9 October - more surprises!

Calvin had written last week that he would be at Zone Conference, so he wouldn't be able to write to us on his regular Monday. However, when Todd got home from work last night, he checked his email and there was a message from Calvin! So Miranda (who was up VERY late) and I checked my email and there were messages! YAY! Again, most of his emails are answers to things I have written to him, so I'll include what I wrote.

Dear Calvin,

Sophie is sitting on the arm of the couch, right next to your self-portrait. She says, "I love you Calvin," then gives the portrait a big kiss, and continues to have a conversation with it, filling in both sides of
the conversation. "And your eyes are so pretty, and your nose is so cute, and you're so handsome! We love you Calvin," she says as she tries to figure out how to wrap her little arms around the canvas.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm glad to know that she at least can say she loves me. I miss her a lot, and cannot wait to get back there to see her!!!!! I hope she doesn't think I'm the painting, or alll the pictures you get from here. I'll start to look like someone you all made up. 

So cute!!!!!!
Calvin

Sorry,
  I hit something funny and it sent the email without me saying:

Hope you have a great time at conference this weekend, and that you pay attention. If I had been more on the ball I would have sent you some conference bingo boards and some candy and stuff. I'm a
horrible mom. Oh well. Maybe in April I'll be better.

LOVE,
MoMM!!!

Momm, 

I got so much out of conference, I didn't want it to stop. I cannot wait to get the conference issues in the mail, and start studying them in more detail. The spirit of conference helped me out a lot! 

I hope you got lots out of it, but then I realise how dumb that just sounded because you probably sent me an email with all your thoughts on conference, so never mind, I'll just read your email! 

Anyways, I love you lots, and hope that emails can convey the love I have for all of you!

Calvin

Momm, 

Firstly, I'm writing on Monday because of a whole bunch of factors resulting in the fact that I get to write you today, regardless of what I may have said earlier. Now that the phrasing I used has completely befuddled both you and I, let's just forget the whole thing, and talk about conference. ( wow, that was wierd)

Anyways, That HUGE announcement is going to change a lot about missionary work. I'm sure there are going to be TONS of growth in missionary numbers, especially in sister missionaries. I expect we will see a flood of sister missionaries. This will change a lot of dynamics in missionary work, for instance, I could be training someone who is 18 years old. Wow. Anyways, another thing I was thinking of was in the press conference after that announcement, Jeffery R Holland said, "The Lord is hastening His work" What does that mean? Hmmmmmmmmmm........ It also struck me how many young men I may know who might be coming out sooner that before. But then I thought all my friends are probably already coming out, and are past that age, but many of them could come out on my mission a lot sooner that I thought. And, it scares me to death that Chantal may be leaving before I get back! But I really don't care that much about it. What she and the Lord wants, and I think it would be funny if she got called to the same mission as me!

Yeah, and President Nelson's talk was SPECTACULAR! It's one of the reasons I want the conference issue of the ensign to study in more detail. (It drives my companion crazy when I call it the ensin, like ensin crusher,) I got a lot out of conference. 

I was also ouched [now here I'm not sure if he means he was "touched" or "ouched" as in "this is something I sorely needed to be reminded of" but I'm pretty sure he meant to type "touched"] by one part of conference when they were telling us to show our love more for those we care about. I hope you guys all know how much you mean to me. I miss you, and cannot wait to get back to spend  time with you all! Emails are terrible ways to tell someone that I love them, but it's all I got right now! I hope that doesn't bother you, and if it does, please tell me, so I can send you a letter, or something nice. [hmmmm, I wonder if I told him emails weren't enough and I wanted the "something nice" instead, what would he send me? Hahahahaha! No, emails are just fine!]

I love you, and hope you are doing well!
Calvin

Dear Calvin,
So I forgot to tell you that Friday night Dad was changing Sophie's diaper (she wasn't asleep by the time he got home after work) before he put her in bed (she heard him come in the door and ran out
"Daddy! Daddy!")
Sophie: We go to the field hockey game tomorrow?
Dad: No, there isn't a field hockey game tomorrow, we're going to watch the Prophet.
Sophie: We're going to watch the Prophet play field hockey?
  Dad and I laughed and laughed - and Heavenly Father was laughing too when I started to pray. Sometimes I think he gets a real kick out of the things little kids say.

Momm, 

Don't stop sending me funny things Sophie does, I LOVE hearing about them. It's almost like I'm there. 

So then, you saw the Avengers! How did you like it? That movie is pretty much what I want to do when I get older. I actually might want to go more into the animation part of it, but I would love to make a movie like that. 

yeah, the apostles were VERY strait forward, it was like we beleive this and this, and we DO NOT beleive this. It was great for them to come out and say that. I love both those talks. The family seems to be a huge theme in this conference. 

AWW! I'm leaving, hopefully I will be able to send you more later today!

Love, Calvin

Hi again!

I am now at the house of a family [who] live on a farm, and raise horses. So tell Miranda I spent the last hour or two petting horses. I have pictures as well. [He just had to put that in because he KNOWS how much his sister LOVES horses!]

I’m glad to hear how attached Sophie is becoming to her sisters. I hope they continue to get close to each other. 

So, this week, what happened? Well, I took the lead one day, because it was Senior day. Which means I got to be senior companion for the day, and I did ok. Not super well. I didn’t know how to get to our investigators’ houses very well, and my companion acted like he was a greenie, to simulate what it will be like to train a greenie. So the morning went ok, until I started driving. I ended up almost getting into an accident, and didn’t know where I was going. [ACK!] So then we got to our first lesson of the day, which is with a Hatian woman, who doesn’t speak english very well, and her primary language is  french. So, I found out how much I have to improve on my french, which is a LOT. So after that, we went and had a great lesson with [another family]. That went great, and I got to use  my drawing foor good, because I drew the plan of salvation out on paper for her. So that made things a lot easier for the lesson. We reviewed the first half of the plan, then talked about the spirit world, judgement , and the three degrees of glory. We asked her what she thought of the plan, she said it gave her a lot of hope, that before when they talked about what happened after death, it was really foggy and grey, but now she has a lot of hope. That affirmed to me how the gospel gives people hope. It was awesome, because in the MTC I saw how much hope can be brought from this Gospel, and I wanted to give that to someone. Basically, giving others hope became part of my purpose for coming out on a mission. So after that, we went out to eat, and went to [the] practice for the upcoming Chapel Hill Showtunes, at the church. So, that was a lot of fun. All in all, not a bad day, but really stressful. I need to take Brother Uchtdorf’s analogy of the bike ride to heart. 

So, my week was really good, I hope you all are doing well. 

I cannot wait to see you again, but I will work my hardest to serve the Lord until I come back. 

I love you all!

Calvin