July 29, 2015

July 29, 2015

It's so weird that in just a few days it'll be my 2nd Fast Sunday as a missionary.  Nathan reminds me in his letters that he is just going to count down the Fast Sundays, so now it's almost 22 left! And soon it'll be in the teens, then single digits and then I'll be home.  One of my companions has been saying that it feels like it's been forever, and honestly I feel like I've blinked and it's the end of July.  It's weird, and it only makes me want to work harder because it really is making me realize how quickly the time goes by.  I'm sure it'll only become more and more apparent the longer and longer I'm out.  Oh also I can't recall if I told you all or not, but Nathan refers to himself as my M.C. (minny companion) in all of his emails which cracks me up.  He is such a cute little guy and I miss him tons.  

So this week has been pretty uneventful other than a few cool moments, so I'll just focus on those for most of the letter.  So yesterday was really the first time that I felt super homesick, and I'm sorry that it wasn't for all of you, but rather for NYC.  Elder Sonderegger and I have been sick at different points this week, and I just had a pretty bad cold and felt super congested (I'm almost done with the mend right now) and Elder Sonderegger was far worse than I was.  He's not doing great today either, but he's feeling better.  Anyway, yesterday we took him to the Health Clinic.  Elder Mehr and I were in the waiting room while he had his check up, and they always have either a General Conference talk, or a Mormon Message playing.  Anyway a Mormon Message started playing that took place and it was titled, "God is Our Father."  And it was a video interviewing different members in, guess what, NYC.  All of a sudden I'm watching it and BAM, there's Sister Kell talking, and then Pauline Tautu from Manhattan 2nd, and then BAM Chin-Li.  I just started bawling, it was really hard to see all those people from back home and just realize that it isn't where my family lives anymore.  When they all popped up for the first time Elder Mehr was there and I just called out, "That's Sister Kell!  That's Sister Tautu from Manhattan 2nd!  That's Chin-Li, my dad and I were her home teachers!"  It was just really hard, because there are so many wonderful people in my life, and it's just weird that NYC might never be a place that I call my current home ever again.  Plus, I just got a dear elder from a friend Quincy who's family is moving to Pennsylvania, and she just sort of mentioned how it's weird that she knows family Christmas dinner won't ever be held in South Carolina again for at least the foreseeable future.  It was just a rough moment, but as I think about it more, the more happy I am just that I have so many wonderful friends and family all throughout the world.  

I also got an opportunity to talk to one of my friends for about 30 minutes over lunch one day, and it was a lot of fun to catch up.  He just had to get his tonsils out the other day, so he's been on percocets for the last few days, and it's been pretty fun to basically see an Elder who is acting like he just got his wisdom teeth taken out.  His name is Isaac Bradshaw, and he's one of my good buddies from freshman year.  Anyway, we just reminisced about some of the fun nights we've had, but that we're both so happy to be here right now and go to places where we know we will change and hopefully be able to change the lives of others.  It was pretty fun to be having that conversation with someone who was pretty out of it.  Hahaha, it makes me think of my wisdom teeth being taken out, I think Heather is the one who has some pretty good videos of me just singing up at Uncle Dave's.  You should ask her about them sometime, they're golden.  

In terms of what has been going on on this end, we've had a pretty awesome and spiritual week. One of our investigators/teachers Mila/Sister Handley has been "progressing" really well.  It's weird talking about them like completely different people, but role playing is something that really helps and that we've really enjoyed.  Anyway, we made the decision to extend the invitation to be baptized.  Anyway at a point in the lesson, she asked why we are happy all the time.  And I just knew I had to answer and that somehow it would work into the invitation to be baptized.  Anyway, I just took flight and talked about how we're happy because we know that there is a Christ and that he loves us and wants the best for us.  That he died for us so that we can return to live with our Father in Heaven, and we talked about how this brings us sustained happiness in our lives. I then kept going and told her that we are here not because we were forced to, or because our parents want us to, but because we love Christ, and we are grateful for his atoning sacrifice. The Spirit was just so strong, even though it was all role play!  It was crazy awesome and I just felt so incredibly good.  I wish I could always feel like that.  I then extended the invitation to be baptized and she accepted, it was so awesome.  It was the best experience I've had thus far at the MTC.  

