not transferred, no, not one

Transfers are always a hard time for me, and have become even more so recently. Even if you get to stay in your area, and stay with your companion that you get along great with, there are inevitably other missionaries that you have made great friendships with who will be transferred. It gets more and more nerve-wracking each transfer as I realize the possibility of serving with my friends again in another zone in the future is getting slimmer and slimmer. I reaffirm my decision to never come home and stay in the mission forever. Look, it was counted for righteousness for John and the Three Nephites, why can't my wish be granted too?

Elder Argyle and I are, in fact, staying together, as are Elder Snyder and his companion. Elder Argyle and I were surprised to be staying together for a third transfer (if you remember from the famous Elders Bostwick and Snyder companionship, two elders usually serve together for two transfers tops), though we think the decision was influenced by our assignment in the Employment Center, or maybe because we are a great team teaching investigators, members, and other missionaries, or perhaps because we keep finding and teaching amazing new people. All in all, we are happy with the results, and we will have yet another strong zone for the coming weeks.

We, of course, look forward to Mothers' Day and will call on Saturday to make arrangements for a time to call home. We are on the afternoon church schedule, so we'll have to coordinate this like clockworks.

As of Monday, I left for Nauvoo over two years ago ... can somebody shove a broom handle in the Hudsucker Industries clock and stop time from moving so fast?

To respond to a comment Mom made in her email to me about el Cinco de Mayo, I would like to clear the record. We had no fiestas on 5 May, and I assure you that there were very few fiestas on 5 May in Mexico, not necessarily because of the Swine Flu, but rather 5 May is a trivial memorial to some revolutionist somewhere in Mexican history. In the United States, we have a concept that Cinco de Mayo is something like the Mexican Independence Day, and we feel we are honoring our neighbors to the south by celebrating with them. This is merely more evidence to prove how silly we can be in the United States. El Dia de Independencia is on 16 September, a day worthy of note and celebrating. It is a huge celebration accompanied with dances, fireworks, killer food, music, and at night, it is traditional to fire a few bullets into the air (a practice which is illegal nowadays in populated areas because what goes up must come down and people were being killed by bullets falling from the sky). Yesterday was a completely normal day, which we only celebrated as the day before transfers, getting tasty 40-cent buffalo wings for lunch after the Employment Center, and then taking an eight o'clock dinner with Elder Snyder and Elder Reynolds at our house to watch Legacy (which we are allowed to watch, of course). Thank you for listening to my brief cultural history lesson!

So, resume sending mail to my previous address.

All right, I've gone on enough. I look forward to talking with whoever I get a chance to talk to on Sunday. I love you all and I do look forward to seeing you. Thank you for your prayers, love, support, and mail ... it is all greatly appreciated and needed.

Love,

Elder Sam Bostwick

P.S. Our baptisms this weekend all went awesome. I got a lot of surprising compliments on a talk on the Holy Ghost I gave at an English baptism (long story) and the good news is I still remember how to share my testimony in my own language.