Chicken Pox??!!!

I've been confined to my apartment for the next few days because I have Chicken Pox :P  I caught it from my companion's shingles in the MTC.  Apparently it's a milder case because I was vaccinated when I was little, but they've still confined me to the apartment for a few days. I get to use the clerk's office for emails today.

Other than chicken pox, I'm doing pretty well. Just kind of following my companion around, learning how to do stuff.  My companion and I get along great; no problems there. There's a twelve week program thing that he's taking me through that they put all new missionaries through. Basically it's going over things I learned in the MTC again and going over rules and things that are specific to this mission.

I've decided to never move to Texas just because of the weather. It's hot, muggy, and they have all sorts of pests and parasites. There are gangs of mosquitoes that hang around people's front porches and people get their houses invaded by cockroaches and bedbugs. We've only had problems with cockroaches and mosquitoes where we live, thankfully.

The people here are nice, though!

Everyone in Houston was outraged that their football team lost to the Seahawks a week ago. Football is a huge cultural thing here. The Seahawks are doing pretty good this year! 

The weather has cooled down now, since yesterday.  Feels like Washington in the summer now, which has killed off a lot of the mosquitoes. It's really nice.

It's funny that you mentioned family history online stuff, Mom, because a few days ago we went to the local library and helped out a bunch of oldsters with familysearch.org. I had never used it before, so I wasn't much help, but a surprising number of them knew how to use it well.

I enjoyed watching General Conference. I felt sad for Thomas S. Monson (how he was recently widowed); the stories he told about his wife were touching.

I have a fridge in the apartment, so I can make the pickled beans last :) Thank you for sending them soon! I haven't gotten any mail yet, but thanks!

I'm really sad to hear about our apple tree :(  It made great apples. [Note from Shari: our Gravenstein apple tree fell over in the last windstorm.]

That's awesome that "Jawn" Wainhouse got his mission papers in! You should give me his email, so I can write to him.

That's cool that Danielle is thinking about a mission. [Danielle is a cousin.]  We've got a lot of sister missionaries in our area who really enjoy it here.

You'll have to send me some pictures of Catriel's homecoming! :) That's exciting.

I love you Mom! Thanks for all you've been doing for me! Don't throw out your back gardening.

Love,

Elder Ben-Daniel Duffin