Toti (12/30/96)

Family-

It's so DAMN hot here!  HAHA!  I bet you're all shocked that I said that! :)  It's not a swear word here at all, either is hell.  I've picked them up in my vocabulary, I guess I'll need to loose them pretty quickly here.  I was going to wait and get off the plan and say them both in my first sentence to you all, but I decided that it may not be too good of an idea.

Well, things are going well here.  Christmas conference was really fun.  I spent Christmas day hiking through the mountains and grasslands and seeing giraffe and zebra and a bunch of other animals that I can't remember their names.  I took photos, I'll send you some copies of the photos.  The giraffe was so cool!  You know how on TV when the run they look like it's in slow motion?  I always thought it was in slow motion, but they really run like that, the are so graceful!

I decided that I have really weak ankles.  I think that's why I can't ice skate.  I twisted each ankle like 4 times that day.   It was so retarded!  One of the times I fell down and totally killed my knee. It looks terrible, but it doesn't really hurt.

I wasn't too homesick for Christmas because it really didn't seem like Christmas at all.

This week has seemed like a year!  So much has happened.  Not really tons exciting or anything, just a lot of things.  My companion freaked out on me this week.  I guess she has a big problem with being a greenie, she has always been in charge (she's the oldest of 7) and she's freaking out with having a senior companion.  She was so mad at me on Saturday, I thought that she might hit me.  She was just mad because transfers were called out and she wasn't transferred.  I feel bad because I actually yelled at her.  I can't ever remember yelling at anyone except family.  Anyhow, it got so bad, I had to phone Pres in the middle of the night and he talked to her for about 1/2 hour and I don't know what he said to her, but afterwards she was ready to talk things out.  We were up until the early morning hours talking it out.  The only reason I write about that is because I've never had someone so mad at me before.  Sister Bennion is really cool.  We really do get along well, it was just kind of a freak incident or something.

They've split the area I'm working in.  2 more Sisters are coming here to Toti.  They will be on foot!  First time I've ever heard of Sisters on foot in this mission and also first time to hear of 4 Sisters in one boarding.  It will be interesting.  I'm excited because Sister Jensen who was in the threesome w/ Sister Allen and I, is coming and she is training here.   I think it will be fun.  Pretty soon they are going to have Sister Bennion and I go to church in Umlazi (a township nearby where the church is growing by incredible amounts) and we will do training in the women's auxiliaries. I am really excited for that, but I will miss the Toti branch.  The Toti chapel was broken into again this weekend.  It's the third time this month.  It is so lame!  They didn't steal anything this time because they somehow got interrupted, they left the things that they had piled up and probably ran off.  People are pretty sick when they rob churches.

We had lunch at my "fiance's" house yesterday. He's such a jerk!  I'll tell you, I'm sure glad that it's not a real arranged marriage! That's probably not a very Christ-like thing to say, but it's true.

The month of December has kind of kicked me out of missionary mode. The work has been really slow and we've done a lot more socializing than usual.  I really look forward to January to get back into the swing of things!  When you're not totally mission focused you tend to think about home a lot more than usual and it just makes the work harder.  But I really look forward to getting back to it. (the missionary work)

It was nice to talk to all of you this week.  It made me feel like I'm really  not that far away.

I hope you all had good Christmases.  I love you all very, very much!

Love,
Michelle :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!



(The story behind the "arranged marriage" and "fiance" is that there was a woman in the Toti branch who had a single, tall son.  He didn't live in the branch, but came to visit his mom quite often.  His mom wanted me to marry him and pretty consistently mentioned it to me.  Also, the Branch President got in on the scheme as well. The guy was very aware of what his mom and the Branch President were saying and he could tell how uncomfortable it made me and how embarrassed I became when it was talked about, so he got in on it too.  He would make "flirty" comments to me and just get a kick out of watching me turn several shades of red and watch me squirm and not know how to react.  In this letter I was talking about how big of a jerk he was.  I grew up in a home where respect for my mom was #1 priority.  We all respected and still do respect her, but especially my brothers. They treat my mom with the utmost love and respect.  Let's just say that this young man didn't treat his mom like my brother's would treat my mom.  I was not impressed at all.  This whole arranged marriage thing ended up being a consistent issue throughout the time I was in Toti.  All of the other Sisters in Toti got in on the action and teased me constantly about this.  I ended up playing a great joke on them, I believe for April Fools Day.  I am pretty sure it is included in a letter, so I won't go into detail now, but I'll just say, I got them good!)