Four Corners Mission: Hosting, Giving Thanks, and an Old Friend

This week has been good, and yes I got your package, thank you.

Sounds like you could use some Dilaudid haha. It sounds pretty crazy and busy over there, and my schedule is crazy busy too. Hope everything goes well.

So this week we got new TRC investigators, and one of them, his name is Braulio, is very interesting to teach. The first time we taught him I'm pretty sure he fell asleep. He looked tired when we went in and it just got worse the longer we were teaching him. He kept nodding off and then would kind of shoot up like he just woke up, and because of that I even kind of started to fall asleep, so my companion decided to wrap things up early. Every time we go in to teach him he is the same, he'll nod off. But when we start asking questions about his mother and stuff then he is wide awake and has a lot to say, most of which isn't good. He has had a hard life, and so we are trying to help him.

On Tuesday we had a devotional from Elder Gary E. Stevenson which was pretty amazing. He and his wife talked about a missionary's Thanksgiving. One of the things that really stood out to me was when he said that going on a mission shows gratitude to Heavenly Father, and it got me thinking about how gratitude is more than just saying "thank you," you have to show it through your actions, and what better way to show Heavenly Father our gratitude for this gospel and the joy, happiness and blessings it brings us, than to share it with the world.

We got our travel itinerary a few days ago. I don't know if I've already told you, but we leave Monday morning at 4:20 AM, fly from Salt Lake City to Denver, then from Denver to Durango, and then we drive to the mission home. So I'm super excited to see Durango, and really hope that I'll be able to serve there.

On Wednesday we had the opportunity to host, and welcome all the new missionaries to the MTC. There were around 600 new missionaries! Some of them were supposed to come next week but because of Thanksgiving they got moved to this week. I only hosted one missionary, but it was a great experience! He was from Tonga and is going to Samoa. He is the only member of the Church in his family, and his dad wasn't very happy with him for his decisions, but he wanted to serve. The reason he was the only one I hosted was because he had a lot to do upon arrival. He needed to go to the MTC health clinic, and then needed to go to the BYU health clinic to get a chest X-Ray. So we got to leave the MTC campus, which I thought was amazing because when all you see is this little area that you are confined to for a period of time it's good to see something new. We took a shuttle to the BYU health clinic, and then we walked back, then I took him to the missionary assistance office where he got the rest of the items he needed, because he didn't have everything, I think he got some shirts, shoes, and there were a few other things I can't remember. But he did teach me some Tongan. Unfortunately I have forgotten most of it now, but I'm pretty sure "malo" is "thank you." That's about all I can remember, and I'm not even sure if that is right, haha.

During dinner on Wednesday I got to see an old friend that I haven't seen in a long time! It was *Elder Spencer Gleave!!!! It was so good to see a friend that I played baseball with and that I have a lot of good memories with, so that pretty much made my day! November 16 is one of my favorite days in the whole year!! I'm pretty sure that there is only one person that knows why, too.

Anyway that's what's happening. I don't know when I'll be able to email again, but until then I hope you're all doing well, and know that Heavenly Father loves you all, as do I.

Elder Takis

*Spencer Gleave, now Elder Gleave, is from a different part of Utah. Elder Takis and Elder Gleave were both chosen to play on a sort of "All-Star" baseball team that was together for two summers. They did some major traveling together and became very good friends, but only got to see each other occasionally after that when they'd run into each other at tournaments while playing for their respective high school teams, and when they were both selected as Utah High School All-Stars. Elder Takis later wrote that he had just sat down to dinner at the MTC and he saw Elder Gleave and ran up and gave him a hug and they had a good talk. Neither had any idea the other was there. Elder Gleave is going to be serving in Italy.

Elder Takis also tried to email some pictures, but had several technical difficulties so only a few of them are as yet available for viewing.

These cans have been passed down through 3 generations of missionaries in our district.
We are at around 200 cans right now, and are trying to get to 300 before we leave,
then we'll pass them on to someone else.