Week of February 25 2013: Varna!

Sorry for the incoherence/upset of last week. I think it was probably from just having come from a funeral (probably). But this week continued in its strange, slightly painful fashion, which was made stranger and more painful, but also more sweet by the fact that it was Sister Tate's last week, and 1) made me realize how awesome she is and how much I'll miss her and 2) how close I am to being in my last week, and how sad that is. Just reminded me of what Mom wrote to me and what is written on every upscale yuppie tea bag, Dove chocolate wrapper, and smooth pebble with writing on it: something something about living in the moment, enjoying the moment, not thinking about the future too much.

I found out on Friday that I will be moving to Varna next transfer. Those of you who are regular fans of this story will remember that I was there a year ago as a new missionary, and then another mini-transfer after that, making this my third time in Varna. And I love it there! I am really, really happy. It's kind of funny, but it feels like going home in a lot of ways. Most ways. Varna is where I have memories of understanding no one and nothing but loving everything, and maybe that's what I want to get back to being like again? Just in confused excitement and clueless? It was a good time. There are investigators and members there who I love a lot who I've always thought about and missed, my whole mission, and so it's really a sweet blessing to go back, even though I've come to love Ruse.

Interlude: I was writing some notes in our area book about people, members, etc. and wrote one about a friend of ours who I described as "very sweet, but flaky," and then realized the pie crust-implication of my description. Also, I recently saw a Coke truck that said "Trink Coke!" instead of drink, I suppose. Funny!

Another interlude: yes, I did remember that thought by writing "sweet blessing" and then realizing how silly "sweet blessing" sounds, like a brand of cake shaped like a Bible or something.

ANYWAY. The format of these letters needs to be switched up. So I'll do so by writing, instead of about events, etc., about PEOPLE! Whom I will miss.

There's a girl in Ruse who's best friends/kind of siblings with our new convert Svetlo, who's thirteen so I won't say her name in a scary public place. She's kind of wacky and out of control, if anyone's noticed the evidence on Facebook (and I haven't LOOKED, other people have just TOLD ME). She and Sister Tate and I have become a weirdly familial like kind of friends, in which she calls us "babo" (which is a vocative form of the word for "baba," grandma) and we also call her "babo". (This is a grammatical practice also in action with "mamo," or mom. It's kind of funny to hear kids call their moms, and then their moms call them "mom," back, but that's what it is.) I am addicted to parentheses, its seems. Anyway, the other day we had her and Svetlo teach us a lesson about the Restoration for practice/teaching is the best form of learning reasons, and it turned into Babo imitating me in all of my movements and expressions and wearing my tag, and then putting on my coat and pretending to make a fake missionary planner in her little notebook, and bossing us around and telling us she and her companion (he chose to be called Elder Randall Scott, in honor of a cowboy of some kind that I don't know) had another lesson. It was really cute and funny and awful (she also sprayed my coat with men's cologne). And it just made me realize how much I love her and want her to be a member and to grow up happily with the Gospel. She can't get baptized now because her parents are against it, but she wants to and talks about it constantly. Anyway.

Well, the gist of everything is that I'm happy, I'm going to Varna, and I will miss Ruse. And more and more, I realize how little time I have and how much of a blessing it is to be here. Corny corny balls. Oh well.

I love you all. Bam, i did get your package! Thank you so much! And Erin, thank you for the missive from the homeless shelter! And Dana, I'll talk to you soon! (In June?) And I want to recommend the following verse: Ether 12:27. So there.

Love, 

Sister Crundbeyell