Torn Something or Other

Elder Bailey,

Sounds like an adventure to me! I wish there were some way to record some of these testimonies you share with us. They get me laughing just reading about them. I'm sure viewing them would be on par with From J to K.

As for Elder King, I too had a couple special assignments with companions like that, or had to deal with them in my zone, and the best thing for them is work! Work, work, work! So it's great that you've already got investigators coming to church and lessons to teach. The worst thing for a depressed and discouraged missionary is tracting and slamming doors and things like that. Although, with the right sense of humor, those things can be fun too. Anyway, I'm sure you're doing what you can - President Gingery didn't give King to just anyone...

California is going through some rough times right now. Northern California, anyway. Snow storms have brought everything to a halt up there, and the rain down here brings things to a halt too, oddly enough. For four days straight, all local news coverage has focused on nothing but rain, and the puddles that rain makes, and the water that runs down the gutters from the rain, and how rain makes for disastrous driving conditions and imminent death for all who leave near hills which will inevitably turn into mountainous mud slides. It's all pretty funny, considering I just came from Wyoming, where this drizzle and 60 degree weather would be considered quite mild, and was a lot like the stuff that prompted us to take our shirts off during track practice! It's pretty amazing, what people are used to, and what others adapt to.

My arm is in a sling right now from a snowboarding mishap in Steamboat, Colorado. I thought I had totally figured out the snowboarding thing - I had been going down black diamonds earlier that day - but I had yet to learn a very important lesson: flat areas can be the most dangerous, but you're not forced to be on the edge of your board. Instead, the board wobbles around on its flat bottom, and any shift of weight can stick the edge into the snow at the wrong time and send you flying. And that's what it did to me. It shot me straight down into the hard-packed snow, and the impact with my shoulder tore the Anterior Chromial Something-or-Other. Of the three degrees of tears, mine is the least serious, so I don't need surgery. I just have to have my arm in this sling for another week or so, and supposedly, it'll heal right up!

Other than that, things are great! Frannie got back from Canada yesterday (she was there for an international marketing competition), and I was as happy to see her as I used to be when we had to go months without seeing each other. For four days, I stayed in our apartment alone, cleaning, writing, playing guitar, and watching football. And as great and fun as that was, I couldn't wait for her to come back. It was a joyous reunion, and we celebrated by watching the premier of the new American Gladiators (a resurrection of the classic show from the early 90's), and boy was it fantastic. It's gotta be my favorite show on television right now. Hulk Hogan is the host.

Well...Have fun, and keep up the good work! Can't wait to see you in a few...

Love,
Steven Davey