Wednesday, July 18

Dear Family,

So after I was dropped off, my host took me to my room and I saw both Hadley and Miles...or Elder Faught and Adams.  They both told me I’m set if I can make it to Sunday.  I’ve seen tons of familiar faces, especially from BYU-I basketball, so a lot of head nods, and brief “Hey, where are you headed?”  So initially my host dropped me off in a classroom, and after we were all introduced it was noted I was the only one not headed to Eugene Oregon.  I was led to the Vegas West room, where I saw the faces of two friends.  Elder Parks, who is a mutual friend of Warren from school and I had actually ridden in his car and eaten with him in school…And my companion Elder Lane was my semester long partner in my first semester stats class.  He is from Colorado.  He’s a cool kid and I’m really lucky to have him as my companion.  In my new class not a single person is from Utah or Idaho.  I really enjoyed the new class and the Spirit was strong there.  I am and have been extremely excited to form bonds with people, where I can relate different aspects of the Gospel through my own experiences, to people of very different backgrounds, situations and trials.  The few times I have formed these relationships have been great, memorable experiences.  I told the group how excited I was to form those testimony building experiences and the joy they bring to both parties.  I found a possibly new favorite scripture that outlines the mind set I had coming into the MTC and am really excited to live it in my mission.  It is in Alma 31.  The classroom discussion we had was fun, and an Elder had found it was the hottest in state missions, an average of 2 degrees hotter than Phoenix.  That is so different than Novosibirsk.  My teacher said the Lord probably just wants me everywhere and I said I hope that that is what it is.  After we left class we went to a meeting with all new missionaries.  He called out states individually and Virginia had about 10, which is more than all states east of the Mississippi.  For Idaho he picked on random individuals to ask if they’ve ever picked potatoes, what time they get up to milk the cows, and if they’ve milked one in the past week. And it was ridiculous how many answered yes, 430am, and yes.  I just thought that was really funny.

I was starving during that meeting, but they promised that if we live by the mission rules we will return with no regrets and if not you will have regrets.  Lunch went smoothly; I got fed great and saw many more familiar faces.  I called it lunch, but it was really just a dinner at 415, so I’m hungry now.  Later we went to classes where we had about 100 people and a real investigator.  We had a rich, smart politician from Haiti who read about the church in an economics book and called Salt Lake.  I was able to volunteer and share things I learned from writing my farewell talk, about Alma 32:33 and faith as a choice and experiment.  He was a very smart and practical man, curious about wealth and unholy motives behind many religions, especially to the people of Haiti and the relationship with the commandment of tithing.  He was straightforward and could be intimidating, as he picked out missionaries at random to question, and was very difficult to answer.  He was a very well read politician with a lot of real life experience growing up in Haiti.  Hearing other missionaries and their struggles made me much more confident in my own knowledge of the Gospel and ability to recognize the needs of different people.  I am so confident and excited to serve in Las Vegas right now, and so far I love it here.  I have to go to bed soon, but I am very excited to hear from everyone.  A few more hangers, a manila envelope, more pens, a small note pad and granola bars/crackers/protein bars would be great.  And I mean a notebook about scripture size or a little bit bigger.  Temple pictures and tape would be nice as well.  Oh and a tie hanger.  Thanks for all you did in helping me prepare, and you all will be in my prayers.

Love,

Nathanael