Editor’s Note: I got a little lazy and didn’t post last week’s
letter. So you get a bonus, dear reader, of two letters from Elder Latimer this
week!
Also, Josh can now receive and
respond to e-mail correspondence from friends.
If you want to write him, please e-mail him at joshua.latimer@myldsmail.net He would love to hear from you!
March
18, 2013
Hi [All]!
I will send my other [photo] card
home soon and make sure to package it well! That’s crazy about nana, I’ll make
sure to pray for her [Josh’s grandma had some health issues that are getting
better]. What is their address so I can send a letter?
I wish I could come to Mexico, but I
guess I have better things to do...
I am writing Chris [Taulbee – who is also on a mission]. I get an e-mail
about every other week or so. Seems like he is having an awesome time! I can’t
wait for it to be nice and sunny here, but I’m also dreading it because I guess
it’s usually in the 90's with 100% or more humidity. So that sounds miserable but
we will see!
I haven’t sent my shirts back. I
need to do that before it gets hot. Today they say there is probably a good
chance or tornadoes in our area, so hopefully if we get them they
will be close, but not too close! It’s
weird here because Saturday was 70 degrees or so, and Sunday it snowed the
whole day! Now today we have lighting
storms and possible tornadoes. It just can’t decide. When it rains here, it is
a lot of rain. One thing I have noticed is places like this don’t have a very
good drainage system compared to back home! There are mini lakes over roads everywhere!
My new companion is Elder
Parker. He is from Layton, Utah and
really tall. He has been out about 20 months so he is about done. It’s always
fun giving him a hard time about going home soon. I try to get him as home sick as possible. (I
guess missionaries call it "Trunky" but I hate that word so I don’t
use it) He is cool, I guess, but he is really quiet, and we don’t really have
anything in common, but we are both pretty relaxed guys so it will work out I’m
sure. It just won’t be as exciting as when Elder Hudson and I served together. It
helped that one of the Russell missionaries was way cool too, but they both
left.
That reminds me, a lot of
missionaries here say doing certain things are "Apostate." That’s my
least favorite thing they say. I don’t think they know what it means. One
missionary told me he was “apostate” because he visited espn.com. And
another told me that going to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings was
"Apostate" because the music and T.V's. in the restaurant. I call
them out every time because I believe being apostate is "forsaking your
religion, or God" or along those lines. I don’t think going out to eat at
Buffalo Wild Wings is forsaking our religion and everything we believe....
Anyway, missionaries use a lot of stupid sayings that just make me mad. One of
which is if a missionary is training, he calls his trainee is his
"son" and their previous companion is "mom" and there are
uncles, grandpas etc... which is just stupid, I think. Also,if a missionary is going home
he is dying or if he went home, he died. I think that’s stupid too. Anyway that’s
my rant.
We are still teaching the same
people and trying to get them to stop smoking/chewing and those things. Nothing
too exciting to report about that.
But we did see Elders Oaks,
Holstrom, Lancing, and Bishop Cossay? (Not sure how to spell it. He is french
so it probably has a lot of unnecessary letters in it.) It was awesome. We got to shake all of their hands. I
honestly can’t remember everything they talked about, but I did take notes. I do remember that was the fastest 3 hours
ever. Anyway, it was a cool experience.
I am also really enjoying the
weights i have been using them every morning and night. It’s just something to
kind of help keep my mind off things for a little bit so I can relax, but after
2 weeks I can tell I’m still slowly getting bigger, which is fun to see.
Love you guys!
Elder Latimer
March
25, 2013
Elder Parker is a cool guy. He is a little more reserved than I would
like but that’s ok, I can deal with it. We do have 2 new investigators. We
finally met with Mark and his daughter, and they are both on date to be
baptized in May! Hopefully he will decide to move it up so I will be here for
sure. I may stay another transfer, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I left. I
would like to stay, but we will see.
Our investigator, Leah, is making
progress on her own. We were over talking to her, and she expressed her desires
to start going to church and surrounding herself with good people. This is
mainly because she has had a tough life.
She is 27 and has 4 kids. One
sister just got out of jail and she and her three kids are now living with her and
the sister has started using dope again. Her other sister is in jail for
another 8 years and their boyfriends and stuff are always around. She has just
about quit smoking and wants us to teach her more about prophets and apostles.
So she is moving a long quickly.
And did Jake like Mein Kampf? I've
always wanted to read it. Too bad I can’t on my mission. Oh well.
Everyone here is talking about March
madness! I can’t believe the teams that are in the sweet 16! I would love to
watch them play. One of my favorite things is watching guys on teams like that
who do well and who put their life on hold almost to play ball and then have it
pay off. They look like they are 8 again. It’s pretty cool seeing how happy
they get for winning a game!
I did get the picture of the quilt.
I’ll probably do that [with my ties]! For my package there isn’t anything that I
really need -- just food and things like that.
Pres. Pitt told us we can now e-mail
friends back home! So if you could post my e-mail on my twitter and facebook
accounts that would be awesome! It makees
everything a lot faster and cheaper!
One cool thing I learned, but I
guess I already knew, was that we were having a terrible week the last week or
two. I thought to myself, “the Lord will give us trials, and if we keep our
faith and continue to work hard good things will come.” So I saw we were having
a bad 2 weeks and kept thinking, “if we just continue to work and do all that
we can do we will be blessed for our efforts.” Just this past weekend, we were
able to meet with Mark and set him and his daughter on [a baptismal] date. We also found out a new family in the ward has
a daughter who has not been baptized yet (she is 17), and Leah is working
forward fast! Also we gave a former
investigator a call and his mom was on her death bed but after she passes he
wants us to come a teach him. He sounded really sincere. Also, Mark has a
friend with a less active family we have been working with since I got here,
and who have not been coming to church. But mark invited them to church with
him this week! So we should have at least 3 investigators at church along with
2 less active families who are coming! Since we worked as hard as we could
those 2 weeks we have received a ton of blessings!
I will have to send you my notes
from Elder Oaks because I honestly don’t remember what he said for sure, unless
I read my own notes. So I can make a copy and send it to you.
I wasn’t sure who to send my shirts
too, so i sent them back to home along with my picture card and Jonathan’s
present. They said it should be there Thursday. So I hope it doesn’t get too warm
for the next couple weeks until I get those back the right size. I forgot to
check what size I need. I believe 2 sizes smaller, or 1 and a half.
That’s about all i have to tell you
now, I guess.
Love you guys!
No comments:
Post a Comment