Dear Family,
Well, the big news for the week is... bum da da dum!..... I'm being transferred! I got a call from President Trayner on Tuesday and I'll be moving down to Cameron Park in Brownsville for at least the next six weeks. I'll be the District Leader in the Brownsville North District. I'm pretty nervous as far as that goes, but I think that it will be a great experience for me. My companion is Elder Wilcox, who has been out of the MTC for just six weeks. I've heard good things about him though, and I'm sure he'll be a great companion. I'm sad to leave Elder Stewart, we had some pretty fun times together. And even worse is the fact that I'm finally leaving Laredo! I spent five transfers in this city, and the only way I can be in a city for longer than that in the rest of my mission is if I never leave Brownsville. I guess time will tell. I'll be leaving to Brownsville tomorrow and should be settled down in the Valley again in the afternoon. It's a sad thing to leave a city after having so much time there, and also having to leave all the people I've gotten to know, but I guess it's just a part of the whole missionary experience. On a random note, I'm also sad we're leaving because we found an amazing taco place on Saturday. It's called Paulita's. It's pretty cheap and they sell these HUGE tacos that are super good. If I ever come back to Laredo I'll have to go there again.
Anyway, the week was pretty slow again, but we did have some cool experiences. Yesterday I tried tacos de lengua (tacos filled with shredded cow tongue) for the first time in my mission. It's actually pretty good. It tastes like roast beef, and it's fine if you can get over what you're eating. I said goodbye to a couple investigators that we had. The missionary that is taking my place sounds like a pretty good Elder, so I have confidence that they'll be well taken care of. Elder Stewart's bike also died this week. The pipe that goes from the handlebars to the front wheel snapped in half and left him with a pretty much unfixable iron horse. Hopefully he can get a replacement bike soon, but until then he'll probably ride on something we can borrow from one of the members here. Luckily all this with his bike happened while he wasn't riding, or that would have been a pretty spectacular crash.
Today we have to be in our apartments by 7, but we're having a barbeque with some of the members until then, so it should be a fun time. About the pants you sent me Mom, the waist was fine, but they were a little long. I went to an old lady in one of the wards here and I asked her if she could take them up an inch or two for me and she was more than happy to do it. So, now they fit fine, no problems.
Congratulations to Christian on getting into the newspaper. That's a pretty sweet costume if you ask me. I haven't seen too many decorations here in Laredo, but there are a couple houses that get pretty into it. They have some giant inflatable pumpkins, witches and ghosts that look pretty cool.
Oh, I forgot to talk about my new area in Cameron Park. I've heard that it's the poorest area in the whole mission, filled to the brim with mean unleashed dogs. So it's a good thing we played soccer today, I got a chance to practice my kicking skills. Needless to say I'll soon start carrying rocks in my pockets again. One of the Elders in my apartment was also in that area and he loved it, so I don't think I have a lot to worry about. Hopefully I'll have some good stories to tell next week about my first few days back in the valley. I'll send you my new address next week after I get there. I've also heard that the apartment I'm going into is really nice, which is a big perk.
We had the ward trunk or treat party, which went over pretty well. We had two less active members come and they seemed to have a great time. Elder Stewart got some of those thick black glasses with the fuzzy eyebrows, nose and moustache attached, so we wore those during most of the party. They also had a chili cook off and had the missionaries be the judges. The best was one that was made with something like barbeque sauce and bacon, it tasted pretty good.
I hope everybody has a great Halloween night. I'll be spending most of it packing for tomorrow, but it should be good either way. Stay safe, eat some candy for me! (But don't worry, I've been eating more than my fair share of candy.)
Love,
Elder Wood
