Letter #2

Thanks for the note dad, I can understand she's busy in Texas. That's where I'll be soon and I've been asking for lots of patience from everybody else. By the way, to everybody, the BP told us only to write letters on P-Days, not at night, or at any breaks, so that's what I'm doing so the letters from me will probably be a bit scarce to be honest, but obedience bring blessings! Angie, I now know the importance of writing little notes down on stuff you can write about during the week, so on P-Days, you know what experiences you wanted to share. First, right off the back I realized I hadn't told you anything about my companion. His name is Elder Hunt, he's from West Jordan and is 21, or 22, can't remember. He's really great! I've grown to love him! After I talked with the BP, just with learning how to cope with missionary stresses and stuff, he said that he's fully convinced of the divine intervention that occurs when calling missionary companionships. He said I should try my hardest to see his short comings, as well as my own, and help each other get past those to be the best missionaries we can be. Right now, he's super, I mean really super duper new to the Book of Mormon(BoM). Also to teaching and to the church in general. This really frustrated me at first until I talked with the BP. I realized that my patience will grow huge amounts while I'm with him, as well as I will definitely get better at teaching. When we study, most of it is us going through preach my gospel, studying the scriptures associated with each section, and writing down impressions or stuff we would like to remember and discuss with each other when we're done. I'm getting better at teaching because that's what I'm doing when we study. He's new to this and so he doesn't know much so I get to share what I have with him, and it's great to see him get excited when I explain cool principles to him. Like, the scripture in Ezekial, I think chapter 3, that prophecies about the BoM by talking about the Stick of Judah and Stick of Joseph becoming one book in the lords hands. When I showed him that he immediately wanted to go share it with the elders in our district. So it's great!

Another thing: Thank you all for your letters and PLEASE keep them coming! Especially your letter dad, I loved hearing from you and your insights on the mish! People will never understand how amazing letters are until you're on a mission and that's the only means of communication between you and the ones you love! That's why I've gotten so many and feel so blessed. In my District I'm known as the missionary that gets the most mail, because I do! I'm blessed with a family that has both parents and 3 older sibilings with spouses, (except for Brad) that have all served missions. That's 7, yeah, 7 people in our family that have served, so I get lots of letter because they know how it feels when you get a letter! THANK YOU CROWLEY'S!!!!!! Thanks for the Banana Bread! I got it yesterday and was so thrilled when I saw the loaf in the box! I get the chills just thinking about it. I picked it up just before dinner, so I didn't each much of it at that time, but throughout that night I'd grab it and take a big bite out of it. It was gone in 6 hours! So delicious!

So we went to the TRC (not sure what that stands for) this last tuesday and it went so so amazing! I taught the majority of the lesson with Elder Hunt sharing his testimony and scriptures with the investigator! That's how it'll have to be for the time being, but he's got such a strong testimony! We both brought the spirit and our investigator was excited to have us back this next tuesday to teach him about seeing him wife that's passed away, again! I left the room on cloud 9 just as happy as I can be! I love teaching! If I'm prepared, it's such a rush that not a lot of things can duplicate! I always freak out when I'm thinking about going in to teach, but once I'm in there I get so comfortable and it just feels great!

So the temple is today! I can not wait! I haven't been to the temple to do a session in a month I think! Before I left we would go do baptisms, so I'm excited to talk to my heavenly father in the Celestial room for the first time in a while! I LOVE MY DISTRICT! It's sad though. We had one sister go home a couple days ago, not sure why, and another elder who has splits and fissures in his meniscus in his knee due to an excercise at the gym. Hopefully he'll be able to recover without going home! The elders I'm rooming with are like my brothers! I love them to DEATH! The other night, we were laying in bed, just talking, around 10:40, and I said, "Ya know elders, we should do a chant when we're done praying like, YA TEXAS (I said it super cheesy!) My comp. then said, "Wait I know, we can cheer, HOUSTON TEXANS!!!, Oh wait, that's a football team!" Now I know that doesn't sound funny, but we were laughing our head off for 20 minutes until the ZLs came and knocked on our door to tell us to keep it down! Man, that was the funniest moment I've had since being here!

On Tuesday, (gosh I can't believe that was 2 days ago! I agree with Alec and Payden! The days here can sometimes take a long time to get through, but once it's done, they all mesh together and go by really fast! It's some sort of time warp thing! Today, Thusday, got here so so fast! It's incredible!) anyways, On Tuesday we had a member of the seventy, Elder Duncan come speak to us! So awesome! His main message was to never think any of your efforts go wasted! You may never see the fruits of your labors, but trust me, they're there! It was a fantastic talk, although I had a hard time concentrating because of the discomfort I was experiencing from the chairs! I love all of you to death! Thanks for the letter and KEEP THE FAITH!