Hey family!
I'm sorry the email was so dang short, I wrote it in the laundry room, and my clothes were done and I had to be super quick to go get them out, and my companion was waiting to go on after me, and....it was stressful. There has got to be a way to avoid that, but it's beyond me at the moment.
It's a lot of work here, but sometimes there's less-structured study time where we (our district) didn't know what to do with ourselves. We were finally given some idea of what we can do, so Anziano Baggaley and I try to do what work we can, but some of the other guys don't really get it. Dont get me wrong, they're all really great, and strong in the gospel, but sometimes they're distracting. I think the two Sorelle (sisters) in our district fell the same way. Let this be a lesson to the boys: when it's time to work, WORK. Don't distract others trying to, which we sometimes bother other classrooms. But we'll get it eventually.
At the beginning of my stay here, people would always say "just get through to Sunday, just last till Sunday, it gets better." Sunday kinda stunk for me, what with the build-up. I was just down on myself most of the day, with language, friend-sickness, and all around downess. But then, at the Fireside, something clicked. And Elder Bednar's Christmas Devotional recording from last year (after the fireside, I don't remember who spoke at the fireside, but he was really good) was exactly what I needed to hear. "You're on the Lord's time, get over yourself, learn how to really love others." is kind of the main gist of it. It was really good to hear something put so plainly so I could try to put it instantly into action. And he had a fantastic idea for reading the Book of Mormon. Buy a brand new, cheap, paperback copy, think about one specific subject you could focus on and feel like you need and want to learn about, and read it cover to cover, highlighting everything you can find on that one subject. Once finished, write a short summery on a piece of paper, stick it in the cover, and put that in the bookshelf. rinse and repeat. I've started to do that, and he said if you did it right now, you could easily have 400 plus copies by the time you're his age. It really seems like a good idea.
Well, all that I wrote on last week's p-day. This week's email I tried to ease up a little more on the stress but I still had to hurry, and didn't get to answer all the questions you all had, and I forgot them already, sorry. There's no timer on the computer in the laundry room, but i don't like making people wait, and my clothes need to be switched around, so yeah, I get stressed. I'm really glad Dad's taking care to rest up his back! And Mom, in his email he left an amazing report on how you've been doing everything and helping him, you're awesome! Cam, thanks for the note, it was cool to get some mail from you and Dutch. Kaden, keep rocking it on the piano, you could easily be the best here. At the last Fireside, some Elders sang an arrangement of "The Elders of Israel" which apparently had been written by the Elder on the piano. That would be awesome if you could do something like that! (And it was one of the best arrangements I've heard for a while!) Cole, I don't really have anything that specific to say to you, except that you are awesome, and I love having you as a little brother. I'm sorry if I ever made you feel differently, in any way.
You know, my going to Italy seems so far away now that it doesn't even feel real. The fact that it's over a month and a half away doesn't help, and neither does having "investigators" who everyone knows are fake. It almost feels like I'm gonna be stuck here forever. Gosh that's be terrible. The MTC is great and all, but 2 years here? Repetitive as heck. We met an Elder at lunch one time who had actually done exactly that. He's been here for 23 months, 'cause he's one of the missionaraies on the chat rooms on Mormon.org. Blech. I wouldn't like that at all. Anyway, love y'all!!
Ciao,
Anziano Walker
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