August 22, 2011
Hey!
This computer is soooo slow. Haha and there is some girl next to me that is staring at me, like awkwardly haha. Gross.
Thank you all for your emails! And what in the world??? School is already starting again?? That's so weird to me. I always enjoyed the beginning of the year, because I got to have a fresh start after having grown so much in such a short time through EFY and camps and stuff. I'm sure Haley's gonna rock this year.
Brock, that's kind of crazy about your sleep depravation thing. I hope you can get that worked out as school starts. Haha and I love you emails. We should probably go backpacking/camping/skiing every weekend. Bring a few friends once in awhile. Oh and I'm not going to marry a girl if she doesn't ski or board, so there's dating time right there. Nais. Flaming gorge would be sick. The teenagers here are a lot different than teenagers in the states. When we contact them they do stuff like peek around us to stare and whistle at inappropriately dressed girls. Haha theyre a hoot. The mission is focused on families. That's the priority. Families and more families. But they are so hard to find! I just want to find a family that's prepared. I know they're out there, but they're hiding from us. I regret not being more of a missionary in high school. I could have been so much better and done so much more.
Aubrey, sounds like work is really stressful! But it seems like you and Brock find a lot of ways to have fun. And you colored your hair!!! It looks good! Living poor as college students doesn't sound fun, but i think it can be. Haha money can't buy happiness, but you can do so many fun things when you have money! But in college we found lots of fun things without money, thanks to Austin and Jordan and the BYU police force DELTA code red squadron. Chanchos.
Dad! The pictures were awesome! And it's great to hear that strat plan came through successfully. The house sounds soo cool! It's weird to see a house that isn't made of cement haha. Cool. I love that story from Gospel Doctrine. I was with the young men and young women yesterday at church and one of the young men had the assignment to explain that story. Thank you for sending it to me, he left out some key details yesterday. The gifts of the spirit are so special and powerful. I think I'm living below my privileges, but I'm trying so hard to rise above mediocrity and comformity so I can be led by the Spirit. But that can only be done with unity in the companionship, and I can't force unity! But I can be better about charity and patience.
I've been studying faith and hope and I spent some time this week meditating on what is my faith and what is my hope. I really felt the Spirit as I contemplated the principle of hope and thought about what I hope for. It's a good way to really reflect on why I do what I do. It's also a great motivator to do more.
Mom, thank you so much for everything you do. Really, I can't thank you enough. I felt an increase in faith this week and thank you for your prayers. My birthday was great! I didn't get to buy the things I need yet. Other things came up and I had to help with some expenditures. But I did get to go out to lunch with my companion. It was a good day!
I'm struggling with patience around the missionaries. Some of them really get under my skin and I'm trying so hard. Charity will be my focus this week. I despise laziness and hypocracy, but I'm sure they would appreciate more love and patience. It's embarrassing how a missionary is the most inconsiderate and angry individual on the soccer field when we're playing with young men and non members. Grosses me out.
This week we had interviews with president. So great! I love you guys so much! Good luck with work, school, seminary, and everything else! Share the gospel! It's fun I promise! I love contacting and teaching so much! It's tough, but so is anything worth doing.
Have an awesome week.
With so much love,
Elder Austin Tyler
