But my lips hurt real bad!

The man walked onto the grassy field with a slow, confident gait. He paused for a moment, earning a grunt from one of the two men ringing his shoulders, but his guards had been trained well. They would do their job no matter how erratic his movement. His attention now fell on the boys- dozens upon dozens of adolescent males standing somberly, forming a perimeter of sorts around the small field. Anticipation hung in the air so that it was almost palpable—the man could feel it radiating from the youths. He strode forward once more, resuming his calculated pace, his two guards still closely by his side. As he stepped into the ring of boys the wind picked up, sending ripples through his large feather headdress. He couldn't help but smile to himself—“to these young men, this ceremony is more than just a show," he thought, "This is the beginning of their lives." With that thought, he began his route, closely walking in front of each boy, making a point to look each one in the eye—to make them shudder as they returned his gaze. And then, without warning, he shot his hands out, bringing them down hard on the shoulders of the nearest youth. He slammed his hands down again and again, and let fly from his lips one word- a bellow that rang through the circle like a spring avalanche through a canyon... "YOU!!!!"

-A dramatic retelling of the Order of the Arrow selection ceremony

I don't know why I started the letter like that. You can attach some deeper meaning if you would like.

Well, enough with that. I'll get to the actual stuff now.

Transfers are happening this week. It was definitely not what I expected. Our zone was blown up, even more so than it was last transfer. My companion is leaving for San Francisco, and I'm staying here in Hayward. The actual transfer day is tomorrow, so I'm still with 康长老 for today. Fun fact, though, I will, in fact, be the short companion for this upcoming transfer. It's odd how they choose the tallest missionaries to serve in the Mandarin program.

Well, pretty much nothing else happened this week, so bye.

-BR

Just kidding.

Stuff actually did happen this week.

We taught another lesson with May. It pains me to say it, but she's not really progressing that much. She seems to like meeting with us, though, so hopefully we can get her to do stuff. She's been coming to church, though, and our members have done a really good job of fellowshipping her, so hopefully they can help her to keep commitments.

Some more exiting news, Geng Fei was baptized yesterday! In case you don't remember, he's the one who we taught a few times a few weeks back with the Oakland sisters. I would like to say that the baptism was a stirring spiritual experience (honestly, it probably was), but we were unable to attend, due to the fact of the baptism being scheduled IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR BRANCHES SACRAMENT MEETING!!! We were so exited to attend, and we had secured permission from our mission president to go up to Oakland for it, and then... *sigh* Our branch meets from 10:00-12:00, and the baptism was at 11:30. So there was no physical way to make it. woe is us.

We had another round of exchanges this week, and I had the great burden of having to, once again, be our driver for the day. It's truly tragic, the things I have to go through. I was with the companion of our district leader, and we had a good time. He got to experience the most wild English class of my young life. It was a madhouse. I felt like I was in a kindergarten classroom. Let's just say that at one point, two of the students were making fun of another student because she can't speak Cantonese, and then they started speaking Cantonese to each other so that she couldn't understand, and then they were laughing at her. I had no idea how to deal with the situation, so luckily it calmed down pretty quickly on it's own. It sure was weird, though, having a bunch of 70+ year-old Chinese women do that. Pretty funny, I might add.

Well, this week was, as I mentioned before, pretty standard (as all weeks seem to be), so that's about all of note that I can think of.

It's been fun.

See Ya

-Benny the Bet Bith

P.S. My new companion was also trained by my trainer, so we're pretty much brothers.

P.P.S. We've been competing with the Jehovah's Witnesses lately. It seems like we're always trying to tract the same areas. I have started a collection of pamphlets from them that we find.

P.P.P.S. "Heh, goggles."