7/28/17
I cant believe school is starting!! thats so exciting! im so excited for those girls. and im so glad to hear that Ethan and Gavin are doing alright!! thats so scary but such an incredible miracle that no one got badly injured! so happy to hear that! Ive run into a ton of buddies from home! So thats been super awesome! Im so glad everyones doing great back home! those pictures made my day. especially your laugh in the video haha its fantastic i miss it. thank you so much for the packages!! everything i needed thank you so much its perfect! everyone calls me elder kent when i wear my glasses.
oh my im seriously dying to get to canada!! the MTC has been fantastic but im seriously so excited to start working in the field. yesterday was our in field orientation which is a nine hour seminar deal but it was great! you guys that will have to do it later on dont worry about it, its seriously not as bad as youd think. our district was the only foreign speaking district there besides our Romanian buddies so it was quite frustrating hearing all the elders that have been here for two weeks complain about the MTC. here's a tip for anyone coming into the MTC: dont complain about a single thing because first off, there's always someone that has it worse, and second, your experience is only going to be bad if you complain and only focus on the bad. i got here a week after all the Tahitian guys got here and im leaving two weeks before them, and they love the MTC. along with another girl thats leaving to Montreal that has to be here for 15 weeks because she has to learn english and french. havent heard a single word of complaint out of her, in any language. the MTC is an incredible experience and an awesome opportunity to learn so much about the gospel. this place isnt meant for us, its meant for the people of our missions, so complaining will 100% make your experience here a bummer, God isnt going to trust us to care only about others for two years if we cant go through a few weeks without complaining. so yeah theres my epic MTC advice for you guys, it was a bummer to see all these elders whining about two or three weeks, two years is a whole lot longer than three weeks.
but yeah anyways im so stoked to fly out there! kind of a bummer leaving all the guys though. i didnt think i would get so tight with my zone, but yeah its gonna be rough. the tahitians have become my brothers so im gonna miss them a ton. but theyre gonna be so awesome!!
everythings been great here though! i feel like ive got the language down, even though i know ill get there and have sooo much more to learn haha thats how it always is, but its okay cause i couldnt be more stoked!! we taught our last discussion the other day so now we're just hanging tight to go fly for a couple hours and sprint through the Detroit airport cause our connecting flight gives us like five seconds there haha. but ah man we keep hearing more and more about this mission and im dying to be there!! we had an amazing devotional the other day and it had to be my favorite one since i got here. the way he talked reminded me a lot of the way dad or brother dalton would talk to us. one of my favorite points he made was that we as missionaries are given these opportunities to teach people and run come in contact with anyone because God trusts us with his children to invite them unto Christ and change their lives. thats a huge deal to have God's trust, not just to go out and serve, but he trusts us with each individual specifically that we run into. that was an awesome thing to think about, and how big of a responsibility it is to always keep that trust. im so grateful to have His trust with His children in Montreal. ive had the opportunity here while i study the language and doctrine to look at the people of my mission with the same love that Heavenly Father has for them. i know He wants them to return to Him so badly and im so grateful to have this opportunity to be the missionary he chose along with soooo many others to go make that possible for them. its i insane the amount of trust put into a bunch of young adults, but its also incredible to know its all for a reason specific to each of us. ive been listening to the song Come Come Ye Saints a lot recently, and where they sing about even if they die before their journey is through, all is well, happy day, thats been hitting home for me. each Wednesday ive been here there have been around 700 new missionaries that came in. so like 4,200 missionaries have come in since ive been here. and its only going to increase! i like to think our pioneer ancestors are watching us and watching this work go forth and feeling so proud of themselves and their incredible sacrifices. because of them we have countless missionaries all over the world each impacting the world in different ways and that impact goes so many ways. this church is so true and im so excited to be part of this epic mission to share this amazing truth with everyone God trusts me with in Canada. i love this mission so much and ive loved the MTC and i love the people of Montreal, even though i havent even met them haha. im so excited to go out there, im excited for the endless hard work, for the rejections that will make me stronger and teach me to work harder, for the relationships i will make with the people, for my companions even the crappy ones cause ill be able to learn even more from them, and for this opportunity i have to give everything i have to the Lord to be trusted with the lives of his children. i love this gospel so much, i hope you all know that. i wouldnt trade this opportunity to serve a mission for the world. i cant thank you all enough for helping me in every way to get here. this is exactly where im supposed to be and im so stoked to see where the Lord continues to move me. love you all so much!! the church is so true!!
I picked out the socks so make sure you give me all the credit!!
