Email 3/9/2009 How long a minute is depends on what side of the bathroom door you're on

Elder Swenson is going home tomorrow! He sleeps at the mission home tonight and then leaves in the morning, so I won’t see him again.

I’m now with my new companion Elder Fraga. He’s from Mexico so his Spanish is perfect, but his English isn’t. That’s okay though — it’s good enough to communicate with me. He’s a pretty cool guy as far as I can tell. He’s been on a mission six months. I get to drive this transfer so I guess I’ll learn where everything is pretty quick lol.

Anyway, all in all things are going to be a lot different these next six weeks. I’m still in the same ward, so now I know more about what’s going on than my companion — which is weird for me. The elders that were living with us last transfer are both gone and they are replacing them with sisters so we may not get new roommates. We did get a new District leader though. We may even move to a new apartment, I don’t know anything for sure yet though. For now we are staying where we are. It’s really messy though. The elders that left were in a hurry I guess so the place is pretty pig-styish. We’ll work on it though.

This last week was really good. I’m really grateful I had Elder Swenson as my trainer. He’s an awesome guy. He lives in West Jordon if you ever want to meet him lol. He’ll be home this summer and then go to BYU in the fall. I even have his address… He told me a story that justifies me in saying there are lots of sirens around here. He said once he and his companion recorded it in their planner whenever they heard a siren and they ended up hearing one every single day for four months!

Thanks for the tip about the sunglasses mom. I know being obedient always brings blessings so I’ll do my best!

I did end up buying Elder Koerper’s bike so that’ll be nice to have. Even if I never use it on my mission, I’ll be glad to have a nice bike after my mission. He got it for over $500 dollars with all the accessories and everything then sold it all to me for only $220 (I talked him down from 250)! It’s in pretty good shape too. It has disk lock brakes, a speedometer/odometer, a U-lock (a really strong lock to park it with), headlights, and back lights (not just reflectors) so I think I’ll be pretty happy with it.

Thank you so much for all your letters, support, and love. I know this will be a great six weeks! Thanks for sending the family newsletters.

Love you all, Elder Curtis