Other than that, my companions and I got called to be Zone Leaders, which for those of you who are getting this email and aren't Mormon, basically means that we are in charge of all the people in our zone (who will either be serving missions in Ukraine or Russia) and just facilitating church responsibilities, who teaches lessons on Sundays, and helping out the District Leaders (who are in charge of smaller districts) with issues that they aren't sure how to solve.  Anyway, there will like 90 people in our zone as of August 12, and are 60 right now, so it's a big and kind of daunting responsibility.  Anyway, it's been fun, but I should get going!

I love you all, you're all the best, and thanks for the support you all are to me!  Love you and uvidimcya!<--My attempt at spelling "see you later!" in Russian without the Cyrillic alphabet.

Love, 

Elder Belnap

PS  Oh also, some people in our zone leave this coming Monday, and it's the group of people I would say that we're the closest too which makes me very sad :/.  Anyway, I don't have a lot of pictures this week, so I'll be sure to send you some pictures of me with them next Wednesday.  I'll check to see if I have any good pictures to send!  Love you, bye!

PPS  Oh last thing!  I hope you are enjoying the Mount Timp hike, I loved the picture from kelly!  I'm plenty jealous, that's all I've wanted to do since getting here is go on a hike because it's hard having all those beautiful mountains staring us in the face.  Anyway, I love and miss you.  Glad the family reunion went well, glad the shower went well, glad you got to see the murris bachmans and kouznetsovs.  Love you tons momma, sorry I just forgot to include all these things in the email.  oops.  Ok love you bye!

Elder Guerrero from NYC going to San Francisco.  He & CAB knew each other from scout camp

July 22, 2015

First off, here's my address:

Elder Christopher Alan Belnap

AUG31 RUS-SPET

2007 N 900 E Unit #36

Provo, UT 84602

  Second, just do the verses 15, and 22 and if you cant do both of them then just verse 15 please.  Lastly, nope, nothing that I would need that I don't have currently!  We've gotten a lot of books but hopefully, with all the stuff I'll be done with by the time I leave the MTC there will be plenty of space/weight that will have opened up.  I'm glad we packed as many toiletries as we did, it's just made it one last thing I'll have to worry about for the duration of my time in the MTC.  

I love Nate's and Jack's little bromance.  It makes me laugh because I think of how hard it would have been for Aaron and I to stay really close if I moved away that young and somehow those two manage, it cracks me up.  I'm sorry to hear about the dark room, and I'm glad you were able to take care of it relatively quickly (well not entirely ;) ).  Little Nathan cracks me up when it comes to his fashion, I take some of the blame for it because we're the ones that originally made him want a suit 3 Christmas' ago (wow that long ago!!  That's crazy).  He just knows he is a good looking kid and wants to work it, I can't blame him.  Also good luck with the Bridal Shower, I'm sure it will all go wonderfully :).  It was such a pleasant surprise seeing Zack when he came out for the pictures, I'm really happy for the two of them.  Please keep the tales of Grandma and Grandpa coming, I love and miss them both tons.  Grandma just cracks me up and I miss all of Grandpa's stories.  I love that you get to spend time with your parents as much as you do.  Also I love that Jazzy J got to come to Utah for a week.  She and Caroline sent me these yummy little cake bites that were SOOOOO delicious, and I also got a dearelder from Ryan as well which was really nice.  Caroline and Ryan when you read this I hope you got my letter!  I love you both and thank you!  As well as Jazzy J of course.  I'm glad Rebecca got to spend some time with them as well, I'm sure she had a blast.  Also, I can't believe she's already in Texas, I'm glad she's having a lot of fun with Kirsten, and I'm just glad it all worked our for her.  I'm also glad you got to spend time with Janae!  She's the absolute best, and yes you're right, you do have some of the best friends.  It still makes me laugh how you became close with literally all of our best friends parents in a way that was more than just because we were friends with them.  You and dad are certainly both the reason why I'm good at meeting people and making new friends/good impressions so quickly, because I've been watching the two of you at work my whole life!  Also the story about Grandma playing rummy cube and also just lugging all her stuff around made me laugh.  She's too cute and I miss helping them out at the house, that was always a little joy for me being up in Ogden.  I would have been sad as well if I had to sit there at the gate right next to a flight going to Shremetyevo, I hope I get to fly through there on my way to St. Petersburg.  I won't get my flight plans until I only have 2 weeks left in the MTC.  Also, when do dad, Spencer, and David come back?  Only a couple of days left now.  It's weird thinking that there are only a couple of days before the Belnap's are no longer in Russia.  But it's also good to know that in just a few weeks there will be a Belnap returning to Russia :).

