You know what's weird? Waking up and realizing that in two weeks you'll wake up in Singapore, that's what.
Hello everybody! I can't say enough how loved I feel from all the wonderful support you've given me! It's like a waterfall into a 20 mile cavern that I'm drowning in but feel happy about it, roughly. Anyway, let me do some thank-you's.
Grandma and Grandpa Raspberry: Thanks so much for the Early-Birthday-And-Halloween package! It was wonderful to be given a chance to partake of that wonderful tradition again!
The Petersons: Thanks for sending me the Ward Newsletter, it really warmed my heart.
Mother: Thank you so much for sending me not only all the poems and stuff, but the Song Lyrics for May It Be and The Breaking of The Fellowship. For all those who don't know, I love Lord Of The Rings because it is chock full for Christian Symbolism (at least the books mostly). In fact, Mom, could you put those at the end of this letter? Thanks.
My Family: Thank you so much for both the Conference Bingo and the Stress Buster Packages. I'll actually get pictures of the second one by next week.
Speaking of game related Conference, I'm sorry to say we couldn't use it. Conference was shown live down at Main Campus and we had to sit in stadium seats in our full Sunday attire. Our whole district thanks you for the Skittles and M&M's which we just stuck in our Classroom's full size fridge. They were delicious.
Speaking of not-game related Conference, it was fantastic! I sent a specific letter home about a lot of my feelings on it, but I will say that my favorite talk was President Monson's on Sunday morning. I listened to it again afterwards because every part of it was amazing, and I almost cried when he talked about his wife at the beginning.
It was really cool though how much of it was based on missionary work. We all need to try to bring people to Christ even if we don't have a title. I just get to do it full time (heh heh heh).
Anyway, more on that later. Moving on, Mitchell already left? I didn't get to say good by! Well, technically I did. Never mind, I know he'll do great.
More stuff. The Microculture we spawned has further developed. Which is to say, we've resorted to potty humor. Why? Because everything else makes us trunky or is less appropriate for worse reasons! But guess what? You know what Barak means? That's right, poop. Now think of our President... Another thing, we aren't allowed to be judgmental, so all of the guys in our district, when they talk about girls, rate them on their adequacy. They can be adequate, very adequate, extremely adequate, or PRETTY dang adequate. That's led to some very fun conversations.
Off that topic. The work progresses and the Lord blesses us more every day! When I mentioned a hard day last week, a lot of people were concerned for me, and I'm thankful, but that ship has sailed. We all have hard things happen in our lives to let us learn Humility, and that's why the Lord allows discouragement and hard feelings to happen to his servants, so they can learn to rely on him. I'm doing great, don't worry.
On that note, Aunt Annette, when you said that Spanish must be much easier then what I'm learning, I'm sorry to say that I pity Mitchell! Spanish is complicated, Malay is Not! I mean, He has to like, conjugate verbs, and worry about past, present, and future tense! And articles! Our language is structured like a Kindergartner wrote it and most, if not all, the meanings are based on context!
On another cool note, I got my own Nyan-nian Rohani (Songs Spiritual) and Buku Nyan-nian Anak-Anak (Book Songs Children), which are both in Indonesian because they haven't translated them into Malay and that's what they use. Indonesian and Malay are about 80 percent the same, so it's all good.
For next week: Please tell me what to write about, since I'm running out of ideas!
Love you all so much! Til next time (on my last MTC P-day!)
-Elder Christensen
May It Be
May it be an evening star
Shines down upon you
May it be when darkness falls
Your heart will be true
You walk a lonely road
Oh! How far you are from home
Mornie utúlie (darknesss has come)
Believe and you will find your way
Mornie alantie (darknesss has fallen)
A promise lives within you now
May it be the shadows call
Will fly away
May it be your journey on
To light the day
When the night is overcome
You may rise to find the sun
Mornie utúlie (darknesss has come)
Believe and you will find your way
Mornie alantie (darknesss has fallen)
A promise lives within you now
A promise lives within you now
The Breaking of the Fellowship
When the cold of winter comes
Starless night will cover day
In the veiling of the sun
We will walk in bitter rain
But in dreams
I can hear your name
And in dreams
We will meet again
When the seas and mountains fall
And we come, to end of days
In the dark I hear a call
Calling me there,
I will go there
And back again
