August 17, 2008

Ask an Elder Questions:
1) Who is your new companion and what is he like?
2) Do you ever get to see the local sights on P day?
3) If a member asked you what you would like for dinner, what would you say?
4) Do you like or dislike getting "interesting" news items? (This is from me - Mom, Barbara, whoever - because I am rather boring, so I fill in my letters to Elder Robarts with interesting news items like the 7 year old kid stealing the family car to avoid church or the little dogs running off a cougar.)

Dear Home,

There have been a few big changes around here in PA. Nothing huge, like the last time I told you there were big changes, but still, things have been a bit different since Elder Taylor left.

First of all, I have a new companion. His name is Elder George; he's from Roy, Utah, and his 20th birthday is coming up this transfer (He refuses to tell me what he would like for a birthday present, but I have a strategy for getting around that problem. =P). He's shorter than I am (wishes he were taller) and wears contacts. He wants to be a conservation officer, partly because he loves nature (He was a Boy Scout! ^^), and partly because he thinks it'd be exciting to be a cop.

Another change is that we're walking rather than driving a car. This is the first time either of us have served in a walking/busing area, so it's a new and exciting experience for each of us. The good thing about walking is that we get more time to talk to each other, which helps us get to know each other better and be more unified, which is a very good thing. It also gives us time to ask each other personality questions, like 'what's your favorite candy bar?', 'What's your favorite predatory animal?', and 'what kind of aircraft would you choose to be and why?'. This means that by asking him what kinds of things he likes (seeming to be asking about his personality), I can try to figure out something to give him for his birthday. =D

Change number three: I am no longer serving with a District Leader, which means that rather than recieving calls from other companionships, we simply call the District Leader, Elder Butterfield.

(Each night, companionships call in to their District Leader, reporting on how their day was, how they're doing at accomplishing their goals, how their investigators are progressing, and so on. The District leaders then use that information to provide the companionships with praise, encouragement, advice, or whatever else is needed. It's a good system, even if it does take some time to describe. =P)

I think that's it for changes. On to the next question. xD

Do we see the sights on P-Day? Short answer: No. Medium answer: No, we don't have time. Long answer: No. It'd be really nice to (especially with some of the nice places in PA), but there are too many other things to do, so we don't really have time. =/

If a member asked me what I would like for dinner, I would probably say pizza. ^^ Chinese food is nice, but not when it's too authentic, and I'm not sure if these non-Robarts would know what I meant by 'Chinese'.

(This question probably only applies to you, Mom, but I don't care whether you post it or not.) Interesting news is nice. ^^ I love getting frequent letters from you (but shudder when I think of how much postage it's costing you). No matter what you send me, I'll love it. If it's a strict like-or-dislike question, I like it, but my opinion on interesting news isn't very strong. I just know that I like getting mail. xD

Now that the questions are done, I would like to share a story about what happened last week. Since Elder George and I had to wait for Elder Butterfield and Elder Clarine (a greenie) to finish shopping, I decided (which E. George's permission), to look at the side of the store that reminds me of Winco. They had the kind of shopping thing where you scoop stuff into plastic bags and pay for it based on how much it weighs (I hope you know what I mean). Anyway, I saw some chocolate covered pretzels, and they looked relatively cheap, so I decided to buy myself some. When I got to the checkout stand, I realised that I had made a mistake. The pretzels cost $1 per 100 grams, so I measured myself what I thought was a dolars worth, and then went to the checkout, but the scale I measured with measured weight in kilograms, so by accidentally thinking that the decimal point was one space over than it actually was, I ended up spending ten times as much as I thought I would. But that's okay. They were REALLY good pretzels, and I still have some. ^^ Besides, we're on Earth to learn from our experiences anyway, so by making that mistake, I was just fulfilling the measure of my creation. XD

(( Note to Mom: I may have changed my mind about wanting chocolate-covered things, though. They're tasty, but I'm not sure they're worth the cost. I'd still like Motab CDs, though, so that part of my wishlist hasn't changed. ))

So the moral of the story is to always remember, Kilo means 1000, not 100. Not that many of you need to worry about that. I just thought I'd tell you anyway. =P

-hugs everyone- -hugs Mom again ^^- I love you! Be good! Stay close to the Lord!

Your Wiser-Than-Before Missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts

PS, in the 4 minutes I have left, I'll tell you that we've been finding a LOT of money on the ground this transfer. Mostly pennies, but a few silvery coins as well. Let's see if any of you can guess what the largest single piece of currency I've found this transfer is. $1, $2, $5, $10, or $20?


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