Anyway, to get started on my end of things because I know that's what you're all waiting to hear. This week has had a lot of funny moments, a couple of sad ones, and as usual a plethora of spiritual ones (there's a new vocab for Nate to learn).  To start with the sad and just get it out of the way, this Monday was the Monday that everyone in our district left us for the Madrid, Spain MTC.  I'm sure they're having a fun time, but it's been kinda weird just having the 3 of us in a classroom.  We were really sad to see them all go, they're all wonderful examples and I know that I'll feel this way every time someone leaves/I leave while on my mission.  On the plus side of all of that though, we know get to combine our District meetings with the district that is entirely made up of missionaries going to Moscow, and they are all so awesome and so much fun to hang out with.  I play basketball with a lot of them, and they're all good but I'm also just a very large human being so it makes for good competition.  Also, just having a class with the 3 of us means we get a lot of 1 on 1 time with our teachers which is so helpful.  Especially because I'm ahead of my companions in some of the grammar aspects it's like we're able to take 5 minutes from the lesson and they're able to help me while my companions keep reviewing and we can move on.  My companions are also taking advantage of that as well when it comes to questions they have.  I still can't believe we're already working on cases 3 WEEKS into it.  It's been crazy and it's truly a miracle and a gift when it comes to how fast we learn the language.  We also got a few new districts in our branch and now our branch that was 20 or so missionaries when we came here 3 weeks ago is now 60 something.  It's been kind of crazy logistically but it's been so much fun to have all of them, they're all a lot of fun.  

Ok, so I gave the sad story from this week, but we also have had a lot of fun.  One of the Elder's in the Moscow district and I may or may not have gotten into a prank war of sorts.  His name is Elder Sampson and he's hysterical, but I think we're going to call it quits.  It started just with him stealing my name tag when I wasn't looking, then gummy bears in my shoes, then I put beef jerky in his bed, then he stole my shoes and put them in the ceiling, and now I think I should call it quits before it stops being fun and get's crazy haha.  Although I still haven't ruled out beef jerky in the pillow.  ESPECIALLY because the ventilation in the rooms are absolutely horrendous.  The other day we brought back a fan from our classroom just for the night because it was impossible to get the stink of retribution jerky out of my sheets.  Also, another Elder in the Moscow district is INSANELY good at just stealing pens/nametags/you name it from right under your nose.  It's pretty crazy how good he is.  He stole my pen while I was waving my arms all over the place talking and people told me after how he was anticipating my every movement and managed to stay right in my blind spot and then grab it at the precise moment a window opens.  It's pretty funny I have to admit.  Last night he tapped me on the shoulder and got me to turn into a wall, he was pretty ecstatic.  He's one of the people I'm closest to, he's just a really funny guy, but also serious and hardworking when it's time to be serious and hardworking.  Another one of the funny stories from this week is that since we've arrived one elder in the Moscow district has been getting letters from a crazy guy in his ward back home.  They're all really random and talking about family history stories about his father serving in the ward or something and they're hysterical.  So we have this one Elder, Elder Maxfield, who is incredible at doing voice impressions, read them in whatever way the audience wants him to that night.  It's every night at 9:45, and he can do German, lisp, British, C3PO, you name it.  It's awesome, and too funny. The guy also ends all his letters with "Rock and Roll Rules.  Wink."  Because his last name is Winkle and yeah, they're just too funny.  We call it the Daily Winkle, although some people have petitioned for "A Winkle in Time."  Those are most of the funny stories from this week, although everyday something funny happens.  I've also gotten close to a lot of the sisters in my zone, they're all too funny.  OH, last funny story, last week I just got a transfer journal, and sarcastically I decided on one that was pink, and has a quote from David O. McKay that says, "Happiness is found along the way of the journey," or something to that effect.  One of the sisters dared me to get it, so of course I did, and it's made everyone in the zone laugh when they find out that it's mine.  I also found a photo in my wallet of my from picture day in like 4th or 5th grade when I was still rocking the sweater vest, and I wrote a bio about myself in the 3rd person and then taped the picture in underneath.  It's gone about as viral as it can go for a place that has very restricted technological rules.  Oh last funny story, so one of my buddies who is at the MTC right now has a really funny companion, and one time we were walking back from the devotional together because it just so happened that we were sitting next to each other and my friend told him that I basically know everyone at the MTC.  He didn't believe me so he told me to call ahead to someone and see if they turn around.  I just so happened to see one of my friends so I called his name and he turned around.  So anyway this guy just started pointing at people, and he did it 3 times before we had to go, and each person was someone that I just so happened to know by name.  It was pretty funny, I guess sometimes it can be hard being this popular ;).

