"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." - Isaiah 55:8

It seems like the whole two years I've looked back at that day when I found out that due to those 'petit mals', or small seizures, I'd have to wait even longer. I'll never forget how frustrated I was when I found out that after waiting for what already seemed like forever, I'd have to continue in a space of nothingness where I couldn't progress towards anything. No matter what I started, I knew I'd have to leave it for the two years that were looming off in the distance. After those extra 6 weeks, I finally made it through and blissfully started what became the greatest experience of my life. As great as every experience was, I feel like there wasn't a day that went by that I  didn't wonder why the Lord had delayed my report time. It just kept bugging me and bugging me. Before the mission, I seemed to have all of my life plans worked out, and as the report date came and was even more delayed, I saw that apparently everything I had planned was not the Lord's plans, and I definitely wasn't thinking what he was thinking.

After some time full of countless miracles and experiences that I'll cherish forever, those last 6 weeks finally arrived, the time where I would have gone home, but the time where someone else saw it was necessary to keep me here. I figured that I'd been out in Gilmer for 7 and a half months, I had lived the dream there, and decided it would be the most fun to go back to the city and finish my mission in Oak Cliff- the area I had loved so much.  I had it all figured out and just about had all the weekly planning done for what I was convinced would be my new area, Oak Cliff East! It was going to be so awesome, and the greatest part about being an old missionary out in the Texas Dallas Mission is that President Durrant is known to send you wherever you want to go and will almost bend over backwards to meet needs and desires. I figured that my relationship with President even gave me that much more of the advantage...so I scheduled an interview with him after one of our meetings and as you all know, to my surprise, left that interview with the knowledge that yet again, my plans were not the Lord's plans neither my thoughts his thoughts.

With an eye of Faith and what seemed like an unquenchable desire that I would do whatever the Lord had especially planned me to do, I felt like I did nothing special, but just carry on what I'd been doing for the past 23 months now by working my heart out. I truly can't tell you how many times in my mission, and especially these past few transfers, how many times I've prayed to know the "why" the Lord had delayed my Missionary service. I didn't feel like I was asking for a sign, but I wanted to see something, anything! I wanted to know why, out of all the places on this planet I was sent to spend almost half my mission in what many people have dubbed a "podunk town" called Gilmer. This past week I truly have never felt so grateful and so in debt to someone I have come to know and love as my Heavenly Father. Through the course of my mission I have learned that he really does love us and isn't some distant spirit being off somewhere in Space, but gave us families as an example of our relationship with him and truly does care about every single one of our desires. I was recently able to see him answer more than just one prayer coming from more than just one person.

I'm going to backtrack a little bit to the time when I just got in the area with Elder Browning and started working in the beautiful area of East Texas! I was so pumped as I felt like we were truly our own mission! So far away and separated from the city in location, people, and even the way we worked. We were always scrambling around to find people that we could teach and became interested in a couple that our Ward Mission Leader was trying to set up with us. The couple, Mason and Kristy, were about my age and had gotten married a few weeks after I arrived in Gilmer. I didn't know anybody out here too well, but everyone was excited about their marriage. It was the talk of the town on the Baptist and the Mormon side (which covers just about all of Upshur county) due to the fact that he was Baptist and she was Mormon. We figured that would be a perfect opportunity for us to bring the blessings of the gospel, especially a temple sealing, to the new couple, but as the church started getting involved, we were disappointed to find out that Mason's family was not only active Baptist, but that his Dad was the Pastor. On top of all that, Mason was diagnosed with Leukemia and with not too much time, began his prescribed and yet strong doses of chemotherapy. With those flags in the air and other details involved, we were completely pushed to the side and investigating the church was completely out of the picture. We accepted the truth, more sourly than we should have, I'll admit, but returned to finding and teaching.    

