Another Letter, Woot-Woot!

Dear Mom and Dad,

I wanted to thank you again for the things I get from you every day; the dear elders, note cards, letters and packages.  It makes me smile every day.  :)  Of course, all the other elders have been complaining about it... I easily get the most mail out of the 6 of us.  Haha, it's all in good fun (the complaining), we all get along awesome.

In our Sunday devotional this week, the speaker talked about something that I found really interesting.  In the book of Jacob, he tells the parable of the olive tree.  Each time the Lord goes down to prune his vineyard, he calls a servant to help him.  Every time except the final time it's just he and his servant, and the last time he varies a little.  He calls a servant, but then the servant is commanded to bring other servants as well.  It says that they were few, but the Lord labored with them.  The speaker said that one of the general authorities had said that the servant in the final time is Thomas S. Monson, and the additional servants called are those of us of the generation of the missionary age change.  That means me!  My missionary work is directly prophesied of in the Book of Mormon, and I'm promised the Lord's power will be with me.  That's a promise of great strength.  I know that if I give the Lord my all, He truly will give me the aid of His divine power.  I know that with His support, I can do all things.

Things are going well here, I continue to learn a great deal.  The language is very different, but I understand more in exponential amounts every day.  Spiritually, I'm stunned by how powerfully I've felt and learned from the Holy Ghost here.  I rely on his aid constantly.

For sure keep me posted on the Jazz and BYU, dad.  Thanks!  It's really fun playing basketball here during gym time, I like it a lot.

Thanks, Mom, for putting the things you did in my journal.  I love reviewing my patriarchal blessing and mission call.  Also, thanks to both of you for the notes you wrote in there.  It was a really pleasant surprise that first day which had been pretty stressful.

We learned about cases today in class.  They're something I was unaware even existed, but I guess a lot of languages have them.  They're really difficult to explain and understand, especially if I were to try like this.  It's good that we did, though, because I was really confused before.  Things with the language make a lot more sense now.  I think it was partly thanks to the way Brat Fish taught it that it went so well.

I love you very much and hearing from you is the best.  :)  Thanks for being awesome parents!  I pray for the family every day, I hope you are doing well.

Love,

Elder Zachary Brown