Elder Josh Mortensen: I Love The Book Of Mormon So Much And Hope To Love It Even More

HELLO!!!

wow before i read Briannes letters i think my life is crazy, but really, no its not at all. i don't get to drive a broken bike around or anything like that. i drive a 2014 Chevy Cruz, so its kinda like a upgrade. the down side to a car is i think that i am going to get fat while i am here. it hasn't started yet, i don't think at least, but i can feel it coming. But ya my area has a lot of English, we talk a lot in English. when we tract we bring English and Spanish Book of Mormons. when it is an English person i do mostly everything but when it is in Spanish my companion does more than me. because my Spanish is still struggling. its mostly driving around and looking for the Spanish communities.

if you didn't find the place my next hint was going to be we live under a smoker and next to a goat! but glad you found it though. me and my companion are getting along really good. i lucked out that he is a native spanish speaker. i think he might be getting sick of always helping me throughout the whole day, kinda being my walking dictionary. hey but it helps me! so i am happy for it. he is from a place called el progresso. i dont know where that is, i just know thats what it is. we have two dinners with the ward. because we are new and the bishops are still confused, we haven't been getting them, but we should a lot more starting this week. its all good if we dont because i make some pretty amazing food!! what i have everyonce in a while that i like a lot actually is, i make a sandwich with a few slices of ham, a few of turkey, some cheese and you cut two hot dogs the long way way in half, cook them and put them on the sandwich. its pretty good. i expect you to try it everyone! or at least Jaxsen. i eat lots of sandwiches and eggs and cereal. i did have spaghetti today for lunch though, and that was good.

ya we have a walmart like right up the road so that is really nice and makes it super easy. so i don't ever struggle with having food to eat. i hope it will be like that always. even though these two weeks have flown so fast, i only have been here for two weeks so we will have to see how it works out.

but thats nice of you to send a package. you didnt beat the peerys though. but ya send it through the mission home and they will forward it to me.

the boundaries are weird i serve in the sandstone ward and the meadows ward, but us and all our hispanic investigators go to the hermiston ward so i guess i am in the hermiston ward. its pretty big we almost fill a normal sized chapel. they have a lot of really good members here that's for sure. i love them all. especially the Spanish members. i am convinced they are for sure the nicest people i have ever meet. its so awesome. maybe i will pick up on some of that. that would help me out.

my favorite thing was like the weirdest thing of the week. we were tracting and we knocked on this door and there was two kids, a brother and a sister. they were Hispanic but spoke english. but they were catholic like the rest of the people we talk to. its so crazy when someone says they arent catholic it really throws me off. but we talked to them for 2 hours on their door step!!! it was the longest thing and it was so cold. then she gave us a water bottle because she was worried that we needed some because we have been talking so much. i am thankful for nice people but, my hand i think just about fell off. and this had to be on like the only cold night of the whole week. but it was awesome. we talked about so many different things. i had time after time to answer their questions and testify what i knew to be true. at the end we said a prayer and the spirit was so strong. it was hard for them to accept it for sure but we are going back sometime later. i gave them a book of mormon and they are going to read and pray about it so that's a good start. another favorite part was we knocked on this door and a guy answered it. we were invited into his house. we learned that he talked to a member like two years ago and he got a Book of Mormon. he was hoping that we would be able to show up again eventually. he never read the Book of Mormon but he said pointing to a locked up chest, thats where i keep everything that i have that is important to me. he hasn't even read it yet! and he knows it is so important. it made me think what i thought about the Book of Mormon. how much do i really cherish it? from this i know that when i read in this book i need to love it more then i do now, because it really is so so important. i love it so much and hope to love it even more.

this is all for today but thanks for writing i love you all so much.

Elder Mortensen