17 September, 2012 - Almost done with Week 16!

[I have to apologize for the typos and spellings in this post. My eyes are doing wonky things and it's making it difficult for me to see clearly, so I am leaving this post much as Calvin typed it. I have taken out names and edited a few other things, but this is pretty much as he typed it.]

Hey Momm!

I want to tell you that I love you. I love reading your letters. I love the way you  write, and how you make it all sorts of fun to read! You also write really long letters, too, and you have NO IDEA how much that means to me! I love you LOTS!

Now, onwards to business. 

[ONE OF CALVIN'S FRIENDS] GOT HIS MISSION CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's soooooooooooooooooooooo AWESOME!!!!!! Wow! He is going to be a great missionary. 

Tell Grandpa and Grandma that I am really sorry they lost their friend. I feel super bad. Really, I do! I wish I could be there to help and comfort them. Every time I went to the temple at the MTC, I thought of them every single time! I love them LOTS! [One of our local music directors died this weekend. He was a longtime friend of the family and will be greatly missed.]

Wow, I just realised how much you put in this letter! Thank you for giving me so many updates! It's almost like I'm there. I should probably do the same for you. 

So, what happened this week

On Tuesday, we got [two investigators] a watermelon and double stuff oreos, because [he] works 80 hour weeks. Oh, gosh I said their names, but they love us anyways, they wont mind. [That's okay Calvin, I took the names out *grin*] They are the BEST investigators EVER!. They are SO golden, it's ridiculous. [She] (she texts us every day) texted us yesterday, and told us that they had their first ever real family prayer yesterday. They both have had SUPER amazing experiences. 

Anyways, so when they are having a bad day we sometimes bring them treats. So that was great, and we talked with [her] for a little bit. After that, [my companion] said he had a prompting to go and visit [some other people]. So, we went over there, and it turns out that the wife had been crying, and telling God "show me you love me" and just as she thought that, we knocked on the door. So we talked with her for a while, and made both their days. They are an amazing family. The husband is a PHENOMINAL singer. I am not kidding when I say this,. He is a MASTER. His stuff is insane. We listened to it yesterday, when we stopped by there again to give the wife her music for this musical fireside we are putting on, but more about that later. Anyways, so another cool expirience was when we stopped by a less active family, and talked to the husband. He reminds me a little of [a friend]. He is SUPER nice. so we talked with him about the temple, and their family goal is to get to the temple to be sealed, so we are going to help them get there. I recount all these expiriences, because I have felt so much love, or the spirit at these experiences. We are teaching this guy who is super cool. He is 18, and is in army cadets (a youth group in Canada). He is pretty awesome, and is getting baptised on the 29th of Sept. so we are going to see him EVERY DAY to get him ready for that. umm... Oh then we ate dinner at a family's home. They are AWESOME! The husband is from Canada, not sure where, and the wife is from the Phillipines. the husband also served his mission there. They are a great family! They have one girl who is 4 years old and is super energetic, and way outgoing. She was dragging us both around, showing us EVERYTHING in the house. Then, we had dinner, which was SUPER GOOD!! The husband told us "now you know why I love doing the dishes, she cooks, and I do the dishes." The dinner was SOO good. Oh, and I told them about dad being maputepanoi, and they laughed at that, and thought it was cool. Oh, she marinated the meat we ate in 7up, and I told her about our adobo chicken, and she was like 7up? in adobo? We made it with just soy sauce, bayleaves, and stuff like that, not 7up. So it was fun. 

Oh, the musical fireside, Well, my companion is an opera singer, and we wanted something to invite investigators to, (there are like NO activities here) so the missionary dept. decided to put on two activities. One is a Ask a Mormon night, and the other is an evening of Broadway. My compnion and a sister in the ward are heading that up. Basically, members of the ward are getting up there and singing Broadway songs. So it's helped us get to know the ward members better, and we have something to invite our investigators out to. 

Oh, so the ward out here is PHENOMINAL. All the people are awesome, and everyone is taken care of. It's just really cool to watch. 

I am in love with this area. The people are great, my companion is awesome, and I have learned so much. I think my biggest fear is not learning, and not progressing. I want to get better. My companion is District leader, so this Thursday he gave a training, and he said in the training "at the end of your mission, you should look at yourself, and say I don't recognise myself any more." I want to do that. I keep seeing how much I have already changed, but I want to keep going. Anyways, things are going awesome out here with me. 

I love you guys, and I miss all of you!
I hope you all are doing well!
Good luck!

Love you

Calvin