Time went on and two companions later, Elder Trias and I continued the work we had been doing before. As December rolled around, we started seeing a lot more of Mason and Kristy and would always chat with them about how the treatments were going and talked about visiting with them. I still have no idea how we kept running into them, but we eventually found out that his strong treatments were just about finished and that they finally wanted to meet with us! We were sooooooooo stoked to get to talk with them (and that they had somehow gotten over the taboo'd idea of meeting with Mormon missionaries when your Dad's a baptist preacher.) I remember setting up the first appointment with them, and for some odd reason, it seemed to fall right where my last 6 weeks began. In-between that time frame my request to leave the area was shot down and I anxiously, or more so frantically, prayed that I would be able to do whatever the Lord wanted me to and that I would come to know it. I would pray pray pray...then wake up and realize that I was still on my knees, and continue my prayer and then go to bed. Meanwhile, the lessons with Mason were going better than I had seen before. The things we taught started making more sense to him and the questions he had felt like questions I had been specifically trained to answer. It was really a surprise to me when I saw how easy it was to teach him specifically and bringing the teachings and answers to his level just felt like second nature. I don't know if it's making sense to y’all, but I just felt so comfortable in every situation and things just happened for us. It was so amazing as I heard him give some of the most powerful prayers I've heard in my life, asking his Heavenly Father if this all really was true, expressing his desire and hoping that it all was true. I normally challenge people to be baptized on the first visit, but this time, for some reason, I waited and took a different route. But again, it just felt like second nature, and after a few visits, he accepted the challenge, and a few visits even later, we settled on a date for him (we just about jumped out of our chairs and took our Stake Dancing skills to their living room when he told us the date.)

The big obstacle for him was to inform his Baptist family that...he was going to be baptized in the Mormon Church. (To put it in perspective for those who haven't been in the South...hearing your child is becoming a Mormon is like your doctor calling you and diagnosing you with cancer. Quite ironic, isn't it...) So we prepared for the bad news and tried our best to come up with what would be the most effective damage control, but when Mason dropped the news on us, he told us his Dad said he was 'happy for him and that he found something that makes him happy'...and not only that...but supports him in his decision?!?!? Huh?!?!?!? We would have danced even more if we weren't so dumbstruck and I probably would have had something worthwhile to say if it didn't take me about 10 minutes to pick my jaw off the floor...but that's really how it went!!!!! (Hallelujah)

So in an answer to so many prayers that Kristy and her family had given (remember how I said everyone's related here...), we set up Mason's baptism for the 16th of February. We had given out invitations like we normally do and Mason got his parents to commit to come, but when it all started, we had no idea just how big it was going to be. We always have a good turnout to baptisms here, but we were starting to overflow 10 minutes before the service started! (That's over  45 minutes early in standard Mormon time!!!) So we took the party to the chapel and to our surprise, almost filled up there too!!! It was such an amazing service with so many people to support such an event and the spirit was tangible there.

As great as it all was, the crowning moment for me was when Kristy's Mom came up to me after the service and food part, when people were wrapping it up and heading back home. In that quiet hall, she started telling me about when she first saw me stand up as Bishop introduced me to the congregation, and how she knew in that moment, I was sent here to teach Mason. She said she felt it so strong that she knew that I was going to teach him when he would be ready. She talked about how it just amazed her as to how long I stayed here and how I went by transfer after transfer without moving, but she kept it to herself that I was staying until Mason was ready to listen. She began to cry as she thanked me for the Spirit we've brought to her home as we've taught and the changes that she's seen because of it. I know that it's not because of me that all of these things are happening, but I do know that like President Monson has said before, there truly is nothing like when the Lord uses you to answer one (or many) of his children's prayers.

Que se acuerdan Isaiah 55:8&9..."For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Les Quiero Mucho y espero que vean la mano de Dios como yo la he visto

Elder Wilson

Oh It's Fun To Find All The Time! Yes It's Fun To Find Especially From 6 to 9! And Baptize on P-Day haha that too!!!

BEEP! ....

BEEP! ....

BEEP! ....

BEEP!.....

BEEP!.....

Thankfully Cody can wake up better than I can and turned the alarm off at 5 in the morning. I kicked myself out of bed to get ready for another one of those freezing missionary showers haha (the Lord knows he's gotta wake you up somehow so he has his ways....) So we got ourselves awake and ready as fast as our tired bodies would let us and began to venture out the door at 6 in the morning to embark on one of the longest awaited exchanges in the Texas Dallas Mission!!! 

As we started the day out, Cody and I decided that we'd put a new definition with the phrase "work your life out in the service of the Lord" and matching one of the mission songs, go find, especially from 6 to 9. The song says:

"Oh it's fun to find, all the time! Yes it's fun to find especially from 6 to 9! It's getting kind of late, and your appointments all fell through...you're feeling kind of down because you've got nothing to do...start knocking on doors, and talking in the streets! You'll be surprised at how many families you'll meet!..."

