**Another GREAT letter from Zak! I have not done any editing at all...no spell check, no fixing the lines to be longer. I am trying to get out the door, BUT I wanted to share with you all this letter. So here you go, enjoy!!
Dear Family
I'll start right off with the questions
Is Dartmouth
college part of your area? Will you get to go there on campus?
there is a
Umass Dartmouth in our area. It is not the famous ivy
league Dartmouth
though, I think that is in new hamshire or vermont or
something, this is just
also called dartmouth. I was there just this
morning running on the track.
It's like 3 mins from our apartment. one
interesting thing is that we
actually all wake up before 6:30 to get
more time to exercise. When I first
heard about that I thought it was
a terrible idea, but I'd try it and I
actually like it a lot. Actually
all 5 companionships in our district wake up
somewhere from 5:30-6:00
for the same reason. There is a tiny, small gym in
our apartment
complex area Me/Elder Woodruff
go to a lot of times in the
morning, but we go running sometimes too.
Enjoy the mail you got this
week?
Yes. I've gotten mail from a few different people in the past
weeks
and enjoyed all of it greatly. The "what are you eating under
there"
card was hilarious. I figure if griffin is in the mood to sit on
the
ground why not haha.
In the picture I got from Sis. Mello, I
see you, woodruff and elder
costa..where is other elder; or are there just 3
of you?
I thought it was very cool of them to do that. I guess someone
did
that with their kids when they are on missions, so they started
doing
it too.
But, clearly there is some confusion. The 4 people in my
apartment are
Elder Cole (that's me), Elder Woodruff (my companion), Elder
Concha
(also a greenie, from Brazil) and Elder Castro (who is going
home
after this transfer. He is sad he only has a few weeks left). In
the
picture were me, Elder Concha, and Elder Castro. from Tuesday
through
thursday Elder Woodruff was on tours/splits with other
companionships
in our district because he is district leader and I was in a
trio with
the other Elders.
Doing anything particularly fun
today?
Some other elders in the district are doing Lazer Tag, but I
don't
think we're going to go. we're not sure though. We have
an
investigator who works works for Adidas so he can take us to a
factory
or warehouse or somethis and we can buy sports stuff for really
cheap.
or something like that, i'm not that sure. Also we're not exactly
sure
about what we're doing. If i can get a good Patriots hat or shirt
for
cheap I'll probably buy it. At 6 we have our dinner appointment,
then
we're having FHE with the family. The daughter there just got
her
mission call to El Salvador
This has been kind of a
crazy/different week, especially since my
companion was gone basically the
whole time and most of Friday we were
at a Zone meeting.
one unfortunate
thing that happened was I got dropped by investigators
for the first time. We
had just found them (a couple) last week
basically while tracting. the first
time we talked to them, They liked
our message a lot, they recently started
reading the bible a lot, and
feel like it has helped them a lot, but are not
super attached to any
church. We taught them the restoration and they were
really
interested. The 2nd time we went by (it was me in the trio
because
Elder Woodruff was gone) they just said we were good people
and
thought what we were doing was great, but didn't want to talk
anymore.
All they need is the bible. That's what makes them happy. I'm
glad
they have that, but it's sad to see they felt the spirit while we
were
talking to them and recognized it could help their lives but
sometime
later convinced themselves to go back to what was familiar and not
try
something new even if it was good. at least they have a card with
the
website and our number, so maybe sometime later in life they'll
be
more willing.
Other random things:
there are Dunkin Donuts
everywhere here. Almost like church buildings
in Utah, it sometimes seems
like there's one every block. I've never
eaten there.
People here really
like the phrase "all set". Especially when we go
tracting almost every time
they open the door they see were
missionaries they say something like "I'm
Catholic. I'm all set". it's
the #1 way to reject a missionary, just say I'm
all set. After hearing
that so many times I don't like the phrase, even if
it's not about
missionary work; a lot of times if we just ask a member if
they need
help with anything or need any service they'll say "no, we're all
set"
and it causes almost the same reaction within me as when
people
mis-use the word literally.
Since leaving on my mission my taste
buds greatly expanded what I
like. it has been great. I think it's partially
because I'm just more
mentally open about trying and likeing things, but also
it's just a
bizzare change. I practically haven't eaten anything I
didn't
thoroughly enjoy. The most surprising example was when there
were
pineapple pieces in this pasta thing someone made us for dinner and
I
didn't even hate it at all. I can't say they added to it, but they
also
didnt have a negative impact.
It's good to hear Christopher is situated in
Virgina now, I forgot he
was already doing that. Hopefully his dogs stop
treating his house
like a big poop-shack. (you can edit out the last
sentence).
I hope Quinn like the kayak trip (honestly i'm glad i don't have
to do
it) with the scout troop it'll be fun.
I'm sure girls camp will be
great
I can't believe Mom and griffin are driving to Utah to look at
some
houses. It will only be worth it if Griffin goes and gets to
French
Toast while sitting on the ground under the table at each
house.
Dad' says he's sad he'll be the only one home for a while, but
really
he's glad he'll get to eat out every night and watch all the
Olympics
he wants. He'll probably be on a first name basis with all
the
employees at Toky-Wako by next week. It is wierd to hear football
is
starting and I don't even know anything about it. How are
everyone's
fantasy teams looking? Who got Sjax? does Griffin have the 8th
team?
did anyone steal anyone's favorite player? I'm guessing
Christopher
drafted Tim Tebow and he'll be the #2 QB behind only Sam
Bradford
I just uploaded all my photos onto my flashdrive, so hopefully
I'll be
able to get a small padded envelope today to send it out. I saw
there
were already some things in the flashdrive, so when you get it can
you
just save them somewhere on a computer and then delete them off
the
flashdrive? It's stuff from my 1st semester of BYU but I still
don't
want to delete them forever. I think i saved the pictures in a
folder
called "Elder Cole pictures"
Alright, I've got to go
Love
you all
Elder Cole
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