Received Tues Sept 9, 2008

Ahh...my last day here in the MTC.

I think normally stateside missionaries leave on Tuesday but there was some mission presidents conference or something, so we leave on Wednesday instead. I'm happy for that though...we get to go to the temple once more and go to more last devotional. Speaking of devotionals, Quinten L Cook came to our last devotional. He was on the committee that made Preach My Gospel, so of course he talked about that. It was an amazing talk. But anyway, half our district already left...all the international ones. They left yesterday.

Alriiiight...I remembered to bring my DearElder's with me this time. I still haven't responded to Mom's labor day letter where Zak, Quinn, and Mom wrote me. So...Quinn it looks like you're catchin up to me on pullups. I can probably only do 11 right now. I gave up on those because our stupid pullup bar is made out of metal and it pinches my hands when I use it. I do it anyway sometimes...I should take a picture of my hands after I use it next time...you can see exactly where the pull-up bar pinches me. How is Mario Kart Wii? It sounds like it should be pretty fun. I'll have to whoop you when I get back, so you better start practicing.

Bub...that was a good football update. I totally did not expect Brett Favre to come back. That's gonna be weird seeing him play for the Jets. And the story about Ocho Cinco made me laugh out loud. I also did hear that BYU won their first game. Our branch president told us that night when he came to our residence halls to visit us. And have fun waking up for seminary...even I don't have to wake up that early. Missionaries all have to wake up by 6:30, but here in the MTC we have to be in class by 7, so if you want to shower in the morning you have to wake up earlier. I usually wake up at like 6:15. But if it makes you feel any better, I have to report to the travel office here at 6am tomorrow, so I'm waking up at 4:45. That's going to be fun. Waking up in the morning is still definitely hard for me. Its not getting easier to wake up, but I think I'm just getting use to being tired in the morning. I wake up and I'm too tired to even open my eyes so I just walk around with my eyes closed walking into stuff, then I start to wake up more after I shower and get to class. Oh and Mom told me you have Sister Swift for English. I didn't know her either until I saw her at high school then saw her at church...it kind of scared me the first time. Just wait until you get sister To'o for a sub...haha...thats always interesting. While we're on the subject of football, I had better bring up fantasy football. Mom did update me on the Falcons, but I didn't hear if the Chargers won or not. I think I'm safe to assume they did. Looks like I won my first week of fantasy football too. I guess Bub gets some credit for overseeing my team.

OK....back to mission stuff again. No, nobody talked to me about Texas or any of the hurricanes. The only thing I know is that I'm supposed to be in the travel office here by 6:00am and that my flight takes off at 10:00am and lands at 2:19pm. I'm pretty sure there's a 1 hour time zone difference so the flight is only 3 hrs 19 min. That's plenty of time to convert all the people on the plane. haha...but in all seriousness they don't even give us Books of Mormon to give out, so I'm going to buy one for myself in case I find a good opportunity. I've stocked up on like 6-7 passalong cards too. I'm pretty set to go.There are 11 missionaries in my travel group, I'm not 100% sure if they are all going to my mission. 4 of us are from my district. Me, my companion, and the 2 hermanas. I did start packing. This last week one Elder was delayed because of some visa problems and the rest of his district left, so we picked him up as a 3rd companion until he left yesterday. We had to take him back to our rooms on Sunday to pack, so I just packed at the same time. So I'm pretty ahead of things. I've got a lot of room...packing as gone really nice so far. They do have a ton of rules about the weight of the bags and that you can only have 2 bags checked for free now or something. Pretty stupid rules...but I guess they need to find more ways to take money from people to make up for gas prices. I don't know when my P-day will be in Texas. E-mailing me the first week sounds like a good idea to me. We'll see how it goes and I'll figure something out. I remember Christopher (I'm not sure about Steven) would always print out the e-mail right away and just respond to the previous weeks email that he printed out and read the last week. I haven't been doing great with the whole taking pictures thing. I'll try to take a bunch before I get done packing though.

About my phone call...so Mom you told me your doctors appointment is at 9:30 PM?? did you mean AM? I'd assume so because that is a weird time for a doctors appointment. I'll call your cell phones though if nobody picks up at home. I think I'm just going to buy like a 15 minute calling card and use that. And the flash thing is just when you call someone you can hit flash and dial a 3rd person so its like a 3 way call.

No I am not sick of the MTC food. Sometimes it is nasty, but they always have like 3-4 food options and there's always something fairly edible. Its going to be a change having to cook everything for myself. I have been sleeping pretty well. At first it would take me like and hour or maybe 2 to get to sleep, not I can do it like 20 min. I am feeling well. Usually when a big change is about to happen a ton of anxiety builds up, but I feel fine now. I usually don't even realize when I have all that anxiety built up in me, but whenever it happens I can only eat like half as much as normal. This morning for breakfast I had 4 bowls of frosted flakes, a donut, and 2 glasses of powerade, so i think I'm fine. I'll definitely miss the easy access to unlimited donuts.

I don't get too nervous speaking Spanish. I know its going to be pretty rough for the first few weeks in the field, but I think I'll adjust pretty well. I really like speaking Spanish a lot though. I'm excited to be able to start speaking like natives and learn their little expressions they always use. All in all I've been doing really well. I just gave a blessing to one of the hermanas that is super stressed out. It was a really powerful blessing. It was a really good experience. She feels way better. After the blessing she wrote down everything about it she could remember in her journal.

Ahh...I'm running out of time!! A lot of things happened this week, but I guess its not so bad because I'm going to get to call home tomorrow anyway. Ok...I'm excited to talk to you tomorrow! I've got a lot of stuff left to do today. I love you all and miss you!!

Love,
Chase