Email Received October 27, 2009

I have found my immunization records. (I'm sorry I made you look for them. I had them on hand when I walked in here, and they were misplaced in the initial confusion.) The confused dates have been confirmed, and all is well... at least until they decide I need more shots. (swine flu might be publicly available before I leave...)

Hna. Perez is from an LDS family; she has three brothers and two sisters (on brother-sister is a pair of twins) and one of her brothers is also serving a mission stateside. She is from Lewiston (ID, of course) and has already spent two years studying political science at BYU. She has juvenile diabetes, which
would be insignificant except that it means we get to have a fridge in our room. she's a soccer girl, and loves being physically active. Her favorite thing to wear is athletic shorts and t-shirt with sandals.

Things are going well here. Spanish no longer eats me for breakfast too often, and I'm learning a lot about the gospel.

Today I get to escort Hna. Galnzer (a solo sister in our zone) out to the Outside World for a doctor appointment. if she passes her examination today, she will be able to finally leave the MTC. (She has been here 12 weeks, as opposed to the usual 8-9 for Spanish speaking.)

The thing I'm enjoying most right now is choir. Even though I can't realy read sheet music, I'm a decent soprano, and a pretty good 2nd soprano. In order to go, however, I need to split with Elders Nielson y & Condie. now they haven't left me behind yet, but it's not for lack of trying.

I have not been getting enough sleep. A good night averages 6-6.5 hours, and a bad one 1-2. While I can function on six, I knew that if I did not get more, I would wear out within a month. I went to the medical services, and they prescribed me something that should help... an anti-depressant discovered in the
'70s that has been repurposed in the last 10 years as a sleep aid. there’s a 5% chance it will do nothing for me, (although from the number of unusual drug reactions in the family, I bet my chances are a little higher) and unlike other sleep aids, there is no increased chance of sleepwalking or other weird side
effects, which is why the Dr. Brown recommended it. (the list is grogginess and dry mouth. Isn't dry mouth associated with every single pill on the face of the planet? I've never heard of one without that side affect.) for some reason he finds the notion of sleepwalking missionaries upsetting. (I totally agree.) I get
my prescription today, and will take my first dose tonight.

One more thing. evidently, when I went in for that psych evaluation, I was diagnosed with temporary anxiety, and I'm being watched and evaluated for that as well. (I think they have me come in once every month, or something.) aside from the sleep thing, they believe I'm doing  splendidly.

The food here is too rich and I've put on weight very fast (only 7 pounds... so relax!). I'm exercising harder to make up for it, with limited success (It's not the weight I'm worried about, but my clothes. I really don't want to buy new ones.) I'm actually enjoying it. without the rushing "do this many reps in 5 minutes!!
hurry!) I fell much more comfortable just sitting and doing 50 crunches or so. I guess I'm just not a fast person.

Tell Caedy I got her letter, and that I miss her very much. tell her that I think her friends are easily impressed, because I'm much better now. I'll try to send her a dragon to show them. 

Give Tsuki a hug, and tell Myr to put my lava lamp BACK.