Dear Mom and Dad,
Last night I opened the mail I got last week: a couple letters from Grandma Campbell and a letter from Mom with lots of letters inside. One of the letters in Mom´s envelope was from Dan. I especially liked Dan´s letter. He burned the edges to make it look more adventurous or something. Dan´s letters are fantastic. They always make me smile. I have the "mirror of reflection for when you are down" that he drew me pinned to my half of the bulletin board next to my desk. I still want to read his story about the tomatoes.
This week was really great. Here is the brief version of the notable but not that exciting stuff:
* We went to the capital to do paperwork for Hna Pullan´s visa on Friday. Then we went out for pizza with some of the other elders who went.
* Our zone leaders came to our weekly planning session and helped us plan. We learned a lot.
* Elder Godfrey came on divisions with us (accompanied by two pre-missionaries from the ward so it wouldn´t be scandalous) to meet all our investigators in the villa. It was hard to part with them, but I think it will be for the best.
Now for the best part: ANDRÉS WAS BAPTIZED AND CONFIRMED! About ten of his daughters and grandkids came to his baptism, which made it really special. They filled up the whole front row of the chapel! Andrés stood up to give his testimony in his baptism and started crying really hard. He cries really easily. I think he was really happy to be baptized. Afterwards we invited Andrés´s family to eat refreshments: fancy crustless sandwiches ordered by the ward mission leader. I think they felt pretty welcome. Andrés told us his daughters are really proud of him for giving up smoking. I am too! Not even one relapse! He is amazing! I hope he can keep it up after his baptism. I think he will.
Andrés´s confirmation was really neat too. He told me beforehand that he was even more excited to be confirmed than to be baptized. In the mission I´ve learned to appreciate the moment of the confirmation more than I did before. There is something powerful about seeing men holding the power of God encircle someone and bestow a heavenly gift as essential as the constant guidance of the Holy Ghost. I kept my eyes open for a little bit during Andrés´ confirmation, and watched his face. He seemed to look younger than usual, and at peace. Now two of his grandkids and one of his daughters have baptismal goal dates! One of his daughters who missed the baptism and her son and another grandkid came to see the confirmation. I suggested to the assistants that we should show them the baptismal font and invite them to be baptized. So they did it, and Deborah, Axel, and Ariel accepted! That was pretty neat. The assistants will be teaching them because Andrés and his family live in the villa that is no longer part of our area, but I´m still really happy about it.
Well, I´m out of time as always, so this is it for the week. Thanks for keeping your letters mostly free of comments and ideas about my post mission life. It´s been a little bit harder to focus lately because I´m constantly reminded (by other missionaries or by myself) that I don´t have very much time left. I´m trying not to count the days or anything lame like that, because I want the last two months to be the best months. Especially because I want to give Hna Pullan a great start on her mission.
Oops. One little post mission detail. I`m pretty sure I wrote on some BYU form that I would be coming back for Winter semester (January to April). I´m allowed to come back as late as Fall semester of 2012, but I think I need to tell BYU that I won´t really be back until Spring or Fall. Mom, can you look into that and see what, if anything, needs to be done? Ugh. I really don´t want to think about that because I really have no idea what to do with those empty months before I can go back to school. I try to cheerfully imagine (thought not too often or while I´m tracting) spending lots of great family time together, but the truth is that everyone will be in school or at work. I, obviously, will need to work too, and figure out the rest of my life/school/career plans. . . that´s enough. When I get back in January I´ll figure it out. Until then I´m trying not to think about any of that. Please keep helping me out with that by not writing more than ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY about coming home.
Well, have a great week. I love you!
Love,
Ellis
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