neat ones.

Service helping to pack trains with a sister in the ward

Tonight is bible study.  We are going to talk about the story of Joshua and Jericho.  

Dad, I think your talk will be really good! It’s a fascinating subject that I haven’t had the opportunity to study very much yet.  Maybe that'll be something for this next few weeks.

You know what we never ever get and I really want and it needs to be one of our first dinners when I get home! Take out pizzas :) greasy and yummy :)

Love you!
Em

Walking and walking and walking.

Hi Mom and Dad!

How are you?

Sorry for the short email last week.  On P-day last week we went to Bandelier National Park.  Always a great time. :)

Bandelier National Park - July 2014

And I bought the cutest book. I’m debating whether to mail it home or just pack it in my suitcase for the next 9 months

Dad I’m glad that you are having fun in utah! 
Not gonna lie, a vacation sounds really nice right about now.
We are doing a lot and a lot and a lot of walking and attempting to talk to people. 
It’s alright, but it does get a bit monotonous sometimes. We have to contact somehow. So we walk around and try to talk to people who are already outside.  Not that it’s very effective, but that’s what we do.

Hopefully we find some new people to teach soon, because this might be a really long week

It’s been really difficult and stressful. The area is super small, so if the members don’t give referrals to you, you don’t have people to teach.  It’s really different than down in El Paso or Las Cruces where you teach and talk to dozens of different people all of the time.  I’m used to it, my entire mission has been slow and hard, but my companions aren't.

At least trials are meant to make us grow and it seems to be working, I think :)
it’s funny, on a mission, for your first 9 months, you don’t know any of the older missionaries, but then as soon as you are halfway, suddenly people you served with, people you know are starting to go home and plan for school and marriage. It’s very strange. 

When I first got out an Elder told me that you know you’ve been on your mission a long time when you start to dream about being home and it’s weird, or when you panic because you lose your companion.  It’s started :)

I think I have another transfer in White Rock, but who knows....

We don’t have any plans today.  We were going to go hiking with a family in the ward today, but one of their kids started throwing up, so we decided to stay home.
We did go up to the new giant store they just opened in Los Alamos. It actually has things! Like clothes!  I got a skirt! :)

And now we have about 4 hours to email. So just a slow nice day.

Yay Elder Paynter!!!! That’s sooo Exciting! One of the families here had a son go into the MTC and a few weeks ago, the daughter was talking about how he is already in Ecuador and getting used to the language, and I was like "Um, didn’t he spend 6 weeks there?" yep.

I know time has flown! Even at the slowest days, it seems to be going fast. And it just gets faster and faster.   Plus we have 2 conferences and Christmas in between now and the time I’m home. :)

You ask about how I have grown. Psht, things that used to scare me to death, don’t bother me at all anymore. In the past 4 weeks, it seems like I have been pushed so far that even things that shouldn’t have been affected have changed.  I noticed it when we went to Bandelier last week.

We went as a district my second or third p-day in White Rock. When we climbed the ladders, I was sooo scared.  Then last week, I just zipped up the ladders, no problem.
It’s very strange. It’s as though my entire mentality has been slightly altered.

Yes we have been affected by the Ordain Women stuff.  One of our recent converts heard about it and was asking us all sorts of questions. And we had to do some in depth explanations of the priesthood and basically re-teach it. It makes it a bit stressful but yeah, we had a good discussion about that.

It’s really hard to watch the people you’ve taught and put so much effort and love and time into struggle and fall.  They are still plugging along, but some days are better than others.

Sea World?! Ooooo! That sounds wonderfully hot and sticky.  Whenever I tell people I’m from Florida, they always mention the humidity.  The slashing and water sounds lovely.  I was vaguely hot when we went hiking as a zone and some of the Elders were joking about falling in the river and accidentally going for a swim. :)

I want to go swimming soooooooooo badly :/  The first day I’m home we are going to the beach!

I love you!
Em