And it keeps going on from there, but as you can tell it references the 6pm to 9pm hours...but we thought we'd give the song a run for it's money and go find people from 6am to 9pm...because it's fun to find...all the time!!!

So we got out the door by 6 and while we were without the car that had gotten hit earlier on in the week, we walked our way on over to Wal Mart while contacting people at the gas stations on the way. We for real got the weirdest looks as people saw us going around and teaching about Jesus Christ so early in the morning and it was pretty awesome to contact those Mexican baptists...so groggy as they had just got outta bed to go to the store and buy some milk haha oh just too classic. The worst part was just how cold it was-- never been anywhere colder in my life. Period. But a special thanks to all those who sent me all the Winter clothes to help me battle just another one of those days that never got above freezing haha. It was killer and we just about froze our faces off as we realized we could barely talk to anyone, but as time went on we went tracting and then it started to snow. Overall I've just gotta say that I miss the city or more populated areas because of how much fun tracting is! We froze our butts off. We found 11 new investigators in one day!!!! (I've never seen anyone get a day higher than that in my whole mission !!!!) As crazy as it was and as cold as it was and as tired as we were, the 15 hours of straight work were so much more than worth it...gives us the right to chime in with President Spencer W. Kimball in saying "My life is like my shoes, worn out by service."

We could barely believe that we were working together for the longest time and it seemed like every few minutes a reality check would come in and we'd realize that we were hanging out together not as just friends like so many times before, but this time as companions in the work of the Lord!!! It made me think of the time we walked and rode the bus all the way down to Valencia to watch that lame movie Hancock...and while we did just about as much traveling, this time was so much more satisfying!

So I figured I'd put in a few highlights from that day...

There was one dude who tried to sneak out his side door as we knocked the front one, but we caught him trying to sneak behind his gate, but we caught him and told him to Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!!! Yeah he definitely felt uncomfortable as he tried to wiggle his way out of the fact he was running from the Lord's servants. The good thing is he got the picture and will be called to even more Repentance later on by the Mount Pleasant Elders.

We taught the Restoration that day like it was nuthin but a G Thang....fo reals!!! But my favorite was when I was using one of my favorite examples to explain the apostasy and how you can compare the primitive Church of Jesus Christ to a Vase, held by my arm (which represents the Authority). When you take away my arm the vase falls into hundreds of pieces, and that is truly what happened as the Church of Jesus Christ fell into hundreds of thousands of pieces, just a ton of teachings that many would take and start a church around. The idea is that so many people were using so many different pieces to start what they thought was the church of Jesus Christ, but in truth, they couldn't bring it back to the vase that it looked like before. As Elder Bench, bless his heart, explained it in Spanish, he said that all the people used, (instead of pedacitos which means pieces, he used galletas which means cookies...) So in translation he said that people were picking up different cookies and building churches around all these different cookies, but all they had was just a bunch of cookies instead of what the vase looked like before. So in truth....all they had was a bunch of cookies. I knew something sounded wrong and as I translated it in my head, I just started laughing out loud in front of everyone. Haha sorry man but love you Codes!!! Was a triumphant day for sure.

And as if this past week wasn't good enough, we got the Zone Shirts made and publicized!!! We handed them on out during my last training which was crazy to think that it's the last one I was going to give...but the truths the truth and I had to accept it. As we drove back home and had the normal thrill of the day by checking mail...there they were...the trunky papers. So I opened the letter and read what I'd seen so many other missionaries read before. We would always make fun of those missionaries and how little time they had left, but this day the tables turned and it was another reality check hitting home. It's just so hard for me to believe that these two years that I'd looked forward to for all my life are almost over.

Also worthy of mention is that another accomplishment has been made...we tracted out a whole city in just one day!!! Elder Trias and I decided to set apart a day to knock every door in a whole city, and met our goal in the roaring metropolis of Rhonesboro Texas!!! Aint nuthin but a G thang.