Anyway, for a spiritual experience this week.  Today we got to go to the Provo Temple and participate in an endowment session.  I just had such a wonderful time being there with several people from my zone and just realizing that we are all here for the same purpose, even if we didn't all arrive here with that purpose in mind.  Sometimes people talk about Jesus Christ as just a man that lived 2000 years ago, but I know that he is so much more than that.  He died for us, he knows us by name, and he loves us, the same way that we have a Father in Heaven that knows us by name, and loves us beyond what we can currently comprehend.  My testimony of that has just gotten so much stronger of that truth in the last 3 weeks since I've been here, and I just felt that so strongly being able to go to the temple today.  I've always known that, but now I just feel way more confident in just sharing with everyone what it is that I exactly believe.  I know I've shied away from sharing that in the past, but I'm definitely far more assured and confident in what I believe now which is an awesome feeling :).  Also, last thing before I go, I have to thank Aunt Carlin for the package!  She sent me chips and salsa and after our service activity last night some of the sisters and my companions had a little relax time before we had to head back to the dome.  So we all just ate the chips and salsa and talked for a little bit which was a lot of fun.  There are some really cool and fun people I've gotten to meet while I've been here.

Anyway, I should get going on the pictures.  Not a lot this week but a few.  OH, sorry I keep remembering things I want to share.  Last story I promise.  So one of the Elders that left for Spain, Elder Sandberg, is REALLY good at piano.  One of his favorite things to play is a jazzy rendition of How Firm a Foundation which sounds really good.  So the last day before they all took off we just decided to record us singing along to it.  It was SOOO good, although we had a couple of hiccups for the most part it was awesome.  We did all 7 verses and it was probably the highlight of my MTC experience thus far.  Ok, now I'm done.  I love you all, thanks for the dearelders you send my way, and I'll hear from you in a week!  Love you especially mom, thanks for all that you do!

Love, 

Elder Christopher Belnap

After singing How Firm A Foundation

All the Elders in district leaving for Spain MTC

Vladivostok Sisters.  Check out Sister in the back ground

Zone on Temple Grounds Sunday walk

July 15, 2015

My goodness mom that was a mouthful!!  I loved it all though, I want to hear everything so I'm more than happy that you didn't omit much, I love all those stories.  And it's ok I'm making up for you being sluggish by doing a whole lot of work!  It's crazy how fast the language comes when you're working all the time on it and you're also working on growing close to the gospel.  Rebecca basically filled me in on all of girls camp in a dear elder and yeah it sounds like she had an absolute blast from what she told me as well.  I'm so glad you're getting to spend so much time with grandma and grandpa and I'm glad that the kids are doing so as well.  I miss them tons and just send them my love please.  Also Reilly gave me a copy of Matt's talk that he sent to her in a dear elder and I'm so proud of him and the talk he gave, he's going to be a great missionary and do great things.  Although by day 2 his head will hurt from all the Spanish thrown his way like you won't believe.  ByFriday here my head was about to cleave in 2.  But since then things have gone great, and my companions and I are getting along way and doing well at attempting to SYL always.  One of the things that I've done to help that is go to the laminating office they have here and getting pages shrunk down and laminated so that I can refer to all these phrases as slightly large laminated flashcards.  Plus I love being able to laminate whatever I want, a little too much so.  I was a little too excited to have lost one of my cards because it meant I got to go back and get a freshly laminated tiny one.  It makes my companions laugh.  I also got a wonderful letter from Uncle Art this week.  Uncle Art I just want to give you a shout out in the email and say thank you!  I absolutely loved it along with your sage pieces of advice.  I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful family around me, supporting me and buoying me up.  I love you all so very very much.  Also Nate sent me an email about being really ticked about being grounded, but now he knows he has to be nice to Rebecca if he wants to spend time with friends so I guess it's a lesson learned.  Also on Monday 7 of the 10 people in our district leave for the Spain MTC.  My companions and I are really sad, but also know it'll be for the best, especially when it comes to the classroom and trying to learn the language there.  

