It would seem logical to ask: Why all this ado about Susie? If you are talking about my former friend Susie, with whom I often played the "Authors" card game, then you should know that we are really not that close. We are not related, obviously, even though in childhood we often called each others' parents 'Aunt' and 'Uncle' as was customary on the mission field. However, now that we are back home, in case you did not notice, I can take a boatload of hints that Susie, MK-El Salvador, has a lot more important priorities than staying in touch with insignificant me, just another MK-El Salvador whose family came too late to be regarded with the pioneer status accorded to the earlier missionaries, the cut off being somewhere around 1965. Thus, the Nicodemus family, who left only a year after we came and spent most of the rest of their lives in Mexico, are more important as pioneers than are we. Thus, the Williams family who were there in the 1930s and are mostly dead now are more important than us Johnny-come-latelies. As the maid Chavelita said, our family was part of the "second wave" of missionaries, which means that something changed after we left and whatever it was that happened, a revisionist look at missions history combined with a lot of other factors, meant that suddenly I became the equivalent of a pariah or leper to somebody.
On the other hand, if you are talking about my Dad's cousin, Susie, actually Suzanne Bates although called Susie in the diaries, who has gone on to be with the Lord, you are revealing your complete ignorance and also your illegal and inappropriate use of stolen diary excerpts circulating on the black market. Ok, so diaries of this kind are public domain. Even so, I doubt that Max and Ophelia would appreciate it if we were to somehow obtain diaries of their great-grandparents and were using these items to stereotype and badger them in regards to their hidden family histories so I am sure you can all appreciate how we deeply resent the Yearys' and others' misuse of the diaries and abuse of us for no apparent reason other than they have some ancient axe to grind of which we are not aware, not that I would ever have a chance to address their Scandinavian wickedness so directly.
Anyway, perhaps you thought the two Susie's were the same person because obviously you do not know anything about us and are only baiting (or is it "Bating"?) me to talk and fill in all of the blank spaces in your empty head. My Dad always did worry that I would end up as fat as Susie if I did not watch my weight. Both Susies are extremely overweight and have a serious obesity problem so either Susie would fit in that picture even if the number of excess poundage is greater in one case than in the other. Go out to dinner with Susie and you will be shocked to see her eat enough food for two or three people plus dessert. Really!
However, there are differences between the two Susies. One Susie attended an AG college but later turned Baptist and works for them. The other Susie, my Dad's cousin, attended a Methodist college (USC) and yet always attended an Assemblies of God church.
Both Susies lived in San Diego at one time or another although my Dad's cousin lived most of her life in San Diego while that other Susie now lives in Lake Forest.
Both Susies visited us in El Salvador. One Susie was an MK there. However, my Dad's cousin was only there for a few days. She arrived in the country with only our post office box number and took a taxi to the downtown post office where she was somehow obtain our address to get to our house. We are not sure how she was able to bribe the post office officials. Very clever.
Both Susies are known to another of my Dad's cousins, the trashy pagan Elizabeth Hunt who was an MK in Venezuela. We were all together at the MK Retreat in Oklahoma.
Elizabeth is an obvious example of a clueless missionary kid who never did understand what it means to be a Christian. Elizabeth is not someone whose existence matters to me at all. I heard that she converted to Judaism but that just proves that she never really understood anything and cannot be taken seriously. Obviously we are not anti-Jewish but also we found something better, Christianity, so there would no reason to go back there. I do hope that she gets saved someday but I cannot waste too much energy thinking about a distant cousin when I have my own life to live. I have to trust that Jesus will take care of those crazy clueless people who got things all mixed up because I just do not have the energy to straighten out their heads even if I were given the opportunity and obviously those people would never be give me the opportunity to tell them anything anyway. Just because I do not agree with Elizabeth, that does not make me a "Bloody Mary" Queen in any sense of that word nor can I be classified as Catholic regardless of what clueless Tom might say. Obviously, I am the redhead in this picture, not Elizabeth, so the analogy breaks down immediately.
