This continues my series of reposting mission letters from ten years ago. There was not a letter the previous week because it was Presidents' Day.
Greetings, family!
To answer your question, yes, Elder C. is good and healthy
again. For some reason I have been extremely tired in the mornings this past
week but I don't feel sick.
Well, there are two weeks left in this transfer which will
officially be the end of my training period. I'm terrified because after that
it means I'm responsible for everything
I don't know and I don't have an excuse of being trained. Of course I'll still
be a greenie but my training will be up. Elder C. thinks that he will be
transferred and I will stay in the area and get my mom (your trainer is your
dad and your second companion is your mom). I'm scared of being the more knowledgeable one about the area. Of
course, he could be wrong, but he's always stayed in the same area three
transfers and this is his third coming to a close.
It would be sad for either of us to leave at this time
because the work is really picking up. Since last Sunday we got five new
investigators. We're probably putting someone on date for baptism tonight. And
we have an awesome fellowshipper for another investigator. Some ward members called and told us they had
someone for us to teach, and the lesson went really well, especially since it was in the members'
home and they were able to participate
and help us out answering anti questions
she'd heard about the temple. The work has really picked up and I'm excited.
With the package you send could you also send the Gospel
Principles manual for Sunday School? That's the one we as missionaries attend
and I would like my own copy of the manual.[1] I'm also coveting some
things I'm not sure are legal, the Joseph Smith Translation[2] and the more bulky and
costly History of the Church.[3] I understand completely if
you can't send those and I don't really need them but I think they might be
interesting supplemental material, assuming they're approved reading.
In honor of President Hinckley we (the mission) are reading
the Book of Mormon in 97 days.[4] I am also trying to get
through the Old Testament. This week I hope to finish Jacob and Psalms for each
of those. I honestly don't know why everyone likes the Psalms so much. It's
like reading the hymn book but worse because it doesn't rhyme and I don't know
the tunes! I'm trying to assign myself a
number of chapters a day to get through.
I do three of the Book of Mormon and this week I'll try to do six Psalms, since
I failed this week getting through with seven a day because I failed the week
before with doing sixteen a day. Luckily most of the Psalms are short but I
still have to get past 119--the killer one.
I'm sorry, I really don't know what to write. I guess I feel
not like writing much because there's so much good that it would take too long
to do everything or I wouldn't do justice to some things.
Well, it was nice to email
you again, and hopefully I'll
have more exciting news next week--which
will be the last P-day of the transfer (although technically it'll be
the same for the first three days of the next transfer).
--Elder Melville
[1]
Smart phones had barely been invented at this time, and there was no such thing
as an iPad. It’s so weird to me that I would have to ask for a physical manual!
[2]
My family later sent me the JST of the New Testament.
[3]
I still have History of the Church on
my bookshelf, after they sent it up with the members we lived with, but after
working in the field of Mormon history, I realize how obsolete it is.
[4]
Gordon B. Hinckley died at age 97.
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