Hi mom!
Okay, be forewarned that I don't have a lot of time so I'm going to try to cram as much into this as possible with as short a time as I have, so.....here we go.
First of all yes I DO actually get to see the pictures that you send but the videos don't seem to be working. I don't really know why, but they're not making the transfer.
Second.....I don't think the office is holding packages anymore....yeah, my district leader just got like 3 in the mail last week so....I think that it got too big for what they were going to do or something haha.
Third...phone call....I will be calling Christmas Day your time, but at what TIME I'm not sure since there are three of us that have to call and Elder Olsen has a lot of PEOPLE to call since his family doesn't live all in Alaska (he said he has a sibling in every time zone) So we'll plan that out and I'll email you about it next week. And if not, just be home (don't go ANYWHERE) between the hours of about 3 PM and midnight (I don't REALLY know when but just a ballpark, it'll be afternoon or evening) Oh, we will NOT be able to Skype. We got news from the Seventy that that is NOT "appropriate" or something.....makes sense, because there's no telling how the missionary would end up emotionally, that or the parents. We're supposed to make it so that it doesn't distract us from the work, but I'm not really sure what that entails. All I know is it means no Skype, which.....I don't have too much of an opinion on anyway. You'll see me next year ;)
Oh, but we got a problem......about me going home early. Turns out that people have to get PERMISSION from the Seventy to do so and they have to have a good reason, and apparently having no future (at least nothing prepared for it) doesn't count as a good reason. At least that's my interpretation, I'm going to talk to Pres in the next interview and see.
At any rate....it means you can save your money and we can do something over Christmas break next year assuming time allows.
Oh, don't worry, I'm rather upset about it myself, but yeah, I'll talk to Pres about it and see what HE considers a "good reason" (other missionaries have told me that preparing for college might not be considered good enough)
I dunno, I'll see what's up then.
That's really sad to hear about Clark's mom....give him my regards and say my prayers are with him and his family.
So....a story, we were at a local university that we sometimes go and proselyte at, and we were meeting with our potential investigator in the International Building, and as we were leaving this rather large Korean guy comes up to us and identifies us in English as missionaries, and then starts asking who we were and what we were looking for there. The three of us looked at each other with the expression of "Crap!" because we thought he was going to kick us out.
Well, he wasn't.
Turns out A. His friend had an English question, and B. He had gospel questions.
So we cleared up his friend's question and taught them a little about the restoration of the gospel. He had a LOT of questions but he said he wouldn't mind meeting again, and I'm sure his friend would too, since she later texted us and said that she did really well on her English speaking test because of the help we gave her. Which was cool, it was like the icing on the cake haha.
Also a less active that we tried to visit a few weeks ago has been coming consistently for two weeks and bringing her little granddaughter, who seems to be LOVING primary. I looked at them at sacrament meeting and the granddaughter was devouring a "Friend" which is the kid magazine the church does.
We're planning on talking to her and seeing if we can teach the granddaughter (since she's technically going to be a convert since her parents aren't members and she's going to church with her grandmother (lives with her actually))
Here's hoping.
That's about all that's going on here right now, I'll try to have more to write next week (as well as sending a Christmas card because I FINALLY FOUND SOME! Turns out they're not displayed in obvious places but they ARE EVERYWHERE. It's even in Korean so it's proof that I'm actually here haha.
Hope all is going well for you, and I hope this new calling you have will help you. Nothing helps church attendance and progression of a less active or recent convert quite like an assignment (says so in Preach My Gospel) And also friends work well too, but we've got THAT one covered, right? Haha.
Anyway, I need to get going, until next week!
Love,
Aaron
