Homeless

Dear Family,

    So there were alot of you that asked about the whole new apartment situation and I figured it would be best to start with that.  Good news is that yes we moved out of Larry's.  Bad news is that we don't actually have an apartment.  Larry kinda kicked us out last Tuesday, so technically I have been "homeless" the past week. haha The story is that just as I told all of you we'd been advised by the mission president to look for possible apartments in the area fro a couple weeks.  Elder Russell would always say that he wanted to tell Larry because he felt like we were going behind his back.  So Tuesday morning 5 minutes into our Personal study Larry came in our room and said that we needed to get ahold of President Howell because there was a "situation".  His step son, Greg, who lives in the house too was going to be having his 2 kids, a girl that's 14 and a boy who's 17, move in because there have been several problems at their Mom's.  So Larry said we need to ask President Howell to be out by the end of the month.  Well Elder Russell saw this chance and before thinking about how to present it or filtering responses in his head he tells him, "actually that's already in the process for the last couple weeks because the situation just doesn't work here".  Right as the words came out I was just thinking,"No!  Bring it back'  and since it had already been said and couldn't I tried desperately to think of a way to recover anything I could with the conversation.  By that point it was already too late.  The switch within Larry had been flipped and it was something I saw happen right before me on his face.  At that point he started yelling, "Oh well that's funny that the situation just doesn't work for you two!  Everyone else has seemed to love it here!  Nobody else ever had any problems here.  You're the only ones there's been any problems or conflicts with, and you know what you've never really meshed or fit in here anyway!  We try to make accommodations because you live away from home, but apparently neither one of you has had that situation before! (I'm not even entirely sure what he meant by that statement either) So maybe the problem is with you two and you need to ask yourselves what's wrong with you!"  and he just stormed out.  I was in shock.  Just left in a daze like what the heck just happened.  I tried to follow him into the front room and explain, "Brother Smith it's not that we haven't appreciated all you've done or anything like that.  We've enjoyed living here.  They just move missionaries.  There not meant to be in one place for a long time".  But as I'm trying to explain he just screams, "I don't need to hear any of this from you!  I've got things to do today" and he left.  Pretty crazy I know but that's what went down Tuesday.  So after that we called the Zone Leaders who told us to call President and once we explained it to him he just told us, "Elders pack your stuff".  And that's exactly what we did.  We packed everything and smashed all we could in the Toyota Corolla before having to call Steven, our Branch Mission Leader, to come help fit some boxes of supplies and our bikes in his car.  We had to then drive to Rochester to meet with President Howell because lucky enough for us he was there that day doing a training for the district leaders.  We both had to be interviewed and he was going to have us live with a couple other Elders in Rochester but Steven volunteered their basement.   It's kinda funny and crazy at the same time, but don't worry we've been staying in the basement of our Branch Mission Leaders parents home in Byron.  The city right next to the Kasson and it's been just fine.  The Josephsons have been great to stay with and have been really hospitable to us to let us come in at the last minute.  It's kinda funny that for 2 years I'm somewhat living out of suitcases and this week I literally have been.  I haven't gotten to unpack much because they don't have room and we didn't know how long we'd be there for sure.  The Hida bed (or however you spell it) that Elder Russell's been sleeping on and my air mattress I sleep on take up most of the room.  I'm sending some pictures hopefully if there's time at the end of this so you can see it.  If not I'll send them next week.  So I thought I should share this nice growing experience I've had this week with you all and let you hopefully get a laugh out of it like I have.  Along with this though is a disclaimer that I might not be writing people back for awhile because they've been holding all our mail at the mission home since Tuesday.  I was able to go by the house and get the letter from Dad talking about his new job and iPhone, but that's it.  I look forward to getting your letters sometime hopefully this week when we move in.  It's going to be the best mail day of the mission so far when they have to send it all and I get a boat full of it.  I'm pretty excited about that!  haha  
   
     Well that's about it and all I have to talk about this week  We have heard everyone talking about that earthquake and tsunami so we have been praying alot for those people.  It looks like I don't have time to attach the pictures this week, so hopefully I can next week with even more pictures of our 3rd apartment that we might have by then. haha I love you all and miss you so much!! Thank you for the support and prayers!  Sorry I can't write each of you individually again.  I guess you'll all just have to deal with hand written letters from me this week! :)

Love, Alex