TUCSON, ARIZONA!!

Oh family! I miss you so much! I don't really know where to begin. My last week in the MTC was pretty awesome. I love it so much there. I really look forward to going back after these few weeks in Arizona. Everything is provided for you, there are so many people there, you're learning a lot--it's just so great. I still can't believe how good of friends you can be with people there because you're always around each other. I hope to keep writing some elders and sisters while i'm here and in Mexico.  So I don't really know what to say more about my last few days in the MTC. I loved going to the temple so often. It was really nice even when we just walked around the temple grounds. I loved that it was getting cold in Utah. I loved being in the advanced spanish class. The MTC is great. I also got a haircut there, haha.

So one week ago I took a jet to Tucson with four other elders. I loved getting to call you all at the airport. I'm excited to do it again. I just need to get more quarters. Aleksi better answer her phone this time!! We landed and our mission president and his wife picked us up witht the two elders who are assistantst to the president. They'd all read up on our information and stuff, so Elder and Sister Walker started talking to us about things they learned. Elder Walker had served his mission in Chile, so he really likes that I have Chilean blood in me. In fact, he was in Chile during the same last two years mom was in Chile (I'm pretty sure it was '72). He asked us all how our spanish was on a scale of 1-10. Everyone said 3 or 4, but because I said 6 or 7, I got assigned to speak English for this transfer :( since I don't need the practice. But, I've still been studying spanish and have actually been able to use it three times now. People like to tell us when we go tracting that they only speak Spanish. Well. I can speak it too. So I take over and then they tell me they're Catholic and uninterested. Fun.

My companion, Elder Ricks, is from Utah. He loves loves loves to talk. Before his mission he'd shattered his leg and was on bedrest for a year. So he had no one to talk to. And then he served his mission. So basically he is socially starving. But he only has 3 weeks left. We get along though. I've just learned how to nicely tell him he's being obnoxious or talking too much.  There's so much to study and to work on. There's so many rules and things to do. And two years is a LONG time. My days and evenings are nice because that's when we're actually working, talking to people, and meeting members. I love going to members' houses for dinner. So comforting. I really need your encouragement out here. It's so important that I remember why I'm serving a mission because it's what keeps me going. I want to bring families to have the same happiness we have in our family- and that's a happiness and a family based on the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's fun to actually be tracting and meeting real people.

Anyway, the days here are pretty warm. They're in the high eighties/low nineties. But the mornings and evenings are cooler. I love seeing all the cacti. Some people own the COOLEST houses that are just so Arizona. It's P-day and we're in the library. I've got a lot of letters to write. But you can write me at this address:

Arizona Tucson Mission

1840 E. River Road

Suite 102

Tucson, AZ  85718

I love you all SO much!! I miss you! But I'm working hard and trying to be the best missionary I can. This is hard work!

"Spiritual privileges that call forth the powers of heaven are available to all who diligently seek them."Sherri Dew