Anyway, I love the travel log and keep it coming every week.  I love hearing about how cute the kids are and going to museums and stuff.  Also I love that Ryan took Nate fishing, I bet he's glad he has a wonderful fisherman to take him fishing haha.  Now to fill you in on a little bit of what happened this week.  First off one of the girls in my zone is named Sister Sommers and I found out that one of my best friends from the Y, Quincy Haisley, and her are best friends.  It was a lot of fun to make that connection and then we proceeded to share funny stories with the other about are mutual bestie.  We have some wonderful people in our zone, I love them all.  THey're just so much fun and it's so great to make a whole lot of new friends.  It's also fun having people from the Y come in in droves every week.  It really does feel like a reunion.  I love it.  Plus some of my buddies who I would play bball with a lot arrived either last week or today so gym time is going to be a lot more fun now.  I've just been having a lot of fun meeting everyone and growing close to people while also working really hard on the language and just growing closer to the gospel.  I don't understand how people can dislike the MTC, yes the days can sometimes be long, but the experience has no compare.  And I'm sure the field is going to be twice as amazing, which just really really excites me.  

Anyway for a more spiritually oriented story.  One of the things that I had been struggling with is exact obedience.  My district leader is really really particular on it and my attitude is that if I still have a thought I want to finish in my journal entry then I want to finish it.  Anyway, I had been trying really hard to not distract my other companions, go out in the hall and just take 5-10 more minutes to finish up, but then my district leader would come out and pester me until I came inside.  It was really starting to get on my nerves and I resolved that if he were to do it again that I would sorta tell him to stop concerning himself with something that he shouldn't be stressing himself over.  Anyway, that day I decided to pray about it before my personal study and ask to receive an answer as to how I should handle this situation when I firmly believed that neither of us were in the wrong and that he should just concern himself with more important matters.  Anyway I read in the Book of Mormon and then in my Patriarchal Blessing and I received an answer loud and clear.  Basically while I was reading I came across a sentence that councilled me to be easily teachable and corrected, especially when it comes to offices of the priesthood.  And it sorta hit me that whether I like it or not that I need to be obedient to someone that was called to be my district leader, and that although I don't agree with some of the ways he goes about things, that I need to respect him.  So although I'm not his biggest fan, since then I've felt really humbled just in the fact that I received an answer to my prayer and I've just resolved to get started writing a little earlier so that it doesn't need to get to the point of not being able to finish.  Also I watched Meet the Mormons for the first time here and I cried.  It's such a touching documentary just some of the stories and it was just so well made and fun to watch.  

Anyway that's about it on this end.  Also in answer to your first question, my companions have been compiling an album of my episodes of narcolepsy.  The other day I hit a wall in class that I just could not push through no matter what.  My companions would hit me, I'd open my eyes for a few seconds, and then I'd be right back asleep.  It went that way for about 30 minutes until I almost slid completely out of my chair.  I was awake after that.  Most times I've been pretty good about being able to push through, or just going to get some water real quick and coming back.  One thing that has really helped is getting a fan and keeping it pointed my way for the lesson. I guess narcolepsy has its perks of getting a fan all to yourself in the month of July.  But anyway I'll be sure to send you some of the photos, they're pretty funny.  I love you so so so so so so much mom!  Oh and also don't ever feel bad for not sending me a box of goodies or something because one of our roommates seems to get at least 1 a day.  And he got 3 yesterday.  So the last thing we need is more tempting goodies in our room.  Anyway I love you all so very much and I'm excited to hear from you next week!  I'll send pictures in just a few minutes!

Love,

(Elder) Christopher Belnap.

^Just trying to not forget that my first name is actually Christopher and not Elder that's all                                                                                                                                                                         

MTC, CAB and ?

