cc: file, Mom, Sara and Des, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Darrell and Nancy Krueger, Charles and Diane Cluff, Tony Hafen, Claude and Katherine Warner, Forest and Amy Warner, Ivan and Chell Warner, and Eric and Renee Miner
"We are finally starting to see some mail from Paul. His most recent letter included: `I blew the crotch out of my grey suit today. . . . I put my leg up like Dad sits and it just ripped in class in front of a bunch of missionaries. Needless to say it was extremely embarassing. There were 20 or so people. Not fun.' In a little more Paul like expression he wrote a week before: `Not to sound snotty but there are a lot of people who are here that do not want to be and shouldn't be. I am always the first one up. I get everyone in the district up. I feel like dad. Of course I am having a blast at the same time though. In another 2-3 weeks I will be King of the MTC. I almost am already but not quite J/J :)'. Then in another letter received this week he said `I know I am suppose to be here and my faith has increased over 100 times. It is nice to have religious discussions in a language class. I feel the spirit in every class every day. I know this is right and am glad to be here serving the Lord.'
When Roice and I had dinner on Thursday evening we filled up a whole paper tablecloth at The Macaroni Grill with colored pencil descriptions of similar topics. One of Roice's well made points is that the church (my response was the Nottingham Country Ward and maybe this is mostly me) is so judgmental. It was really nice to listen to him philosophize and discuss important stuff with such intent. I have recently listened to the Dramatized History of the Church audio cassettes, and Roice's comments brought to mind Reed Smoot, the only Republican General Authority a century ago, who stood up for his beliefs and voted his conscience when he was a U.S. Senator, despite pressure from other General Authorities. The church needs strong individuals with deep convictions that are based on truth (not necessarily the Republican version).
For Roice and Ben and Paul and extended family, Melanie was just accepted at The University of Texas at Austin and has decided to not apply to any other schools. She is going to study psychology so she can help me figure myself out [J/J :)]. Sara did wonderful in a Dance review earlier tonight, especially considering one of the other girls (Sandy Harris) did a flip and hit her in the head and knocked her down. Sara is tough! And Rob, well it cost over $4,000 (thankfully mostly covered by insurance) to rebreak his arm (it had rebroke on it's own and was 30 degrees off-center-line since the skiing accident) and put a cast on from his wrist to his shoulder. What I am trying to say is how I have great hope for each of you kids providing the Reed Smoot kind of leadership in your different spheres of influence, both in and out of the church.
I got on this line of thought because Dave Deford forwarded a copy of a letter from his son Jay, who is serving a mission in Rexburg. I liked it and thought it would be something you would each enjoy:
Letters can be so very nice. Hope you all have a great week, a week without split pants and with the local equivalent of pizza."