Missions really humble you in every way

23 February 2012

Dear family, 

Grandpa Max is 70!  No way!  I thought he was still 65.  Is Grandma Ruth almost 70 too?  A pork taco bar sounds so good and same with Dunford chocolate donuts.  We rarely ever get good Mexican food except for when Sister Reyes was here.  She made really good Mexican food but the Reyes’ are gone now.  They moved to Georgia which is kind of sad.  Also, this week a nonmember named Mark, who loves the missionaries but doesn't believe in religion, took us out to lunch to Tito's Tacos which was really good, probably the best Mexican food I have had here.  It was fun to talk to Mark and hear of his thoughts about the church and to hear his thoughts about heaven.   He says that heaven wouldn't be fun because everyone will be perfect and there would be no competition so everyone would be winners and no one would lose. 

My right eye is has some sort of rash around it and so does my chin and I have no idea what it would be from because I haven't been using anything out of the ordinary and I wash and my face every night and morning.  I will probably have to call the mission doctor and see what he says because I have had it for a good week now and it doesn't look too good.  Everything about my body is falling apart.  My hair is thinning.  My neck always has razor burn even though I have tried everything to not get razor burn.  I even talked to a professional barber and asked him how to shave properly.  He told me what to do and I have been following what he told me to do but it still breaks out.  I am really white and my chest has more hair than ever which grosses me out sometimes.  I am out of shape because all missionaries do is sit all day long but, nonetheless, my brain has never been worked out so much in my life.  Missions really humble you in every way, even your appearance.   

That’s great that you have been making a quilt for the baby.  You are the master quilter now.  Are you going to buy a sewing machine?  You will have to send me a picture of your quilt and how it all looks in baby Georgia's crib.  It is way exciting that Whitney is having a baby!  You are still too young to be a grandmother but I think you are ready for it.  Are dad and Sydnee going to be going down in Cali with you or is it just going to be you.  Our family is getting bigger!! 

I am at the Kenley's right now emailing you.  They are so nice and I love having them so close to us and having them here to help me with my Spanish and to feed us breakfast every once in a while.  I don't think we will ever get into our new apartment at least while I am here because the maintenance people are so slow at getting things completed around our apartments.  I did get a new mattress this week and it is so great.  I sleep better than I ever have on my mission and it helps me to be more awake during the day.  We get to go shopping for a new couch for our apartment because the one we have is deep down dirty.  It has a moist feeling and you definitely get dirtier by sitting on it.   

Our 12 year old investigator didn't get baptized but is waiting for his family to get in town so he will be getting baptized the 10th of March.  Our investigators are doing really well.  

Jonathan is progressing and reading a lot in the Book of Mormon.  He always has good questions for us but one thing he didn't understand is why Nephi had to slay Laban if “thou shalt not kill” is a commandment.  So, at the end of the lesson I told him that he should pray about it since he was having such a hard time with it.  That is exactly what he did and after he said the prayer in front of us he said he felt a really weird feeling.  He said he felt goose bumps on his neck and he just wanted to laugh.  I told him that that is the same feeling that I get when I feel the Spirit (goose bumps).  He said he felt like he was getting an answer. 

Jakie came to church and had bought a bunch of new outfits for church so that was cool to hear and she wants to make a huge change in her life.  She is my favorite person to teach.  She is like a sponge and she always has good questions and gets very emotional.  I think she has cried every time we have taught her. 

We have been doing some less active work lately and this week we were working with the Snider family.  They invited us to one of their son’s high school basketball games.  We went and got to see him play.  He was really good and his team won, but most importantly we were able to set up an appointment to go over to their house.  A couple days later we went to their house and it was such a sweet house!  It was an old bare distributing building that they had converted into house.  It was very modern and you would have loved it mom.  I will have to try and get some pictures of it.  The snider dad is a CEO of some company.  They also have 110 lb bull dog.  The Snider's are very nice but it may be hard to get them to come to church again. 

Chester is being interviewed this week by President Topham so I hope everything goes well with that which I am sure it will because Chester has a strong testimony and he loves the church. 

I received your letter Syd and all your friends’ letters.  Thanks, I will be writing you back soon. 

I can't really think of anything else that you would want to hear but I love you guys and hope you all have a great week and that Georgia is healthy and strong when she is born.  Tell Whit she is the bomb.com. 

Love you.

Elder Tanner Mouritsen