Monday, August 16th Letter

Hello Family,


Well, things are good here in Texas!!! We had our car back and were able to do so much more missionary work. I am getting more of the hang of this missionary thing and am not feeling as overwhelmed. I can do this. Yeah, it is hard, but I look forward to all the experiences and growth I will see in myself and others. Last P-day was great, because I actually got to breathe. It really helped to support my sanity. HA ha ha. Well here are some of the fun things that happened this week. I had my first experience with rain in Texas. We were out knocking doors, of course. It was around 95 degrees outside which means I was sweating. Because that is what you do on a mission, of course. That is probably the biggest difference I can see between the heat here and in Utah. You sweat more here because there is so much water in the air already. Well, we were knocking and out of the blue, the water just started pouring down. It was like someone had turned on a faucet of water. Just pouring in one second, literally. I felt like I had walked into a shower. You would think, "Great that will cool the temperature down." When we made it to the car, it still read 93 degrees. Ha ha ha, didn't cool it down at all. My trainer says that in the winter, it will make it cold when it rains but not in the summer. So I was wet all day. I think the reason it dumps so much water is because there is so much water in the air that when it rains it pours. None of it can evaporate. I understand that flash floods are possible now.

Also this week I had the opportunity to go on a exchange. This is where you switch companions for a day. One of you leaves the area while the other stays. I left the area. I went to an area we call Crosstimbers. It is in Houston. My temporary companion's name was Hermana Wardle. She has been out for 9 months. Her Spanish isn't as good as my trainer's. My trainer has been out for 9 months as well. But she does fine. It was a lot of fun. I got to see what a nice area we serve in here in the Woodlands. In Crosstimbers there are a ton of black people. Some hispanics but mostly blacks. The hispanics live in the area just north of this area more. We have nicknames for these areas. The area with more hispanics we call the Ghetto. The area I was in we call the Hood. The area is scarry. I would never never want to see any of my family living in conditions like this. Tons of houses are condemed. Walls are leaning in. Roofs are caving in. Huge gutters on both sides of the street because the sewer system is so bad. They just had a funeral for a youth who had been shot and killed when people just came into their house and robbed it. They didn't resist but they shot this youth anyway. He was a member. Bars on doors, windows, and fences. People think we are crazy to be out and about here. It is a very big gang area. You have the Bloods and the Crypts. These missionaries are serving on the Crypts land as they say. But gangs are nice to people of God as they call us. I really liked Hermana Wardle. She is very much like me. She says we will never be companions because we are too much a like and would have too much fun. So Mom, be grateful I am not in that area. I am in a very safe nice area.

Hasta proxima semana (Until next week)
Love you all,
Hermana Alaina Mills

P.S. Love the scriptures and read them!!!!