So as you can tell, busy would be an understatement for our work out here in the Gilmer Stake, but one of the biggest blessings of this week were the lessons we were able to teach to Samantha Martin. She's a girl that used to live in Newport,  Maine (within the boundaries of Dad's old mission), but was getting into all sorts of trouble like teenagers normally do. Her Mom didn't know what to do with her, so her Aunt (Hermana Robertson) decided to take her in to live the Mormon life out in the country. She had been living with the Robertsons for a few months when we got to start teaching her. We jumped on the opportunity to start teaching and got to finally get in and set a Baptismal Goal with her. She had loved all of her experiences in the Young Womens program, how she feels at church, and just living with the Robertsons who had set such a great example for her by living the high standards that we have set as members of the church of Jesus Christ. As we invited her to be baptized, she was so excited to be apart of what she had come to love and accepted the invitation for the 8th of February. We figured it would work out perfectly and she was apparently planning on staying out here in Texas until June, but as time went on, we found a bump in the road. Her family (who are not members) began to miss her, kept calling her and reminding her of how much fun doing this and that was, basically inviting her back to the old ways. Then her parents got a ticket ready for the 11th of February, and with that, Samantha, who was at first so in love with the Church and so excited to get baptized, began to rethink her decision.

I can't lie though, when she told us that she didn't want to get baptized anymore, Elder Trias and I didn't feel worried at all. I was pretty surprised since it's normally a panic moment when you see that what you've put so much into is falling right between your fingertips, but we've been out on the mission long enough to know that no matter what, anytime before a step of progression is made in any form (but especially Baptism), we won't be the only ones upping our game... The adversary will always come in, finding any entrance he can take, and throw a monkey wrench into the all the plans that we've set. As annoying as it is, I've seen how much the mission has blessed me personally to deal with these situations. I feel like I've seen (in the little sliver of life that I've lived) that Satan will always throw temptations and problems at us, but it's really how we deal with it that refines us and makes us who we are. So instead of panicking and giving up, we finally felt grateful for all the other obstacles that Satan had thrown at all of our converts that had prepared us to deal with this case. Her date was going to be moved to the 10th, but she told us at Church that she just wanted to call it off. She was nervous about being the only member in her family and not knowing too many members up there, but we knew there had to be someway to overcome these obstacles. So we set up a time to visit with her that night and when we went home, we created a battle plan to salvage the months of progress she had made by not only learning the things we taught, but living them with better support than she could ever ask for around her. Looking back on our visit to their house that night, I still feel like we just showed up and the spirit took over for the lesson.

It seemed to be a compilation of so many small things that I had learned on the mission taught with the Doctrine of Christ and using the chapter Alma 47. Of course it's a chapter that talks about nothing but secret combinations and all that sweet stuff, but it drives home some of the most important principles in life and helps us understand how Satans going to try to get us, and how our Heavenly Father is going to try and get us. But no matter what they do, the choice is ours and the end of the story depends on what we choose to do. At the end of such a powerful lesson, the words just fell out of my mouth, "So Sam, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized tomorrow?" Yeah, it was a little different from the memorized invitation, and after a long space of silence where she sat and thought about it...she finally accepted!

We normally have a reverent manner in everything we do, but all the kids in the family just started jumping and shouting as they were so excited for their cousin! It made me think of all the little McKeon cousins and how excited they get at family reunions when they get to be all together! So we put together the program and took off, but right before we left I thanked Hermana Robertson for letting us come over in the midst of the chaos with people moving into their home and the millions of things they had to do that day on their property. She then told me about how she saw how easy it would have been to cancel it and tell us that they were too busy and will work with Samantha in a few years or something like that, but she heard a voice in her head telling her, "Don't become a stumbling block. This is my work. This is what they are here for."

We had one of the greatest Baptismal Services yesterday and the spirit was stronger than so many I had seen before as Samantha was baptized, and let me tell y’all, there really aint nothing else like a Preparation Day baptism. It was also very special to me as I knew that Samantha was returning home and going to be a great asset to the area that Dad had served in what must be 30 years ago (sorry Dad haha but I had to put it in there.)

Yesterday, we almost had our planners full of appointments and just didn't have time to prepare for this week, and it truly has to be one of the best feelings ever. We are seeing miracles every day out here and I'm so grateful for all of y’all that are praying for me extra hard because we can see the proof of it out here. I know that this is the Lord’s work and that no mortal hand could have or even would have started what we are now actively apart of. There truly is nothing else like being a full time servant of Jesus Christ and in this short time that he's given me to do so, I've seen myself come to know him so much better and have become so much more grateful for what he's done for me. In our Ward Council this past week, Bishop put me on the spot and asked me why I thought that missions were so hard. After my answer, he talked about the refining process of a mission, and how while I may bless the lives of many people, nobody will leave what I've done more blessed than I. Every time I reflect on that, I can just hear the truthfulness of the scriptures ringing in my ears when the Savior stated, "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it."