MTC district

Narcolepsy.1

Narcolepsy.2

Narcolepsy.3

July 8, 2015 1st week at MTC

Well where to begin!  It's been such a crazy and insane first week at the MTC, I can't believe that I'm already a week into it.  The first couple of days felt like they were a month and a half and I was thinking, "oh my goodness how can I do this for two years?!?!"  And then the last couple of days have been like, "oh my goodness how have they gone by that fast?!?"  So I have my journal with me and I'll try to give you a play by play of what has happened.  Oh and also, tell everyone to use dearelder.com.  It's and awesome website where you can type up letters and give same day responses.  Even if you don't have my P.O. Box number (It's 36) they still get to me and I get to read them.  So tell Nathan and Rebecca to do those, they can fill me in on all the little things that happen everyday while I'm at the MTC and given that that is two more months they can give me a lot of little notes.  I won't be able to respond until the next week but still, worth it :).  So I don't know if you got the picture from President Burgess but when he saw me on the first day at the MTC he recognized me from Jamboree, although he knew me as the little brother of the young man he played catch with (always in David's shadow).  We talked about the Buckner's and NYC for a little bit, it was a lot of fun.  There are 10 people in our district, 8 elders, 2 sisters, and 2 trio-companionships.  Why 2 trio-companionships do you ask?  Well because everyone except for my companions Mehr and Sonderegger (more on them latter) are going to the MADRID, SPAIN MTC on July 20th.  And they had no idea until they arrived in the MTC that that was happening to them.  And two of them are from Provo, and their families are just finding out today.  Crazy, huh?  So my companions are both from Kaysville, we all get along really well (sometimes too well and need to bring back the focus we need, but we do a pretty good job of it).  To answer your question I surpassed my knowledge of Russian on day 1.  As soon as you dropped me off, I got everything I needed, dropped off my bags, and went to class for 3 hours.  And it was all in Russian.  We learned a lot in that day, but it's been good.  Right now I'm definitely the best in the class when it comes to cases and conjugations, and probably vocab as well, just because it sticks a little easier, but not by much.  It's crazy what has heppened in 6 days.  On the 2nd day we had to teach an "investigator" and it was really really really hard but definitely an awesome learning experience.  I also received some dearelders from Brother Litster which was awesome, I forgot to grab his email with me, but if you can message him on facebook or something and get his email I would love for you to add him to the list.  Then the 4th of July was awesome, although we had like 9 hours of classroom instruction which sorta blew my mind, they were surprisingly productive, especially by my usually standards of productivity.  I finally saw Stone Shimai, one of my faves from BYU, after what felt like an eternity of seeing everyone else, (oh yeah that's also what our first companionship inventory was on, me stopping to say hello to people like every 10 steps.  Now I just wave and continue on my way).  We got to watch the stadium of fire and I made a jump rope out of glowsticks which was fun.  Then the MTC security guards stopped us because apparently having fun while watching fireworks isn't allowed because it was "dark outside".  Ok suuuuuuuuure, *party poopers*.  One of our goals is to read the BOM by the time we're done at the MTC and we're at the end of 1st Nephi right now and it has been awesome, I didn't know reading a book could bring as much peace as it does, but with all the struggling with the language it has been really nice to have that peace.  Yeah then Sunday came and that was the first day that took off it felt like, the first couple were FOR-EV-ER and then Sunday just flew by. I took a couple funny pictures with some of my friends, but we're having issues with the pictures right now, I'll try and send them all to you later.  Stupid MTC computers.  But yeah all in all a wonderful time thus far, I cried at Nate's cute little "at first I cried but then I felt like a caveman" it was just too cute.  I love all you guys so much, and miss you so much, but I'm also having a great time and not crying myself to sleep.  Also, just threw in the load and now I'll be able to send you the pics, because I guess all it took was trying a different computer.  So that's awesome too.  I don't know what else to say because it's just a lot of the same.  Working hard, unwinding for a few minutes everyday where we just laugh uncontrollably because Ctapeuwina Mehr gets really gassy from all the MTC cannon food.  We're all thinking of purchasing a fan for our room (you can choose to send that to people or not mom haha).  Just lots of fun, but also working really hard and making sure we know as much of the language as possible by the time we leave SYL'ing and trying to make the most of the 7 total hours of language study a day.  Hopefully more and more will stick after a while.  Anyway I love you all tons, write me, dearelder me, it's great to hear from anyone and everyone, but especially if you're on my email list it means that you're at least somewhat important to me :P.  Tell grandma and grandpa and cousins and the whole fam I miss them and love them and that I'm so thankful for everything they do in my life.  Love you tons Lalinny :).  Thanks for the letter, it was awesome, and as always you have great insights and are so intune with the everything.  LYTIABABA.  I'm going to write Nate and Rebecca now too (but seriously have them send Dear Elder's that way they can tell me a little something everyday at least while I'm at the MTC).

Your's truly on July 4

Me and my comps unintentionally repping USA on July 4

Me and my comps Mehr and Sonderegger

Me and my main SHIMAIS all going to Nagoya, Japan

Me and my comps

My Zone

SHIMAIS

Elder Bridger Smart aka Gator

Me and Sister Melissa Eging going to Temple Square Mission

Selfie of me and comps

4th of July