Oct 19, 2009

Dear Family,Well it's been a long week here in Three Forks. Maybe it's because I'm adjusting, but it seriously feels like I've been here for way more than a week and a few days. The work is going well, but it seems like it could be better. A lot of people here have been very sick and the swine flu is really affecting our area. A lot of appointments have been cancelled because of it, which is disappointing, but we deal with it and hope they are better soon. I am fine. I've been a bit tired and coughy, but I think it's mostly because of the climate and altitude change. We are trying to take good care of ourselves, including frequent hand washing and hand sanitizer.This week was adventurous. Of course there was our Batman birthday party (the details in a handwritten letter sent last week-- including the surprise funeral that was apparently taking place in the building). We held our first ASL class on Tuesday, which had a good turn out and everyone had lots of fun. Hopefully tomorrow will turn out well also. Friday night we were supposed to head into part of our area, Ennis (which is about an hour away), for the weekend. We got headed out a little after dark, and on our way we had to be very careful because we frequently saw deer on the side of the road. We were well on our way and saw the reflection of a deer in the headlights of an oncoming car, and then the next thing we knew, a different deer (a big fat one) jumped in front of our car. Sister Engstrom slammed on the brakes and was almost able to stop, but we hit it. Of course there was lots of girly screaming involved. It was pretty scary. The deer came up on our hood but luckily not through the windshield. Then it landed on the road and wobbled around for a minute and then fell down. It was still alive at that point, and we couldn't stop in the middle of the road where we were, so we had to drive a little bit further before we could pull off. The damage could have been worse, but it's still pretty. We called the office to deal with reporting an accident in a mission vehicle and then turned around to head back to Three Forks. The deer was dead by that point. We didn't know that we were supposed to pull it off the road, so we left it there. We went home and the members we live with (the Prices) helped us out. Apparently it's state law to report hitting a deer, so we called the highway patrol. We were really freaked out by that. The Prices went back to the scene to pull our deer off the road for us, and apparently it was in pretty bad shape by that point (we had passed a semi on our way back). It was all pretty traumatizing for me. We ended up going to Ennis yesterday because Sister Call and I were speaking in the branch there. We figured it was okay because the car is driveable and we weren't over-heating. Today we took our car in for an estimate, and apparently we shouldn't be driving much because our radiator is just hanging in there. Oops. God protects his missionaries though, so we've been protected. Our poor car. (By the way, the story gets better- it's a 2010 and has less than 5,000 miles on it.) The best part is that we have zone conference this week, and a member of the 70 (Elder Condie) is coming to tour our mission and will be inspecting the state of our vehicles. Sister Engstrom thinks we should put a big bow on ours. Oh, by the way, I will be singing a musical number at our combined zone conference this week.Transfers are this Friday, so I don't know what will happen. We could likely all stay here, but it's always possible to move. So who knows?One of our investigators came to church yesterday, even though we were in our other branch, and apparently she stayed for all three hours and loved it. Her son came too. We're pretty excited about that. We'll meet with her tonight and talk with her about her experiences.Our area here is interesting. It's a small town, so most people know eachother (especially those that have been here forever), and lots of people are related. That makes for some fun ties in the work.Well, time is almost up. I want to send you some pictures, but we'll see if I can get them up fast enough.I love you all and hope you are doing okay. I keep you in my prayers. Have a good week.Love,Sister Westwood

No comments: