A Find for Four

After searching for months, Jenae and Liz, former roommates of Sarah, were about to throw in the towel and live out of a tent, then, Linda Sullivan, owner of the (formerly) orange door house on 350 N came to the rescue. "The house is great for parties, and the ward has a guy to girl ratio of 3 to 1," commented Maranda, former resident of the quaint dwelling. Jenae and Liz toured the house, trying to not look too impressed. They signed the contract and screamed as they drove home. The current residents of the house have noted a few choice features of the south of campus living place, including the following:

A fold down ironing board

An old school pencil sharpener

A refrigerator in the wall

A window in the shower?

Although the house is not perfect, it is full of character. Previously known as the orange door house, the house sports a poorly painted brown door, and four great tenants, who will fill it with fun and a lot of junk.

Briq's: Home of the One Pound Cone

One of my favorite Scoresby traditions is ice cream. I missed it for a year and a half while I had to survive on water based ice cream. Since Wednesday, I have enjoyed a fine selection of American ice cream, including my two favorite flavors, butter pecan and peanut butter cup. While hard ice cream takes the cake (and at least once this week I enjoyed it with cake,) soft ice cream has a special place in my heart, especially, the Briq's one pound cone. Janet and I enjoyed this tradition many times, usually documented with a photo, and I was feliz to once again enjoy this Scoresby tradition, accompanied by the Clarks also. While I couldn't keep up with Dad in the afternoon jog around the neighborhood, I beat everyone in the eating of my one-pounder. In my mind, the Briq's one pound cone is the quintessence of Americanism.

So...on your mark, get set, eat!

Arriving in honor and great glory...
Yes, I'm home. I got in at 5:30 last night, was released, and got home at about 9:00. Since then, I've been busy doing various and sundry items, including crashing the super exciting YSA party, getting a contact lense in my left eye, applying for jobs, and my favorite, buying new clothes, or having Mom buy them for me.
My thoughts about getting home from the mission:
1. We are rich here in the United States. Just look at Dad's enormous truck
2. I am still really tired
3. I'm glad I'm going back out to BYU soon
4. It's really green here
5. The ice cream is really good
6. Janet actually grew while I was gone. But I am still taller than her.
I still have a lot to do to get ready to leave next week.

Dear Mom,

Yes, I am writing another letter. But the computer is stupid, so I don't know how much I can write. I enjoyed the emails. I was supposed to be out of the area today, but they changed things around, and I'm still here. But my suitcases are at the mission home, so I have to spend a night here without any of my things. Honestly, my suitcases are pretty empty. But I did buy a few treats for you guys. We'll see if you like them.

I had my last interview Friday. It was kind of funny. I put in my goals that my goal to get married was in a year. He told me that I shouldn't wait that long. When I am certain of whom I want to marry, I should get married right away. He also said if I don't get married in a year, don't feel bad, but he thinks I'll get married fast. He gave me three months, then lowered it to six weeks, one cambio. He also told me to never stop studying. Tomorrow we have meetings, lunch with the pres, and we go to the temple, then the airport.

We finished the cambio with two more baptisms, 15 and 16 year old cousins. The nonmember family of one of them all came, so the future missionaries here have a family to work with. We also had activities in two wards. The first was a talent show. It started late, so we didn't get to see much of it. The other was a game night thing. We ended sending up a lady to the hospital. She fell during a game and got knocked unconscious.

I'm really antsy to get home. I think I will try to see if I can get home faster or to CWA because the itinerary stinks, and I'll have plenty of time to talk to someone about it.

Love you all.
Sarah

Dear Family,

Thanks for the letters, and special thanks to Jo. When I get home I'll liven things up for 5 days. The packages were a big hit, even though the chocolate Easter bunny didn't make it in good condition.

This week was fine. We had our interviews and zone conference. I gave my ultimo testimonio in the conferencia. I don't know why they call it that because being a misisonary you obviously bear your testimony more. We also had a baptism, Ricardo. He is an 8 year old kid, but we got to teach him and it counted for us because his parents aren't members, but he lives with his aunt and uncle, who are members. Disappointingly one of our baptisms for this next week fell in one of the commandments and won't be getting baptized. We still have 4 planned. We also have the activities in two wards, and a service project planned, so proselyting time is going to be short. I might also have my going home interview with Pdte Leyva this week, seeing that Monday there are about 25 missonaries going home that need to be interviewed, and the interviews are long. Since the office is only about 20 mintues walking from our room, the DL said he and I would probably have ours early.