Les Quiero Mucho Y Que Dios Da Valor,

Elder Wilson    

  

Brothers in the Gospel

This is Cody's letter sent to Erin by Jennifer: From: Cody Bench <cody.bench@myldsmail.net>

Date: Monday, January 27, 2014

Subject: Redneck City

Hey Ya'll!

So I'm definitely in East Texas.  I realized the other day that this is the furthest East I had ever traveled in my life. Anyway, I love it here! The people here are awesome!  And I can already tell I will have a million stories by the time I leave, haha.  

This past weekend was stake conference Saturday night and Sunday morning out in Gilmer and we didn't want to waste 100 miles heading all the way back to Mount Pleasant and then back to Gilmer so we thought, "Hey! Maybe there's someone we could stay with around here, Elder Wilson!"  So we stayed the night at Elder Wilson's and Elder Trias's apartment.  It was super weird.  I had a sleepover with one of my best friends... on my mission.  It was super fun though and he is an awesome zone leader.   

 I love it here in East Texas!  There are trees, trees, and more trees! Its gorgeous!  We have some fantastic investigators and I am stoked to be here.  

Love Ya'll!

Elder Cody Bench

I forwarded that letter to Justin and the next day I heard from him:

As you can see from Cody's e-mail, we got him down here and it felt like I was introducing family to all my friends out in Gilmer and starting to realize how much time I don't have down here. It's getting crazy, but thanks so much for y'alls prayers because they're working! Pray that I'll get something started with the hispanics out here or that I can see miracles with them or something! It's so tough around here with like 0 hispanics but I want it to start up so bad! And yeah we've had members praying for us since conference haha. President Austin has been a boss about hitting that principle home and it's really overwhelming but very empowering to hear your name prayed for in every meeting and the trust that they have in you. I'm gonna miss it. But Cody came on over for the night and slept over to save time so that he didn't have to drive up and back to Gilmer again for the Stake Conference. Super crazy haha and he still feels like he's been out forever...6 months is nothing. I asked him all sorts of questions about the family and all that Jazz and he'd just say that he's been out too long to know...cry me a river haha. But it's pretty cool being out here with him, getting him sent out here and we get to do exchanges all the time! It's gonna be balla!!! I truly felt part of the happiness that Alma and the sons of Mosiah felt in Alma chapter 17:2 that he is still my brother in the Lord, ready to serve alongside us out here in the Gilmer Stake! 

Well I could go on forever and ever but so many crazy stories and too much good stuff going on out here but send me Rach's addy out in Wisconsin sometime so I can send her some in field love! Gotta go baptize the world! Les quiero muchisimo! Estamos ensenando como un negotio de nadie! Que les vayan con Dios y vean milagros cada dia como los mensajeros del Senor!

Elder Wilson

x

When You Know You're Still In A Foreign Country...

When I first got my mission call and saw, "Texas Dallas", I was for sure excited to serve, but thought to myself, "Well, here goes my exploration of foreign countries..." but it seems like every day I think to myself, "Toto...I don't think we're in Los Angeles anymore...."

Like this past week as we are continually pushed by President Austin and President Durrant to find and teach the Hispanics out here in what covers the South District. Sometimes it just feels like a wild goose chase as we'll get a couple references to what may be a possible area or location that has some hispanics. The norm for hispanics is to live together or in big groups and don't like tending to themselves like all the white people in the boonies do. They need a party close by, so they're normally together, but not out here in Upshur county that for shur haha, but they're super desparecidos or spread out...so whatever has the fruits of a Hispanic home or neighborhood (bright neon painted trailers/houses, soccer balls everywhere, Imagenes or Catholic figurines, Christmas lights when it aint Christmas, Shrines for la Santisima Maria, old beat-up trucks/suv's with the lights all pimped out, sun/moon/star figures on the trailer, ect...)

(by the way as I'm typing this...in the local library, a dude just walked by with spurs and the whole 9 yards...50 bucks says he's got a gun on him...)

