Hi my sweet boy!
What a fun week to get so many pictures from you! 3 days I got surprise email pics from you! Thank you for sending them. It helps me to feel like you aren't sooooo far away and I can be a part of your life even when you are in Guat. I love the ones of Carlos. Especially with the caption "he is so happy!" HAHAHA! You could barely get a smirk out of him. How was the baptism? How exciting for you to already have your first baptism. How did it go? Did you give a talk or anything? How do they do them there? Is the rest of his family already members?
My favorite picture is of you with the priests! What a good looking group of guys! They look fun and happy! The picture reminds me of your setting apart blessing that Pres. Platt gave you when he said you will be like Ammon... known for your large stature but also for your large heart. Read Alma 17 today. There are so many parallels from Ammon's mission among the Lamenites and your mission among the same people. Verse 11 says: "and the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls."
I thought of that scripture when I saw the picture of you and the priests. I bet those ym look up to you so much. You are and good example to them and an "instrument of thee in my hands." You are doing amazing things there already! I continue to be amazed and so very proud of my son! How are they different from American ym their age?
I have been praying so much for you this week. President Packer says "Few things are more powerful than the prayer of a righteous mother." So always know that you have a mother, striving to be righteous, sending prayers to heavenly father for you many times through every day. I know Heavenly Father hears me and has blessed me by keeping you safe and blessing you with the spirit in your teaching. Another scripture that has given me comfort this week is D&C 84:88 It is a promise to missionaries and anyone willing to share the gospel. "And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." What a promise, Sam! That is for you!
How are your living conditions? Is everything okay? Are you comfortable at night when you sleep? You look like you've lost a little weight. Eat and stay strong so you can be productive. Do you get any protein? Can you get protein bars there? Chicken? Protien powder?
We had a good week here. Halloween was fun. We got the house all decorated just to take it all down today. It finally got chilly here. It has been so hot... like in the 90s until this weekend! Now it feels like fall finally! Sleeping with the windows open and sweater weather. Abby had a bunch of her friends over on Halloween to hang out. At the last minute they had to go get candy so they put on some lame costumes and ran out to terrorize the neighborhood. Abby got on Aliza's case that night because Aliza admitted to only emailing Tyler 4 times on his mission so far. Parker has emailed less than that! Abby got so mad at her! She said, "I miss Sam so much and I don't ever want him to forget it!" It was pretty sweet. Parker is starting to hang out with Will Scholl more and Gray doesn't like Will much so I think he is also missing you a lot right now. He stills hangs out with Parker, Nathan and Isaac but if Will is there, Gray's not as interested in hanging out. Its not a big deal but I think Will is a little shifty and Gray is just not into it (rightly so) and I'm not sure where Parker is in the whole thing.
Gray said tonight that he is going to really try to do the consulting thing as a career. Go to BYU, work a couple years and then try for a big school for an MBA (Harvard, northwestern, Stanford type schools). I've been trying to convince him to go to 1 semester of school before going on his mission. That way, you 2 will have 4 months together before he leaves and it will give him some experience away from home before the mish. What do you think about that? After seeing a lot of missionaries, what is your opinion?
How are things with your investigators? How's the language coming along?
Grandpa and Gradma Gayle are here. We had them over for dinner tonight. They talked about how much they love reading your letters. They have a Mormon dentist and so Grandpa and the dentist talk about you a lot. You've got lots of family loving and missing you my boy! Anyway, we had a nice time with them tonight.
I'm planning on having a "baby shower" for Guatemala moms. I am meeting with a woman who works with a Guatemala charity that says moms bring home their babies in newspaper because they can't afford a new blanket. So I will have a "baby shower" where everyone brings baby blankets that will be donated to the charity. It breaks my heart! When I brought you home from the hospital (in a blanket) I used to sing "Families can be together forever" to you all the time. I could barely get through it without tearing up because I was so grateful that you were my son forever. We sang that in Primary today and it brought the same tears. Happy, happy tears! I'm the luckiest mom ever!
I love you soooo very much my son! You're in my thoughts constantly and prayers always! I hope you have a wonderful week!!! Do you need anything? Please clean your kitchen and eat!
I love you infinity + infinity and even more than that!
xoxoxoxox
Mom
p.s. I have a new debit card for you. They sent one because they feel some of your info was compromised and so you need a new one. The expiration date will get you thru your whole mission. Keep using your old one until you receive the new one. Once you get it, let me know thru email and then I will activate it from here on that day. We will confirm through your pday email and then you can start using the new one. You will want to cut up the old one in 20 pieces once the new one is activated. But just use the one you have now until you get the new one and we activate it.
It also looks like some of your pictures are foggy. You probably have moisture in your camera. Can you put it in a bag of rice like a cell phone? how is it working? Im going to send a new one and when you get it, you'll need to send that one back to me. Its is under warranty so I can return it and if the new one I send you breaks, I'll send the other one. We can just rotate them if we need to. You have those water proof bags. Can you put your camera in one so it doesn't get wet? The problem might be just from the humidity but together we will figure it out.
I Love you sooooooo much!!! xoxoxox
PSS. Here is a link to your blog incase you want to see what it looks like:) So far mostly people the US read it. The most any one post has been read (by unique individuals … not counting repeats) is 76! You have had a reader from france and one from germany:) Weird! I send the link out every week to your email list after I add your new letter .. I also just cut and paste the letter to your missionary buddies incase they can't open the link.
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