August 8, 2011

Dear Family,

I know I emailed you today but let’s see if I can cram some more in here. My district has 6 companionships. 4 are going to Argentina! Huzzah! And the other two are headed to the Dominican Republic. They will be gone in a couple of weeks to finish studying at the Dominican Republic MTC.

I saw Todd Bushman here! I thought he would be gone but he has been here for some 11 weeks now since he is learning Finnish. He told me that Spencer is finally used to walking outside and seeing naked black people walking around.

Shannon-I must say that that is a pretty good line! Miss partying with you. Live it up a little for me especially when you get to Boulder. Also if you start dating anyone tell him to write me.

Alex-Everyone does stupid things that you said bothered you so much! My first lesson my companion asked the brand new investigator to pray. I love the guy but it was so awkward and of course she said no. I pointed out that in PME it says you should not do that, very nicely. Your advice is worth more than Gold to me now. I just wish I could use all of it at once, not to mention speak the language.

Xavy-Love you! Keep doing crazy stuff even though you have stopped doing gymnastics. I miss your awesome ideas. NO one here is as interesting as you. I want to read all four of your books when I get back.

Gabby-Miss you buddy! There are no cute little girls here. No crying though! And this goes for all of you: You all need to be happy about my mission! I hope that you all are blessed because of this.

Elder Green

I love you all so much!

Oh! I got a dear Elder from you guys today! Did you send this today?! That’s fast!

Thank you for sharing your scripture insights with me! I really enjoy letters like this one. I do feel like I have aged a lot in one week. I am now “experienced”. The new Elders came in yesterday. It was so fun to sit by them at dinner and tell them about the MTC. We don’t have any new elders in our zone though unfortunately so we are still being called newbies.

To tell the truth me and my companion intimidate the older guys a bit which is actually unfortunate because we are not trying to and it’s bad for my companion’s pride. It has something to do with this new “baptism by fire” program they have. Our teachers almost always speak in Spanish now. Also me and my companion are picking up the Spanish fast because we have been around it.

Looking forward to hearing more from you guys! Thanks for the encouragement!

--Jak…

Let’s try again…

--Elder Green