Luke's Letter May 1, 2009

May 1,2009

Hey mom and dad, how is it going? This last week has been a good one. Thank you for all the letters you send mom, I really do enjoy them. Dad... to be blunt, you suck at writing letters. I don't mean the quantity, but the quality. Like... I dunno, could you write to me like your my friend and stuff? Maybe tell me about stupid tuesday night basketball stuff? I know that sounds kinda dumb but I think it would be fun to read about stuff like that. I mean, your other stuff is fine, except the funeral stuff, I don't really care about funerals. But ya, even if its about your work or trading or whatever, I would love to just hear more from you. Thanks :-)

Thanks for taking care of the brittany stuff for me mom, I appreciate it. I'm excited to receive tapes from you all and the picture you took. It sure sounds like you had tons of fun with Starla and the girls! I can't wait to hear emma in the recorder too if she is. It would be cool if Zoey was on there too. That's kinda sad/funny that you had to kick buddy out of the room. But I really appreciate a good nights sleep now haha. I am sleeping better. This last week I've had a cold and its actually helped me sleep better or something. I dunno, I've really been praying for better sleep so it is most likely that too. You asked if i'm really craving anything... and I'm not. Not that I can think of. They have snacks we can get at the book store here if I am, and I haven't yet, so I should be ok. I hit the 170 mark on the scale the other day... scary huh? But I don't feel too fat, haha.

I got a letter from Richard on dear elder, I appreciated it. Another one from grandma carol too. I love hearing from all the family. I would like to hear from telly and Starla more if they get the chance, just to hear how they're doing and all those little things. I love hearing the fun stories about the girls.

Well a couple exciting things happened this last week. I dunno if I told you last friday, but I held a special fast on friday for some people in the district. One was elder callis, and then for the companionship of zmoos, van buren, and kenison. THey'd been having a bit of contention. Well, fridya night when we started class, Elder Callis had a pretty serious anxiety attack and went to the Emergency Room. So then on saturday we held a district fast for him. So I fasted two days in a row! I did have dinner on friday though thankfully. Elder Callis seems to be doing better, he's been seeing a counselor here and that's been helping him a lot. ALso with that crisis the rest of our district came together and have been stronger since then trying to help him out. Elder Callis has a testimony, and we've all felt it, but he just hasn't realized it yet. So its tough for him. BUT, on thursday, we received our travel itineraries!!! So exciting. I leave SLC at 830am may 11 to LA, leave LA around 1 to santiago, get there about 5am, leave santiago about 7am to antofagasta. get there around 9am. So I'm very excited and so is the rest of the district, especially elder callis cause he really dislikes the mtc. I'm proud of him for sticking it out. I pray he can continue to once we get out there. I'm traveling to Santiago with my comp but from there we will split up and i'll probably be by myself from there to Antofagasta. So those couple hours alone will be kinda nice.

******ALSO*********(This is important)********I don't think I get to call on mother's day, but I get to call the next day from the airport. I'm not %100 sure. Either way I do call from the airport. I bought a 500 min phone card so that will give me lots of time while I have the layover in LA. So that's like from 9-12ish, so ya... I dunno how that's going to work with you and everything. I will probably call before I leave SLC as well, so that could be like at 8 or so. i'd like to talk to Julie if I can so I'll try to call before she leaves for school. Also... since I have 500 min to use, could you send me a couple phone numbers of other people I can call? Like grandmas, starla and shantel... and that should be good. I know I talked about you having bree over for mother's day when I call, and if I still call on that day that would be great but if not I'm sure she has classes and stuff that morning and it would be a hassle to get her there monday morning so don't worry about it. (I do have 500 min and that long time in LA to talk to everyone) ANyway, that was pretty important info I wanted to make sure you got :-) We still have the same phone number right? haha.

I can't think of too much other stuff that has happened this last week to tell you about. I'm continuing to do my best with SPanish, it comes ok I guess. My comp and I are probably the better ones in the district, but when we go to teach in it our teaching skills go down a little bit, but we're working on it. Last wed we were practice teaching an older gentleman who just served with his wife in Santiago, and he tells us we are going to love it. That we'll most likely have mamaitas, or whatever they're called. I just know he said Mamasita was derogatory to them. But that sounds cool. I dunno if it will be that way in ant. but it was in santiago, so maybe? I really am getting excited to get out there. Like really. I have no idea what I'm going to do or any of that, but I'm really excited to feel that joy that comes with missionary work that you read about in the BoM. I know that a lot of stress, depression, and other stuff comes too as it did with alma and the sons of mosiah, but the joy must be worth it. Did you ever think you'd hear your son saying this? That he can't wait to experience the joy of missionary work? Weird... haha. I want you to know how much i love and appreciate you. You've been a great blessing in my life and continue to bless me with all you do. Thank you again for everything!

Love Luke

PS. I'm sending out a mother's day card today that I hope you enjoy mom! sorry that I probably can't call that day, I just don't see how'd they do it. Love you!