2007 March 14--Why there are no current photos on this blog...

About the camera, there is a sort of long and involved story about that. To say the least, it was stolen. But I will explain a little bit more..

Back when I was was with Elder Edgley, ( how I miss him) we were living in 67HA (the name of my current area) in the smallest house in the mission, in probably the dirtiest and roughest part of the mission. The house was a little less than half the size of Mica and Phil's house in Provo. Anyway, one night, as we got home from our last appointment, we noticed that our door was broken, and opened, and yes, we had been robbed. I'll admit it, I was the first to notice and my first words were, "Dammit!, we've been robbed!" It did make Elder Edgley realize something was amiss pretty quickly though. Anyway, we only lost money, and they broke some of my stuff, and completely trashed the place (which to me was absolute insult to injury, or lemon juice on the open wound, because I've been working so hard to be organized and earlier that day I had just gotten nice and tidy.) Mostly, it was just such an invasion of privacy, and an uneasy feeling. It made it worse when we were informed that we would not be reimbursed, but would get a loan so we could eat for the rest of the week, but we would have to pay it back. Furthermore, we had some pretty rough moments with our investigators that week. So we had a pretty rough week, but we made the most of it, and were able to joke and laugh and still have a great transfer.

Anyway, time passed, and I decided to leave out the robbery incident because I decided at the beginning of the mission to leave out a lot of the negative and otherwise unfortunate stories, so as not to leave the impression that I am having a miserable time, and so that I don't worry you (mostly mom) too much. For instance, I have left out the amount of times I have been clipped by fast moving cars since I've been here. Or how sometimes mean kids/teenagers throw rocks (once there was a tomato) at us as we pass and sometimes they're pretty good shots. Things like that. I decided to do that because, I don't really think you need to be bothered by stuff like that, and besides, you never need to worry about my safety because I am careful and I know that the Lord is looking out for us.

Anyway, time passed, and I informed the mission that the reinforcement they had put on the door was not enough--several times in fact--and that we either needed a new door, or a new house. So transfers came, and every week I went to the office and talked to the mission about what was being done. But nothing really happened. Then, one morning, we went with the president to look at a new house we had found. I took the opportunity to talk about the security situation again. I sort of got the impression that the house wasn't going to go through, and that they weren't really taking me seriously. So long story short, that very night, as Elder S and I were returning from a particularly long day, I came first to the door and Voila! You guessed it! our house had been broken into AGAIN. This time I said, " ah dang! we got robbed again!" (which is an improvement, so I figure the next time I get robbed, I'll say something like, "OH DEAR! we have been robbed. How unpleasant!" or something like that.) Elder S, however, had a lot more to say than just "Dammit!" ( although that word was of frequent usage.) He probably went through every curse in the book--it wasn't pleasant. I will not elaborate. All the while, I was pretty calm, just watching him break down. It was weird, I've never seen anyone so broken up about losing STUFF before. Anyway, This time, I lost more money, Both my cameras, and some other stuff (and they completely trashed all my stuff again--not my companions--sigh.) S lost his camera too, and a $4 alarm clock, but that was pretty much it. I will say this--getting robbed with Elder Edgley was A LOT more fun.

It was a bit rough. I'm really sorry about the pictures, the card was so huge, I just kept taking pictures and putting off saving them onto a cd. The film was full in the other camera as well. However, when I called the president to inform him of what had happened, I guess he felt a little guilty, so we should be getting at least some money back, so I can buy a camera here. I'll find out more about that today.

So now, we live in a 4 man house, or rather, a 2 man house with 4 people in it. But it's been great to be able to talk to someone else besides my companion, I'll admit.

I'm out of time, but I'll explain more next time. BUT, you don't need to worry about sending anything or doing anything. I'll take care of it. There will be a camera again.

If you were thinking about sending anything, it would be nice, but not absolutely needed, if you could send more music, especially the tribute cds. But I don't really even care. Yes, it's been a rough transfer. Definitely NOT a walk in the park, unless of course, while walking in the park, I was mugged and lost both my cameras, and my perpetual room mate was anybody like Elder S, then it has been very much like a walk in the park.

I've got some happier, funnier stories to tell in the coming weeks, but right now, I'm out of time, so until then, I love you I pray for you.
Veloma Elder Draper.