Wowza I only have twenty minutes left to write stuff. This timed email thing is the BEST.

Okay. What do I write about? Let's see. The new elders are coming in TOMORROW. I'm stoked beyond reason. When I got here I remember looking at the Elders who had been in 6 weeks already and I thought I'd never get to that point but here I am. It's so crazy. I'm already halfway done here! It's an awesome feeling. And I can't wait to meet all the newbies. This week has been kind of nice because there's no wait for showers or volleyball or nothin, but it'll be so fun to have a "full house" again haha.

Okay story time. I got a dear elder from Mom yesterday and you mentioned how you were focusing on gratitude because of President Monson's talk. We had an awesome MTC fireside on Sunday and it made me want to change some things to make better use of my time in the MTC and on my mission. So the night before I got the dear Elder, the thought came to me that I wanted to pray throughout the entire next day without asking for anything in personal prayers in order to develop a better sense of gratitude. Okay, so it's not a very original idea, but I feel like the Spirit directed me to that desicion so I followed it. And it was awesome. Yesterday was such a great day because of it. I feel like previously I had this view that a mission is some huge task that's going to beat me to death but it'll be worth it in the end and I just have to hold out through all the trouble and hard work. But ever since I started focusing on all the blessings I've been given--and all the...(dare I say it)... FUN a mission has been--it has made me nearly completely blind to any of the trials that I might be going through right now. Everything is easier and more fulfilling. And what's more, I find out that after a full day of praying in gratitude, my dear old mum's been doing the exact same thing back home! We're definitely connected more than we realize, even though I'm not living with you right now.(P.S. I say a mission is fun, but I don't mean that in the sense that I'm just playing around. When I say "fun," I mean I'm enjoying all the work and learning and all that good stuff. Just sayin.)

Nother story. Yesterday I had a few hours for personal study time and I decided to spend the whole time reading the Book of Mormon and studying the scriptures. I read the verse in Alma 62(?) where Moroni writes in his letter to Pahoran that he does not fear man, but God. That led me on a huge scripture chase about fearing God and standing up against opposition and all that good stuff. I mean HUGE scripture chase, like two hours of awesome stories from all the standard works, Like Paul from Acts 5, and even the midwives during the time of the birth of Moses in the Old Testament. So I want to tell mom where my scripture chase ended: I found myself (with 5 minutes left of scripture study) at the story of Shadrach, Meschach, and Abed-nego, and I read the line where they say "But if not..." Immediately I remembered one of those late-night-one-in-the-morning talks I had with you, where you talked to me about the end Hebrews 11, and I turned to that scripture. As soon as I read it, I felt my faith strenghthened immensely, and it was like a personal message from God that after all the learning I had gotten from the scriptures in those 2 hours, the Spirit led me to a verse that had originally been shared with me by my mother! So awesome.

Okay five minutes left. Nother Story. We were looking through Elder Bangerter's notebook and we found a page with meeting notes labeled "Meetings/Boaring Meetings." It was hilarious. We joked about how it sounds like a hunting term. " 'Ere we go a-boarin'!!" New district motto/mascot. We hunt boars???