Dad's Letter to Morgan this week

How does it feel to no longer be a greenie?  I don’t know what the official cutoff for that is, but two months in the field is probably enough to say you know the ropes.  Missions are like miniature lives, in that missionaries go through these phases of maturity and gaining of perspective.  It’s just that it happens so fast in the mission field!  I suspect you are observing, learning, experiencing so much every day.



Yesterday was a good day.  Ethan and I played pickleball for our new ward’s EQ activity.  Mom stayed home and used the blower to blow leaves off the grass.  We have lots of leaves at the new house!  Ethan and I went to Farmington pond to do a little more fishing.  It’s so close, and now is a great time of year. In the summer it’s too warm.  Ethan caught a bunch of trout, and I caught some too.  But he definitely did really well yesterday.  Then Mom, Ana and I went and got a hamburger, and Ethan had Luke Longson over last night.  They basically watched TV for several hours. (Some things never change!)  Ana went to hang out with some new friends in the ward.



Tanya and her boyfriend brought Laila over last night for an hour or so.  They babysat all day for MJ.  Laila was cute but a little tired at that time of the evening.  I’m not a big fan of cranky babies, so I said hi and went back to the study. 😊



It was great to see that you and your companion had a baptism.  Those are some of the best times.  Curious: do you have to travel far to get to a building with a font, or is that readily available in NZ?  Are the church buildings there similar to what we have in the U.S. or is the format very different?



Chris Cutler texted me yesterday to say they were having the Idaho party in the Woodlands, and they’d miss us.  Darn!  That was one of the coolest things in the Woodlands.  Which reminds me, if Duncan were here he’d want me to ask you what you do and don’t like about the food there.  I think you mentioned it briefly in one of your letters, but I suspect you’ve been there long enough now to have developed some opinions!



Hope you are doing well.  It goes by so fast.  Did you hear Elder Rasband’s talk in general conference about managing our fears?  He even mentioned the common fear among missionaries of talking to strangers.  It was really good, and I listened to it again today, because I’m teaching a lesson next week.



Love you tons.  We pray for you always. Have a great week.



Dad