School started up again here after extended vacation time due to the swine flu. By the way, we have discovered various types of fungus growing in our room, so my cold like symptoms are probably due to allergies. We did extensive cleaning this morning to try to get rid of it. Oh, the pensionista finally came back after her vacations too. This is kind of funny. She secretly had plastic surgery while she was gone, and was a little disappointed that her kids nor husband noticed. The doctor that did the surgery accidently left some gauze inside her nose, and she got really sick with infections due to having foreign obects in her. That's why Peruvian medicine/dentistry scares me. Another by the way, I've gained back some weight, and I'm just normal now, how I've always been.

I'm excited to come home, and I'm even excited to start classes again. Does the WRI by chance have any openings? I feel kind of bad, but I'm going to be an expensive child until I get a job and get back into the swing of normal life. Sorry about that. I am planning on only bringing home the clothes I'm wearing and p-day clothes and garments. I already promised my towels and sheets and missionary backpack to my comp. I am debating if I should bring my missionary blanket home. I am kind of attached to it, but it weighs a lot. And a lady in the ward asked if I had room to take a small package to her sister at BYU.

I love you all. I don't know if I'll write next week or not. But enjoy your potato chips and I'll see you in 9 days.

Love,Sarah

Dear Family,We are having a lot of success now in the area. We had a baptism this week, Carlos. Carlos met an elder and a member of the branch in an activity of knocking doors. Since then (November), 3 members of his family have gotten baptized while he got over his alcohol addiction. He was really happy to finally be able to get baptized. We have a baptism planned for this week, and 6 planned for my last weekend in the mission. Hopefully all of them will be able to get baptized. Our zone finished first in the mission, but all the zones were way under average.

We keep working, working, working. We are planning activities in the wards for my last weekend, one a talent show, and the other some sort of game night. What talent could I share? I was thinking an encore performance of Will I wait for you, but nobody would understand. They'll probably want me to play the piano, which I don't want to do. I don't mind playing Sundays because if there is no piano, they just sing their own tune. Yet again we sang Before thee Lord, I bow my head as a sacrament song. Apparently it is a country wide tradition. But they try to make it more reverent by singing it really slow.

I got my flight plans and a schedule of the last days in the mission. A note I got said that the stake president should release me the same day I get home, and that it is mandatory to tell you that I'm coming home, so here: I'm coming home Wednesday August 19. Hopefully everything goes smoothly, because I saw that the layover in Detroit is only 30 minutes. Hopefully my suitcases and I can get to the next plane quickly.

Yes, I would like a sports pass. No one else has offered to sit by me, so I can sit with Janet at the football games. I was thinking we would go Thursday or Friday to go out to Utah. I guess earlier is alright, but I don't know when I can move into my house. Maybe someone could ask one of my friends. Also, do I have clothes at home? I can't remember what I left, but if I give everything away here, and I don't have any at home, we will have to do a lot of shopping. That could be in part in Utah, except that I don't have any money. I'm praying to be able to find a good job. A member here offered me a job involving buying stuff and sending it to Peru in small scale.

Oh, I got two packages today! One is from the deacons/Mickelsens and the other from the Murrays. Apparently there was some delay in receiving a bunch of packages sent to the mission. I was a little disgruntled because the mission is making me pay 34 soles to receive them, but then I saw that they cost $24 and $40 to send, so I can't complain.I walked into a cactus the other day. It hurt. Yesterday it was sunny from about 1:00 until 4:00. It was the first time I've seen the sun in days. All my belongings are wet due to the almost constant drizzle/coldness.

That's about it. I hope everything is going well at home. I am praying that Joanna can find a job. Why doesn't she write to me? Or is she mad at me because I said Janet's letters were better? It's just that she wrote about mission stuff and Janet wrote about normal stuff.

I love you all,Sarah