Tuesday, June 7, 2011

June 7, 2011


Dear Family,
I'm just so jealous of you getting to hear all of the good news about the babies in our family!  They are all so precious and I love that I can see them in that little photo album you sent me...  Thanks again for that!  That's awesome that Sophie took her first few steps...  I would say that I'm sad that I didn't get to see her walk around before leaving on my mission, but she'll be an Olympic athlete when I get back so no worries there.  It sounds like Ellie is turning into quite the adorable little tyke and Sadie and Maggie are cute as ever :)  Ryan was telling me about how she was already walking around and talking so you might want to stay a little more updated on that...  I just got a letter from Glen and Kendi and fam last night, but haven't gotten a chance to read it yet.  That was really nice of them :)  I love my family!
I thought that was so funny what you did with your Sunday School class!  I'm sure that they'll always love you as long as you keep giving them candy haha
Elder Solomon is from a little town in Indiana called Winchester.  It sounds a lot like Wellsville from what he's told me.  Apparently he was the first counselor in the Branch Presidency before he left and there were something like 20 people in his ward on a good day.  He got his endowments taken out in the Nauvoo Temple.  On Sunday an Emeritus member of the quorum of the Seventy talked to us about his experience being the Nauvoo Temple President and it was amazing.  You need to look up the history of that building and everything that happened leading up to the reconstruction of it.  There is no doubt in my mind that God knew that it would be rebuilt that it was built during the right time by the right person.  It's just crazy!  For example...  The stone quarry that the original sandstone came from is now underwater due to the construction of a dam somewhere near Nauvoo, so the church was worried about where to get stone to make an exact replica.  Sometime in the 20th century a project involving a lot of sandstone being transported to Chicago was cancelled and all of the stone was just dumped in a field somewhere near Nauvoo.  That stone is the stone that the church bought and used to make the temple.  It's just crazy!  There are cooler parts to the story..  Just look it up!  I really think that Dad in particular would like to read about that if he doesn't already know. 
Elder Rampton is from another little town but in Central Missouri called Moberly.  Both of my companions are really fun and hilarious to be around. 
So this week was awesome.  I learn so much that I find it hard to recall specifics.  But yesterday the resource teach, Hermana Keller, came into our classroom during language study and told us about her mission.  She told us that we needed to use every second that we were given.  It was really crazy how she talked about SO MUCH for an hour and a half straight and it all meant so much to me.  I might have to abruptly end soon, because I only have 3 minutes left just so you know...  Apparently there was this "secret combination" among some of the missionaries in her mission (in South Florida) that would wear beads under their shrits representing the awful things that they had done...  For example one of them apparently flew home and took a picture in front of his house and then flew back to his mission without the President knowing...  Well eventually he found out and they were all sent home, but I just thought that was crazy!  She just told us a lot about how we really need to "read the manual" and not take our missions lightly.  Preach My Gospel and the language books come from the prophets...  They really are scripture and I need to study them thouroughly!!
Love you a lot and hope you're all doing great!  I know I am!
Love,
Eric

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