Great letter, Andrew! I’m sure your words and excitement will help a lot of your friends getting ready to join you or coming after you leave. I’m so excited for you to head out next week!! Do you get to call from the airport? Everyone keeps asking and we don’t know how that works…
Love you,
Dad
Well we are officially in the last week of summer, so it's all back to school shopping and gradually getting up earlier so 6:00 isn't too shocking next week. They have been sleeping til 10:00 some days so that's gonna be rough! The girls are so great. They are so giggly and funny. We have lots of fun together, everyone's getting along well.
Did you hear about Ethan and Gavin's car accident there in Provo? They felt like they needed to say a prayer before driving that night and they got rear ended and flipped end over end! The car is demolished, but miraculously they are both almost completely injury free! Like scratches and bruises. But sadly Cookie Monster, the blue car, is a goner. I'm sure Elle is pleased about that-she hated how flashy it was.
So have you run into anyone while up there? Besides missionaries of course. Casey mcquen came up this week. His dad was in a CRAZY wrong way driver accident on the 101 that was all over the news. He shouldn't be alive, but he walked out of that fancy Tesla like it was nothing. A combination of divine intervention and a REALLY expensive car.
So are you counting down the days til Canada time???? I'm so excited!!!! Can you find out if you need to get thermal garments here or if you'll have access to a distribution center in Canada? We don't have much time-is need to get hem in the mail Friday to get them to you before you leave. Just let me know!
So yeah, everyone is really good here. We've had a really good week. We went to voyager ward for Jackson's farewell talk which was awesome. It was pioneer Sunday so we celebrated the same way we did last year and everyone was all dressed up and we had pioneer visitors come tell us their stories. The Armette's was a good one. Short version: their ancestors came with their one year old who died one day. The wagon leader said there wasn't time to bury her so they wrapped her in a sheepskin blanket and laid her aside the trail. That night as the group sang "all is well" she thought, all is not well. :( after the second verse, tho, she thought, yes, all IS well! My baby is not dead! She ran to her husband who reassured her the baby had no heartbeat and was not breathing and they went to bed. He awoke alone, and organized a search party for his grieving wife only to find her walking back from fetching her dead baby in the night all those miles back. His heart broke for her but he again reassured her their baby was dead but she showed him an open eyed, breathing, very alive baby wrapped in The sheepskin! None of us saw that ending coming!! So primary was just amazing. Then as we were leaving dad invited the Morgan's and Daltons to dinner, even tho our house looked like a bomb had hit it after all my prepping for pioneer Sunday. They both gratefully agreeed and it turned out neither had any food because of being out of town and such, and had even prayed they'd be able to find something to eat (so they wouldn't have to break the sabbath) and I accidentally made the best waffles of all time, and dad made real buttermilk syrup from the buttermilk we made in primary and it was to die for! I made sooooo much but we still ran out-dad made like over 40 waffles. He is so great. It was a blast.
That little girl Anna Ortega, you may have seen her on social media, Reeses age that got brain cancer died last week. The Daltons are really close to them, and Brynne asked me to make the baby a tie to match his dads for the funeral. I put a patch on the back, kind of like I did for you. It was cute. THEN Sunday night we went to a bday party for angie ward and hung out with friends for a couple hours and I came home feeling overwhelmed with gratitude. For pioneers, Joseph Smith, a cute husband who listens to promptings even when his wife might kill him for inviting people over when the house is a wreck and we have nothing planned for dinner, for primary, for our ward family, for my sweet family, and good good friends. And you of course! So grateful for you and your decision to serve a mission! Jackson told a great story-a man ran into a couple that lived where he had served a mission in Canada. He admitted, somewhat ashamed, it had not been a very successful mission, as he had only baptized one person. He wondered if they knew him-he named the man and they said they did! He asked if the man had stayed active and they proceeded to tell this returned missionary he not only stayed active but married in the temple, had a bunch of kids who served missions, they all married in the temple...and on and on. From one baptism. Best part was when Jackson said how grateful he was for that missionary's service, since that one man he baptized was his grandfather (maybe great grandfather-I'm not sure) I've had goosebumps for 5 days from that!!!!
Did you get both packages? The one from us and the amazon one with the watch? Hopefully it all got to you. We had mutual (priests and teachers) at our house and we played jackbox. I'm on some medication for my jaw that makes me act kind of weird, and I feel pretty stupid. My laugh was like if ashley whiting, a kazoo and a trombone had a baby. And I thought everything a super funny. And yelled at people when they didn't (like,"come on! That was comedic genius!!! How could you not think that's funny???"). Ugh. I asked dad to apologize but he won't because it sounds bad to say "sorry Cherise was so aggressive-she's on steroids". And as it turns out I was taking WAY too much. But we got that all straightened out today so I won't be starting any fights or growing back hair or whatever.
Well, I'm looking forward to hearing from you tomorrow! I hope you're doing well, and we pray for you always! Love, mom
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