Dec 28, 2009

Hey there peeps,

It was great to hear from you on Christmas. I realized today while I was thinking about it, I’ve been blessed to talk to the whole family every time that I’ve gotten to call home. There’s a lot of missionaries who only get to talk to a part of their family because the others are in college or have already moved out of the house. But now that you guys have made me officially trunky, I still gotta go out and work hard this last couple weeks. To me its just incredible that my time as a missionary is coming to an end, I still feel like I just got started, but truth is my group is the oldest in the mission right now, because those going home at the end of this change are getting sent home a week early to make it home for school.

But some more good news, I’ll be getting my New Years package this week, and I’m excited to see what my “gift” is... dad mentioned that I’ll be getting a cool little photo in the package. But I got a call from Elder Curtis, who is one of my buddies, who’s the assistant right now, and told me how a got a tiny little package from one James Fiala that includes just one can of Mountain Dew... So I’m super stoked for that little taste of heaven as well. Being deprived of good foods you know and love is definitely the worst part about being on the mission... that and family, of course...

But I’m glad to hear that the family was able to come to a conclusion as to what’s going down this March and April, and I’m perfectly fine with just chilling during March, and getting ready to head out come April. Plus I think it’d be nice to have you come out with us to Utah, I mean, I’m all grown up and everything, and I’ve been living on my own for two years, but let’s face it: I’ve been doing that all in spanish! There’s no way I could do that in english anymore! So Mom can ride with me if Dad’s not gonna go too.

But enough trunky talk, we’re working pretty hard in our area, but it was kind of tough with Christmas this past week, plus it rained on Sunday, which made for a poor church attendance, with only 5 people who made it to church other than us. But we got two investigators there, so that was cool, but then I just felt bad for them the whole time. I’ve heard that a lot of missionaries get home, and they find themselves searching for their investigators in the crowd at church, or feeling that protectiveness over making sure that the new people there feel comfortable, just to find out that they don’t have anyone there and that they don’t do that anymore. I’m not sure if I’ll feel that or not, but one things for sure, I will probably always listen to the things that members say and just cringe at the things that come out of their mouths as if an investigator who doesn’t understand completely the lingo or the doctrine enough to not take something offensive or downright weird. Like how I’ve heard a couple times in testimony meeting in Paraguay... “Joseph Smith died so that we can be here today.” Now I know that those people mean well, and that they’re refering to how he died for his testimony and how if it weren’t for his efforts we wouldn’t have the restored gospel today, but just think about what an investigator would think about us if they heard that statement without any background information! No wonder so many people think we worship Joseph Smith.

I love this work though, I’ve learned so much on my mission, I’m a completely different person since when I left... but don’t you worry, you’ll still be hearing my saweet guitar riffs and playing video games with me when I get home... I’m pretty sure those things are going to be in Heaven.... So Cole, you just get ready to bust out the Zelda games when I get home! And I call first dibbs on the Medal of Honor!!!

Love ya all,

Elder Dennis