500 Wedding Plates

June 26, 2012

Dear Family,

It is my second week in Lebanon and not a ton has changed.  We still don't have really any solid investigators but we did have some exciting events take place.  After a week of doing a lot of looking and not really finding anyone, we had a wedding in the ward.  On Saturday, we went to Sister Mastracola’s mothers’ wedding.  Sister Mastracola’s mother was marrying a man named Tino.  Tino has been a member about a year and was taught and baptized by Jake Neilsen.  The wedding was a blast!  Sister Mastracola had bought a lot of second hand china and so every table had a different set of plates on it.  It was a really nice Church reception.  The food was also good.  We had pot pies, chicken salad croissants, and a ton of cake.  The greatest part of the wedding though had to be seeing and meeting the Neilsen family.  Jake Neilsen served a mission here in this same area and was asked to be the best man for Tino's wedding.  He did a great job! I have met Jake before but I never really had time to talk to him or get to know him.  He is really cool and I will probably be hanging out with him when I get home if he is not married and maybe even if he is married.  His family was really nice and his mom was the best!  I am glad that she sent you pictures and kept you updated on everything.  It was even better when she gave me the delicious cookies and letters from you guys. 

After the wedding, we wanted to do some service, so we cleaned, dried and stacked over 500 plates!  I was the one drying the plates and Elder Blake was stacking while one of the members washed.  It took close to three hours, but we got it all done and it felt great to do service for the Mastracola’s.  

While drying the plates I met Jakes cousin who was also drying the plates with me.  She is a friend of Nicole Donaldson.  It was funny.  Her name is Lindy and she danced against Nicole so you can tell Nicole that.  What a small world.  It was fun to talk to people from Utah that know you guys but it also made me a little homesick.  The Neilsen's reminded me so much of our family and our trip to Washington DC.  I wanted to stay with the Neilsen’s all day which we basically did.  When they left, I almost asked if I could come along, haha.  I normally would never think like that because I have hardly been homesick and I have loved my mission.  But, these last two weeks have been tough and not being able to talk to anyone about what I am feeling has been hard because Elder Blake really doesn't understand.  Oh, he makes me laugh.  I will figure it out though and get back to normal.

After cleaning the dishes we were supposed to go to Texas Road House with the Neilsen’s and the Mastracola’s, but it was too busy so we ended up going to the Mastracola’s and roasting hot dogs.  It was really cool though because Sister Mastracola told us her conversion story which you can read on her Facebook.  It was really spiritual and I was really happy she shared it with us because it brought the Spirit to me. 

This week we did meet with some Hindus from India which was really cool.  They told us about Hinduism and then we told them about Mormonism.  Teaching them was unlike any other lesson I have ever taught because they didn't know anything about Christianity.  We had to start from the beginning, which was fun to do because it caused me to change my teaching and helped me grow. 

I have been struggling with prayer the past few weeks.  I feel like my prayers aren't spiritual and they are so monotonous.  It is hard for me to have the desire to pray every morning and night.  I have been struggling with this and pondering this problem that I have been having a lot.  While at church I believe I received an answer while a returned missionary was giving his homecoming talk.  He said that one of his companions would have personal study and at the end he would pray for ten minutes and write down thoughts and impressions.  When you feel the Spirit that is when you should pray he said.  I am going to start doing this and see if it helps me get more out of my prayers but, if you have any thoughts or guidance please share. 

I am so grateful for all my family and friends that are supporting me!

I love you Mom and Dad!

Happy Birthday DAD!!!!!!

Love Elder Mouritsen your son!

PS.  I would like a nice tie clip for my birthday to hold my tie down in the wind.