Texas Weeks 5 & 6; Originally written 7/11/2010

Dear fam,

Yesterday we went to a barbecue with the people from my work. I was expecting there to be hamburgers and hot dogs, but I was wrong. We ate dove wrapped in bacon and then there were sausages made with deer. Turns out deer tastes like pork. Lucky for us, we got to bring home some left-over sausage.

For the 3rd of July, we helped out with the ward breakfast. Before we ate there was a bike parade around the church, which we understood everyone interprets to be a race. The bishop had all the kids line up with their decorated bikes and then started telling the kids the rules, like how to go around the church parking lot to the other side. I was a little bit confused when he said “This is not a race” and then later shouted “Ready, get set, go!” All the kids started pedaling as fast as they could, except the kids in nursery that didn’t know what was going on. Their parents pushed them as they sat on their plastic fire trucks. I expect next year they’ll figure out what to do and soon will become tough competition.

I got to teach the 11-year-old primary class today. I was shocked that both of the boys knew details about the story of Samson that I didn’t know until reading the lesson last night. I guess not opening the Old Testament is more of a Utah thing. I only remember stuff at the end of the OT about robbing the Lord with tithes and turning hearts to different family members.

Hope y’all have a great two weeks. I’m going to tear up a lion.

Love,
Brad


Hello family,

I love Girl’s Camp. I have now been to Girl’s Camp in 3 states and 2 countries. I think that this was my favorite because our cabins were clean and AIR CONDITIONED! The weather was good and surprisingly there were hardly any mosquitoes. I was in charge of the crafts and helping out with my ward. One of the other ward leaders turned out to be a girl from my freshman ward at BYU! Now we are all grown up, graduated, married, and in College Station, Texas. Small Mormon world.

As you probably know, Texas is allowed to fly the state flag at the same height as the American flag. Never before have I seen so many state flags flying. Most people in other states don’t even know what their state flag looks like. At camp there were some chairs with stars on them , and the YW were excited to see Texas stars on the chairs. You know, those were just regular 5 pointed stars. They could have been any kind of star, but here in Texas, pride runs deep and those were most definitely Texas stars.

This week I got together with another young married girl in our ward. We ate a yellow watermelon that she bought from a fruit stand by the side of the road. It tasted just like red watermelon, but it was yellow. So now I’ve eaten locally grown Texas produce. A good cultural experience.

I’m getting a little bit tan. With skin cancer in my family history, this is probably not a good thing.

Love, Amanda

P.S. Yesterday we discovered that our carpet is damp. The verdict: Our air conditioning is leaking. Maintenance is on top of it so we have a giant industrial fan blowing on our carpet now. It’s still really wet, though. I’m glad we are only subleasing.