Letter to Grammy

Our emailing with Dallin was really choppy this week.  Due to the time change he emailed just as sacrament meeting was ending and I was trying to respond occasionally while teaching my class - didn't work well.  He also kept getting kicked off the internet and there were long gaps in response.  We finally got a little bit of information from him and my mom forwarded a letter she received this week.  Dallin is close with all his grandparents, but he has a very special relationship with Grammy.  Here's are parts of that letter:

Hi Gram! So great to hear from you :) I sure do love you! Thanks so much for your email. It's always nice to catch a little update on home. 

I am doing fantastic! Thank you so much for your prayers and love and concern. We have a funny joke in our family that if we really want or need something to happen, all we have to do is ask Grammy to pray for it. Usually we just are joking around about a test or a game or something, but I really do hope you know I can feel your prayers even all the way out here. You are such an example of faith and I am so grateful to be a blessed beneficiary. 

I'll just take a little time to respond to some of your email: First of all, I am SO glad you got to meet Kalani! She's something special for sure. I'm also so glad you had fun with Justy at BYU. It's such a different kind of place to be, hopefully Justin is excited about potentially heading there. I also loved General Conference! It was quite an experience to watch it in the Kiribati translation, but it was a real testimony that the message and spirit are always the same regardless of how obscure the language is. 

Great to hear that Ben is having fun in Uruguay still! I certainly feel for him- having a struggling branch that is dependent is tough. It'll be a great experience for him though! I'm lucky right now, for the first time in my mission we have an absolutely fantastic branch. Nice little break :) 

So awesome to hear about all of busyness you and Papa are up to! You guys sure are staying active. I am sure that the stake is so grateful for your help and leadership. More than that, I bet the storehouse is so grateful to have such helpful volunteers who are very well experienced. I am also quite jealous of those good temple construction workers who get cookies from you each week! That must be a treat for them I'm sure :)

I am so happy to have gotten your email! I know you're busy, and it's great to hear from you. I'm sorry I'm not as good about responding as I should be, but I do hope you know an email from you always brings a smile to my face. Love ya Gram! Have a fantastic week. 

Love Dal

*Here is a little from our email:

I'm good. Good busy week. We had a lot of work and it was fun.  8 baptisms these next three weeks, and pres is coming to visit the 3rd of December and new senior couple comes next Wednesday, Anderson's leave the 26th. Also on the 26th we get two more elders - we'll be a district of 8 elders aka the most fun district on the mission! So that's exciting.

About our investigators... we are pretty well rounded.  One girl in primary, her brother in young men's, 3 girls in young women's, 3 guys in elders quorum, 1 relief society woman. Pretty well split from tracting and referrals. One of them is a couple and that's always good. 

We got the house, we'll move in this week sometime. New house is awesome. It's pretty big, has a second story even. We will sleep upstairs because it's cold. House is right on the beach and has an awesome wind, so we shouldn't ever be hot. Does have electricity. Not using the solar panel as much anymore, but it is still good to have since I'll most likely head back out sometime. Food is great on Christmas. Lots of good stuff. I'm liking Christmas a lot more the second time around. Sion is the man and our area is awesome. 

On a sad note, the missionary who was upset about us taking over the area left for SLC Wednesday. (See previous week for explanation) It was really hard. The missionary spent Tuesday in London visiting people and telling them I was a terrible elder. Honestly, it made me more sad than irritated, which is a sign of the mission changing me. I imagine (blank) is really sad, and I guess if (blank) needs to take that out by blaming me that's okay. I'm fine. All the members asked me about it on Sunday. Thankfully most of them said something like, we think you work hard, or we don't really believe that. So that was encouraging. It was rough. I don't really get it to be honest. 

*That was all we got before being cut off again, but it sounds like he is happy and healthy and doing great.  I'm grateful that he has another chance on Christmas Island while healthy to enjoy the people and the experience.  It's amazing how different a place can seem based on your situation and perspective :)