Dear Mom,
You can breathe easy - I'm not dead. Here's my letter for the week. This is transfer week, which means htat schedule's a little different. Transfer week means p-day is on Wednesday instead of Monday for the sake of preparing for travels and new-comers. Tomorrow (Thursday), we'll travel to Stockholm and I'll get my new companion - Syster Maxwell's her name, and that's about all I know about her. I'm staying in Sundsvall for another 9 weeks at least, which I'm pretty happy about. Also because of transfers, I haven't received any mail or packages for over a week. They hold them in the office until the moving's over with. This is to prevent things from getting sent to an old area the day after a missionary moves to their new area. So hopefully I'll be getting you package this coming week once the mail starts moving again.
My Thanksgiving was great. The elders from the next city came down and we all had dinner with one of my favorite families in the branch. The wife's from Arizona, and the husband's a local. They have 6 kids under the age of 10 (the youngest was born my first week here), so it's always like being in a zoo at their house. They're loads of fun.
Christmas - being a missionary is more fun than usual around Christmas time. It makes for a great subject to bring up with people in tracting/street contacting. It's funny how often we ask people why they celebrate Christmas and get a response like 'I have no idea.' I am excited to talk to you on Christmas. Be thinking of what time of the day will be best to talk. And talk to Dad about whether you want to talk to me at the same time or have separate phone calls. Let me know.
I haven't been able to do much of my Christmas shopping yet (not that there'll be much to it), which means you'll probably get your package from me some time after Christmas. We'll see.
I'd like to say I'm surprised by the news about Granddad, but another long-lost illegitimate relative hardly seem like news in our family anymore. ;-)
I'd rather have letters from Uncle Dale and Joe than emails. I just don't have time to check and respond to emails properly.
No, I haven't asked Dad about the piano yet. He said he wouldn't be emailing this week because of him having the week off (i.e. hunting), and he hasn't. So I'll be asking him about that in this coming week.
I'll be praying for Casey and for Rich with his promotion. Just remember that whatever happens will be for the best. Even if it's not what we want, it's still for the best. The Lord can make lemonade out of ANY lemon, so stay close to Him. You'll be surprised by what He can do with the best AND worst circumstances.
And now for the big news: I've had my first baptism this week! Tobias is one of the African students we've been teaching here. He's been wonderful and positive every step of the way, and now that he's a member, he's going to become a great strength to this little branch. When he came out of the water, the very first thing he did was laugh, and he told me after that it was because he felt so much happiness, he just didn't know what else to do with it. That right there was the sum of everything we've worked for all transfer, and it was so worth it!
Sadly, we missed his confirmation the next day. On our way to church, I kind of backed our wimpy little 2-wheel-drive care into 2 1/2 feet of snow and ditch... and there we stayed for the next hour, digging the car out and being pulled out of the ditch by our neighbor's significantly less-wimpy car. Here's the evidence that even though I'm a missionary, I am in fact, still me. At least my life's never boring.
I love you very much. Take care until next week.
Love,
Syster Hillary Kiser
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