Missionary Snail Mail Updates

Dec. 2, 2009
Dear Mom and Dad,
How are you both doing? I hope you are both doing well. I just had a chance to e-mail you a couple of days ago about my crazy stay with Elder Ako in the hospital here. I stayed again the night I e-mailed you and the next morning he got discharged. He got to go back to the zone leader's house and shower. It was the first time he got to shower or shave in 4 days so he was pretty nasty. As soon as we were both done showering we went to the zone conference which had already started. We got there towards the end of the zone leaders' training. We were sad we missed it. We did get to see all of President Dowdle's training which was great. He did a big thing on the Book of Mormon and about the prophets who saw Christ. We only covered a few of the early ones but what he showed us that the prophets wrote was amazing. President has such a deep knowledge of the scriptures and I love hearing him explain things.
We got another Book of Mormon challenge to complete in the next few months.This time we will read through and highlight 1) the life, mission, and power of Jesus Christ 2)Doctrine of the Atonement 3)Doctrine of the Plan of Salvation 4)doctrine of the gathering of Israel. I am looking forward to doing this challenge and finding out more about these doctrines. I know this challenge is going to get me pumped up to get out and work and give me a stronger testimony.
So in other news, I am back out on Romonnum again. Elder Ako will leave tomorrow for Guam for medical issues and will be there about a week. Elder Ulmer is coming to stay with me. He is a good guy and we get along well. He is assigned to Tonoas but there are problems there and so the missionaries will not be able to live in the Tonoas house for awhile. I may or may not have told you, but right as I left Tonoas the septic tank started leaking and when it rains the "contents" come up to the surface. It has now gotten really bad and a new tank needs to be put in. It is going to be a while before it is fixed. But it has worked out well as Elder Ulmer can come and stay with me and I can be back on Romonnum. Elder Ako should be back in a week or two at the most and things can return to normal.
I got two packages from grandpa Bob and Grandma Helen before we headed back out to our islands. One was a food package which I always love and the other was full of Christmas TREATS! I can't believe it is almost Christmas already. It feels like summer here. I miss the snow and all the fun leading up to it.
I still haven't gotten the package that Tori sent out a few weeks back. It must have gotten caught up in customs or something. Hopefully it comes soon. I miss hearing from them. It has been 4 months now. I know they are trying though.
I received a couple of letters from you this week and I'll respond to those a little. First I'll address dad's. My study has been doing great and it is probably my favorite part of the day. I have read the book of Mormon twice through and I am up to section 93 in the Doctrine and Covenants. I have not spent too much time just reading because I always find a topic to study and then I do that for a while. I have been fascinated right now about our lives before we came here to earth.
I am excited about all the sports news. I heard about an OVERTIME WIN OVER THE UTES! WOOHOO! I don't know all the details but that is so exciting. It must have been intense. Tell me all about it and also tell me about the interview with Max Hall.
I got some letters from mom too. I will just have to let my driver's license go because there is not a eye doctor anywhere around here to test my eyes for the extension form. I got the camera chip you sent me and the pictures were nice that you left on there for me to look at. I can't believe Jaxson and Kolby now! They are so big! You should talk to me on the chip and say Hi. I would love that. Oh, and the picture you had on there of the Christmas ornament you bought me! I love it! I don't care if my wife will hate it someday. It will always be on my tree right in the front where everyone can see it. I love that it is wooden too. It fits the culture here really well. (note from mom.. . we bought Kevin his traditional annual ornament but did not send it to him. We just took a picture of it. It is a wooden sea turtle. We thought it was fitting to represent this past year)
So nothing new is going on here. I am excited to get to work again tomorrow. It has been a full week since I have done missionary work and I miss it a lot. I am excited to work with Elder Ulmer as well. He has been here a few transfers longer than me so I'll be able to learn some good stuff from him.
I hope you are both doing great and having a good holiday season. I will talk to you on the phone soon! I am grateful for everything you do for me. You are both amazing! Merry Christmas!