8/2/2013

8/2/2013

Hello familia!!!

Thank you so much for all that you do! I love it so much. I am so loved and so blessed to have all these people who love me in my life. Thank you so much. I can't say that enough!

So I got the care package yesterday! It was so awesome to get all those goodies and food and drinks! Thank you so much! Even better were the letters that you all wrote to me. Thank you so very much! I feel like a broken record saying thank you so much! But I mean it!

Grandma thank you so much for your letter. It means so much to me to hear from you. You are so loving and so strong in what you do and what you believe. I'm so blessed to have you there to support me in what I do. I love you so much. I loved how you compared the Zions camp to the boot camp for future leaders of the Church. I will totally agree to you about that comparison to the MTC. It's hard. Difficult and such a struggle sometimes. But it's such a learning experience. I wish I could have heard my dad give that talk! He gives awesome talks doesn't he? Love ya so much Grandma! Tell Grandma Chambers that I love her too!

Thank you so much Dad for the letter and the pin. Thank you so much for your words. particularly you words on "Don't ever fake it". I feel like that is such a strong thing I need to remember. I am a specific person and I shouldn't try to be someone else. When teaching and loving people, you have to be yourself in order for them to love you back. It's so true. Thank you so much for your support. I desperately need it and love you so much. How's work going? Is it nice having the motorcycle to yourself?? I'll bet it is!

 Thanks so much for the note Tanner and the little drawing :) I love it! I hope you're having fun and not too lonely! I think of you every day and miss ya! I love you so much and thank you so much for your support! :D

So don't worry I will share some of the care package with my comp and probably the whole district. There's so much! Except the skittles, those are mine! Bryce is doing excellent! We see each other so often its amazing. I love that I can talk to him basically anytime I need to. I'm glad you got to go to the temple and get to go tonight! That's so awesome. I wish the temple was open here. I can only go on the grounds because they are renovating the inside. I wish I would've gone more with you guys while I was home. The temple brings an amazing peace doesnt it? I love it. I wish I could have that sort of peace with me all the time too! And I'm trying to see the big picture don't worry. It's hard sometimes, and by sometimes I mean all the time, but I'm trying to.

 And lucky you guys, with it being cool there. ITS HOT here. Like really hot. I'm sweating so much when I work out outside! But the fresh air and the field is amazing. Who would want to work out in a gym when you have a beatiful field and can see the temple while you run?

I had a normal class day Saturday. Sunday is awesome. We have our church meetings, then just like a ton of personal study time. I love it. I can just relax and read my scriptures or study my material. It's peaceful and a really nice change from all the class work. We also have a devotional every Sunday night. We have awesome speakers. We also have a devotional on Tuesday night! That is my favorite because everyone from the MTC walks across the street and into the Marriot Center on the BYU campus. It is awesome. Super great experiences and speakers. Plus it's cool to leave the MTC campus sometimes. Not a whole lot happened the rest of the week. We had a lesson with our "investigator" who is our teacher putting on a different role for us to teach. It was on...Wednesday I think. It went really well! The portuguese is hard but it's slowly coming along! Hmm I think that's about it!

Oh mom. I should've listened to you about not having a black towel. It sheds black fuzzies over everything!!! GAH. Anyways I think that wraps it up! I love you all so much and thanks for the support you give me!

 Elder Parker Merkley