So as we knocked one of these houses, we got to meet a super nice, but white and not interested lady. After she told us she didn't want to listen to us, we asked her if she knew of any hispanics that lived close by, and then she started off with the East Texas directions....gotta love em. She told us to go right down the next FM road (Farm to Market) and take a left, followed by turning onto the first ...oil top...then about 5 more rights and 3 lefts involving I don't know how many oil tops with about 4 brick houses involved and the red one being the one we're looking for. I had gotten what I thought was enough of these types of directions and felt like we were cultured enough to know how to get to the red brick house with the Mexicans. Having never heard the term "oil top" and after using our deductive logic, we figured that an "oil top" must have been a small oil tank or one where you can just see the top of it, so we drove down FM 1795 in search for the Mexicans we were determined to baptize!

.....7 miles down the road and well off into another county, we decided that we had somehow missed it along the way and decided to backtrack and retrace our steps. We felt that while we were heading back that we should call someone to make sure that our "Texan" is up to speed and that we understood exactly what the lady was trying to say, and as we talked to good old Brandon Dodd, we found out that an oil top is just a road without a line through the middle, so basically any country road or the small ones that run all throughout East Texas. I wish my call woulda told me I was going to serve in four languages (that's including the Ebonics that's required all over the South). So with our tails between our legs, we went back to the point we started at to find that the first oil top a couple hundred yards from the lady's house. Yup...I may have been here in Texas forever but the languages and the land are still foreign to me.

It woulda turned into an awesome story if it didn't end up with 5 brick houses at the end of the road, all of them being red and looking exactly like the lady explained them. Everyone we talked to out there had no idea where any hispanics could have lived close by...they were so confused that they probably didn't even know what a hispanic was, but I guess it's one of the beauties of the East Texas characteristics.

We did end up driving over 100 miles almost every day for the past few days and have found a few hispanic families that we're excited to work with and hopefully catch some more momentum with them. They all work crazy hours on Farms and Dairy Mills out here so it's going to be tough to get them to church, but with God all things are possible!

It is pretty neat though how every hispanic family we meet looks like we're straight in the heart of San Luis Porto Si or El Salvador or the country parts of Guatemala! For example, one lady we met was surrounded by about 10-15 mexican kids, the oldest probably at 8. Luckily only about half of them were buck naked, and as we talked with the Hermana they would just keep running back and forth trying to hit each other with balloon animals. The ones that weren't completely naked had at least a shirt on, and as we saw them running, one of the kids just stopped in the middle of the tracks they were making as the other ones just kept running. He squatted down to lay quite the treat, and then stood up, wiped his behind with his tall tee (that he was still wearing), and then just ran on to get back in the game. It was amazing how, even though everyone saw it, nobody stopped to point it out or even commented on it. The best part is that it was right where all the kids were running and they somehow missed it every time. There was no effort made to avoid it, but they somehow missed it every time. So, if you have more than four families living in a house, restrooms will be busy and are sure to raise the water bill, so for your economical information, dirt yards are a good alternative.

Feelin like a foreign country??? Fo sho.

Life is still great, Lawerence Tefteller is back from the oil fields so I'm looking forward to the greatest briscut ever...again! We also got lost this last week as the GPS took us down this road that I have no idea how it's even known to Garmin. It was a road that looked like it's been driven only a handful of times by trucks and tractors and was a miracle as our Ford Fusion AKA the Hovercraft or Master & Commander made it up this trail. We did have to stop eventually as the trail came to a huge chasm (the GPS still wanted us to go...I don't think it likes us....), but we passed a cow bone-yard that's pretty much the same deal as the bone-yard where the Hyenas find Simba in Lion King, and it led to a moonshining shack with another trail that led to some hunting meadow and one of the only hills in all of Texas. Golden Find? I think so!

Miss yall and hope that you're enjoying life just as much as I am!

Les quiero mucho!

Elder Wilson

P.S. Dear Natles....Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy....Happy Happy Birthday From All Of Us To YOU! We wish it was our Birthday so we could party too!!! HEY!!!! So I know you probably think you're all old and can drive and date and stuff, but there's a rule written in stone and in heaven that says that you're not allowed to date until your older brother is around to scare off the boys and keep you locked up in your room away from trouble. I hope I'm making myself very clear....send me a note back to confirm that you've got my warning...

P.P.S. So Mom...what are your thoughts of me extending my mission to 25 1/2 months??? Let me know ASAP