Hurricane Sandy

UH OH, I forgot to wish Adrie and Andie and Melissa happy birthday.  I hope they forgive me but I will still send them late happy birthday wishes. 

Well, as you can tell, the Hurricane passed by but it didn't touch us. It did however rain a TON! It was crazy and we saw some of the damage it did. There are some people that live close to the river and all of their houses got flooded because all of the rivers overflowed. Supposedly they give houses to people that it happens to but they then sell the houses and go back to live next to the river. Kinda crazy. But I think I am getting ahead of myself because you probably asked me about the storm so I will get to the questions. 

 
Q: Did you carve pumpkins for Halloween? 
A: No, there isn't time to carve pumpkins, not to mention it isn't anything that I really enjoyed before the mission and I am going to have to say that I wouldn't want to do it here. 
 
Q: Did you get any Hurricane Sandy? 
A: Yep, lots and lots of rain and high winds. In fact, it knocked out our electricity for 5 days and the light finally came back yesterday at 2:30 PM. But we finally have light so that is nice. I really don't like taking bucket showers and whatnot but it is like whatever now. 
 
Q: Who do you think is going to win the world series? 
A: Los Tigres y San Luis. Everyone here talks about it so I at least know who is in it. 
 
Q.  How has your confidence grown from being a greenie to someone out 17 months? 
A. Lots but there are still things that I have to improve on. I mean it is hard for me when people tell me how much time I have and how I am one of the older missionaries in the mission. In my zone of 20 I am the 2nd oldest with my comp being the oldest. It is super weird because I don't feel so old in the mission. 
 
Q.  Do you remember Pres. Monson's priesthood talk?    Do you knock on doors thinking of what people look like or what they can become? 
A.Yeah, I usually think about what they can become. Sometimes it can be depressing because you can see their potential and they don't progress but I guess that is the whole agency thing that is super important. 
 
Q.  Did you get the Spanish Michigan shirt Nana sent? 
A. Yeah and it is super cool. I kinda want to keep it all nice for after the mission because I like it a lot. 
 
Q.  Have you gotten any packages lately and what was in them? 

A. Lets see. I got a package last week that had my face cleaning stuff and the EL Fudges. Um I have gotten lots of packages it is just hard for me to remember because I am always planning for the future and thinking about today and not really looking backwards but I have gotten lots of stuff. I have also gotten letters from the Richards Family, Cindy Winters, and Grammy. I am sorry I don't write but I am not one for writing. I can barely think of what to say when I am writing about the week but I really appreciate the letters they are awesome and really uplifting. 
 
Q.  Did the Tigers win the World Series?  Not that you care of course. 
A.I don't know I only know that they are in it. 
 
Q.  How about that married couple - are they progressing? 
A. Nope we weren't able to go by because of the rain and we tried to pass by later but they weren't there so we will pass by another day. 
 
Q.  Is there anything else you need? 
A. Not that I can think of. Oh and Dad asked if I needed white shirts and pants and whatnot. For the white shirts I would say wait on sending them. Transfer calls come soon and if I leave my area I don't want to have to pack up all of my stuff with even more stuff. But I'll tell you when I need them. And with the pants, I can actually make pants here for about $30 and really good quality so it would be a lot cheaper if I made them here. I was actually going to go and pick up some material next week and make a pair because they look really good. 
 

Ok so onto the week. First off the week was normal until Wednesday. Wednesday we lost the electricity and we left in the beginning of the rain and man did it rain. I came home soaked even though I still have the umbrella. It was just a torrential downpour. But Thursday our 
meetings got cancelled and we had to stay in the house and the same with Friday. It was super boring because we didn't have electricity and all we could do was read and play dominoes. I am going to have to teach you all how to play when I get home because it is fun. Anyways 
Saturday we had a meeting with Elder Zwick of the Seventy and he is really cool. During the meeting they told us that 70 more missionaries would be coming into this mission in the next couple of months because they have received 12,000 applications for missionaries in the 3 weeks that they announced the change in missionary age. Super cool but I don't know where they are going to put so many missionaries. Anyways Elder Zwick is awesome I mean really cool. It was probably one of the best meetings I have been to. And so Saturday we got back to our area at like 600 and we went out to visit and then yesterday was normal and really sunny. So I guess everything is back to normal and it should be a really good week. This Wednesday, Halloween, we get to go to the temple so that is pretty cool. It is going to be the first time in 7 months so I am excited and we should have a busy week. So I send lots of love and hope that you all have good weeks. I am going to try and send pictures but I don't make any promises because well these computers are super slow but I will try! 

 
Love 
Elder Coniam