Dear Mom,
You go from battling a flood to taking classes in school that I can't pronounce! What happened?? Did the flood make you that crazy? I would rather take the flood :P and honestly, what does school teach about battling floods? :P You should be the instructor of that class haha But seriously, I'm glad that you're taking classes that I can only assume that you'll enjoy and get A++ in, as always haha
Definitely continue to tell me about your readings and discoveries in that book! It sounds very interesting!
So this past week was an interesting one!!
Monday: I got a haircut!! :D A much needed haircut!
Tuesday: The rains of Toadsuck must have found out where I went, because it POURED on Tuesday! We went out for about an hour, and we were soaked from head to toe, completely! so we went back inside and threw our clothes in the dryer and stayed in until dinner.
Wednesday: It rained. AGAIN! But this time, we got a text from leadership to stay inside because a lot of people were getting flash flood warnings and tornado watch/warning messages, and we were with other elders when we got the text, so we just hung out at their apartment pretty much all evening. We were safe, just to let you know! :)
Thursday: Guess what? It rained some more! This is the most that it's ever rained since I've been here! We walked to our dinner appointment, which took a lot longer than we had thought. It wasn't raining when we first started walking, but we weren't even halfway there, and it started to rain some more! and we were cold and very wet by the time we had got to dinner haha After we had come in for the night, we planned really quickly, then went right to sleep. The rain sure takes it outta ya! Now here's a story of what happened at about 10:30 that night from Elder Clark. Because I was sleeping throughout the majority of it haha
" It was a dark and stormy Thursday night when Elder Wockenfuss and I went home at the usual 9 oclock. Having walked for miles in the cold rain for hours that day, we were exhausted and went to bed around 9:20 after a bit of planning.
I was suddenly woken up by a pounding somewhere... somewhere on our apartment. My eyes flip open, but I wasn't aware enough identify where the sound was coming from. I look around and I see moving lights and human shadows being cast upon the shut blinds of the windows, both on the window behind my head and the always locked windowed door that leads to the porch... is that where the pounding came from? It sounded close.. Indecipherable voices outside. Then I hear the pounding again from a distinctly different direction.. the door. Too busy calculating how many people are outside to move. I look at the clock. 10:30. Not missionaries. Who then? There must be a fire or something... I wonder how people who get murdered feel before they get murdered. I don't think the first thing that they think is that that're gonna get murdered... So probably like how I feel right now. I turn to Elder Wockenfuss... Who's snoring.
"Hey," I whisper as I reach over and prod him. "People are outside." He moans and looks up. Then he starts to snore before his head even hits the pillow again.
Then I hear a creaking sound, the sound of a door opening. I don't remember if we locked the door or not.
Apparently not, comes the alarming thought.
Adrenaline courses through my veins as I consider shutting and locking the door to our bedroom. The paralysis of fear muddling the rational thought of the pros and irrational cons of that action. I decide to shut the door, but before I get up I poke Elder Wockenfuss reverently, who then continue to preform the useful action of snoring. I swear he would sleep through his own murder.
Slowly I rise and quickly shut and lock the door, without a quarrel with the unknown entity. I turn on the light for a second to get my bearings and to hopefully wake up my rock of a companion (to no avail). When the darkness returns I slide back into bed. I realize my mistake when outside I hear: "Was their light on? Go check the door."
Great, I killed us. I hear the pounding on the door again. Well, at least that means that the door never opened in the first place. I stand and turn the light on again, and I was surprisingly patient with Elder Wockenfuss as I gently told him that people are at the door. In retrospect I should've just killed him and blamed it on the intruders. He would've been just as useful dead. Oh well. He sits up bleary eyed, and follows me as I open the bedroom door and make it for the front door. I look through the peephole and see somebody I can't recognize because I only see like a fourth of his face.
"Hey, open up, hombre!" He yells through the door. I unlock it, and the moment I do I realize two things I should've done. One, grab a weapon, and two, at least ask their name! But too late as the person on the other side is already twisting the knob and I'm backing away from it. The door opens... and in comes the Pauba Elders. Elders Yeck and Allen. Then Elders Running and Schellenburg. They explain that tonight is "Progressing" which means we all call our district leaders and tell them about our progressing investigators. We never called. The district leader tried calling us and when they couldn't the zone leaders tried to call us and the the assistants to the president tried calling us and we never answered to any of the calls (because apparently I turned off the phone, but never turned it back on, like we are instructed to do every night). So naturally people started to worry about us. The zone leaders are on their way, but we called them off as the situation is now resolved...
"Well," I say. "We don't have any progressing."
Friday: I get a call from President Kendrick, and he wants me to be a District Leader! He asks if I can be down at the mission office at 9 for District Leader Training. "uhh... yeah... sure! Absolutely!" I reply. So many mixed emotions!
So I go to the meeting, get my training, learn lots of good stuff, and hopefully I won't do too horrible of a job! :P One thing I remember is to never act like I'm better than the missionaries in my district, because I am the exact same as them, and to love them like a family, and always try to help them improve!
Saturday: We get our Transfer calls! They're changing the way that we do transfers now. Instead of us going to the mission office on Tuesday, and getting our assignments there, we get a call on Saturday telling us where we're going and who we're going to be with. Then we have to figure out a ride with members to get us to our next area.
So, I am now leaving Temecula! Not much of a surprise, since I've been here for almost 6 months now! But I had thought that I was going to stay around for another transfer to show Elder Clark the area some more, but I guess not.
I'm going to Vista now! Lots of hispanic people there! :D I'm going to be with Elder Brown, who came out at the same time as Elder Bucko, so I'm going to be his "GreenieBuster" (The term we refer to a missionary's second companion), as well as the District Leader.
When I first came here to Temecula, I never thought I would say it, but I am going to miss this place. It's because of the members. They make me feel like a part of their family here. Nobody's cried yet, although I teared up a bit at church yesterday realizing it was my last Sunday here. Many of the members said that they're really going to miss me, and I feel the same towards them. They're excited for me going to my new area! They take pride in knowing that they helped me to grow in my time here. When I first came, I couldn't speak very much Spanish, but now I speak a lot more, with their help, and now they're sending me off to be a District Leader in Vista.
I already have everything packed! You know how I am! I always love packing early haha In my packing, I have discovered that I have acquired a lot of stuff in my time here haha but I was here for my birthday, halloween, thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. so lots of stuff haha
I also found out that Elder Talbot is going to the Vista 5th ward! :D And I'll be in the Vista 4th Ward! So we might see each other :)
So, lots of stuff happened this week haha
Please continue to write and email when you can, I love hearing from you!
With much love,
Elder Patrick Wockenfuss
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| Elder Wockenfuss and Elder Talbot with a family in Temecula (we think). |
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