Bad Week for Biking

So it's the last week of the transfer. We get calls on Friday then transfers are Monday, so send any mail to the mission office this week. Not sure if I’m staying or not and that would be best to avoid what happened last transfer. I had to wait like, 2 weeks to get the mail that was sent. Better safe than sorry.

Been a good week. Taught 22 lessons, the most in the zone. There are 12 companionships, and we had the most!

It’s been a bad week for bikes though. It’s been pretty warm, between 35-50 this week. It’s only when the sun isn’t out that it gets cold. We’re hoping for a white Christmas, but we'll see if that happens or not.

I clipped a mailbox with my handlebars as I was riding by and took a fall. Luckily I fell into a flowerbed and landed in dirt vs. the cement, but it still hurt a bit. It was about a week ago now and my knee is still popping pretty often. Think we're going to a chiropractor later tonight who can look at it and tell me everything's ok w/ it.

Elder Crosby took a pretty hard fall. He was standing on his bike signaling we were turning and squeezed his front brake a little too hard. He went tumbling over his handlebars and his bike just followed him. He caught it before it landed on him though. We were turning into church parking lot and there were some cars pulling out, so he had a little audience and got up and bowed. I was terrible, I just laughed. I was always behind him and just laughed. Should have checked first, I know, but I couldn’t help it. He was fine though. Chipped his helmet and gave him a shiner on his knee, but that's it.

Caught my pants in the chain too. Didn’t make me crash or anything, but ripped the seam a little bit. Pretty rough weeks for bikes, wouldn’t you say?

So I get to Skype home Sunday!!!! We have video capabilities, so find a camera. I’m super excited to see everyone! It’s only been 3 months, but I miss all of you. Crazy how time flies right?

Saturday (Dec 24^th) will be my 100 day mark, not that I’m counting or anything... it goes by so fast.

Jump started my 1st car this week. A person we are visiting had a dead car, and as we were pulling up she was pushing it into her driveway. We showed up and helped her jump start it. Cars are heavy and it was only a little one... I had to push it alone cuz of everything else we had to do to get it ready, everyone else was busy. I would have been able to do it if I could have gotten traction. These shoes don’t have the best traction. I would push, the car would move, then I would slip and it would roll right back. 

I’ve been feeling sick again lately, and it feels worse. I’ve been waking up feeling just drained and needing more sleep. I don’t know what it is, but in the morning I feel like throwing up and like I need more sleep, but it usually goes away around lunchtime. I’ve thrown about the same number of times in the last month than I did the whole time we were in Simi (it's only been twice, I’m not throwing up all the time, so don’t freak out). Just something I wish would get better. I think it's just from riding a bike and being in the cold all day.

Well, don’t know what else to say. That’s pretty much the highlights of the week. Been writing in my journal almost every day. Counted it out, and I’ve missed 11 days of writing the entire time I’ve been out. I’ve told you most of the stories, but there's always something I forget or just don’t mention, so maybe I’ll let you read those when I get back. We’ll see.

Hope everything's still going well. Glad to hear the roof is done and you're on cleanup.

Exciting to hear my plaque is up!

Love,

Elder Blomquist

Almost forgot...

Elder Crosby should be calling you sometime on Saturday to set it all up. My guess is it'll be in the evening sometime, but not sure exactly what's going on. I know we're bouncing around different families with our zone leader (whose companion went home last Saturday), so not sure what's all happening. Hopefully I won’t be sick this year. It’s been pretty bad recently, so keep me in your prayers that I won’t get sick.  (For several years in a row, he has been sick on Christmas Eve.  I has become a family joke that we just expect it will happen. But, this year, please keep him in your prayers so that he won't be sick.)

More stuff I forgot = P ...

They asked us to speak yesterday. Our topic was service, something I’m a tad familiar with. We were speaking at a missionary homecoming (the 3rd of this transfer, and there's another one coming home next week... 4 missionaries coming home this transfer). But the meeting was running late. There was a baby blessing, and about a million people at sacrament meeting, so it was 11:40 by the time we started speaking. Since it was a homecoming, they asked us if we could keep it short to give him more time. Both of us prepared 7-8 minute talks, but ended up having us both done in 5 minutes. Had to really condense that talk. But it was still good. We both hit all the points we wanted to, just in less time and with less detail.