1933-1-3: Leave Germany for England?

Minden i/Westf.
Hohestr. 2
January 3, 1933

Dear Mother and Dad,

At last I have gotten around to writing.  I have been putting it off for a week, thinking that I was going to get transferred but as yet nothing has happened.  I do expect something in the next week, however, so I'll be writing you again soon.

Yes, the holidays are over and I am glad of it.  I did have a very nice time this Xmas though.  I spent Christmas Eve with some of the saints here and had a jolly good time.  The following day, or Xmas, I was quite busy seeing that my program went off alright and naturally didn't have time to do any celebrating the first Christmas day (by the way they celebrate two days over here).  The next day however, I took my junior companion with me to Hanover where we took in a bit of Grand Opera.  "Lohengrin" was the opera.  We remained over night in Hover with the brethren there, Brother Huber and I sleeping on the couch.  The couch was made into a bed but it was so narrows that we could hardly sleep without rolling off.  I held it out until about one o'clock in the morning when I got up and got dressed and crawled up on a table and went to sleep.  That worked okay until in the wee hours of the morning when I had to crawl back in bed to get my feet warm.  In other words, I got little or no sleep that night.  We both spent our train-ride home sleeping.  During the week I was busy visiting all of the members and friends of the branch and taking care of a few odds and ends on my reports.  New Years wasn't very exciting here, that is, as far as I know.  My companion and I and Brother Voss took in a show in the afternoon and that was about the height of our entertainment of the day.  By the way, Brother Voss was one of the brethren that came on a mission with me.  He happens to be here on a visit and is only the second one of my gang, out of twelve, that I have seen since I have been here.  Well, I guess that takes care of my doings and whereabouts for the past two weeks.

How did you spend the holidays??  I received an excellent letter form mother Xmas morning.  By the way, that letter had quite a fragrant odor to it and I had a hard time convincing everyone that it wasn't from my girl.  Yes, it seems that everyone timed their letters just right, I received them all Christmas morning.  To settle the matter of whether I have been receiving everything that has been sent me, I'll say yes (including money).  To keep me from having to write so many letters will you please tell the Harrisons that I appreciated the tie, and also tell Mary Cobb that the candy was delicious.  I have so much correspondence to take care of that I've got to pile it off onto someone else.  Your cake also went the way of all cakes.  In two days, there wasn't anything left to be seen of it.  The Cook family sent me a nice Christmas card with 10 dollar bills in it which is the third ten dollars that I have received from them since coming on a mission.  Evidently they are interested in my welfare or they have a wonderful missionary spirit.  I will have to write them in the next two or three days I guess.  Say, who is this Mary Walker Thomas that gave you $5 for me.  Not knowing who she is or where she lives, I'll write her a letter of appreciation and put it in with y our and you can give it or send it to her.  To the others, I'll send my letters direct.  The Layton Ward Relief Society President wrote me a few greetings in behalf of the society and informed me that they were also sending me a gift.  As yet I haven't received the same.

You wrote that you have sent in notice to have me transferred to England.  I hope that the request therein contained was only for the last four or five months of my mission.  As a matter of fact, I have been losing a lot of sleep about the matter lately and can't quite come to the conclusion as to whether it is the right thing or not.  At first I thought it might be a blessing of the Lord to help me do Genealogy work there, but then when I come to think about it, I won't have time to do any such work until after my  mission is at end.  Of course the Lord might bring the matter about because my patriarchal blessing cites that I'll beg doing such work.  Here, however, are the things to be taken into consideration.  Without a doubt I would have to forfeit a good mission, that is as far as mission work is concerned I would be able to make  lot more experiences here than in England.  And then comes the problem of the language; although I would become better acquainted with my own tongue I would at the same time depreciate in the German tongue and I expect to receive credit for my language in college.  Then when one takes the money proposition into consideration, it would take about fifteen dollars more to my monthly allowance to keep me there in England.  The fact that Germany is short on missionaries also makes me think that my calling was to the German Mission.  To wind the whole matter up in a few words, though, what you have undertaken in this respect is okay by me because the Lord has guided me so much in my work here that I deem all that takes place in the latter part of my mission is to my benefit.  I have often thought of the matter turning out that I finish my mission in Germany and then go to England for about two or three months on a mission. 

So Earle won't let himself be called a flunky anymore.  Well, more power to him.  I wouldn't mind having one of those little pink cards myself.  (Herein! the mail man just came and brought me RM13.00, my Relief Society present).  Say, will you please let me know how much duty you had to pay on that table cover that I sent you?

I reckon as how I can sit down and finish this letter now.  I just ran over to the customs house and received a package from Ruth Brinkerhoff.  The package contained a lot of nuts and Candy etc.

Well, seeing as how I haven't anything more to write I'll sign off.  Tell Myrtle and her family that I send greetings.

Lots of love,
Clarence

Grant wrote that he can't come over.