Happy P-Day Email

Zdravim mamu :) .  I also attended the temple today (we always do on p-days), which I always love doing.  I don't need any hand sanitizer, there are loads of dispensers all over the MTC.  So no worries there; I'm feeling a lot better, too.  Crazy that you were feeling low when I was, sorry to have done that to you ha.  Completely unintentional.  I miss you, too, and all of the things that were so familiar that I no longer have.  But that's part of the sacrifice that I have made to my father in heaven.  All that I have is consecrated to him, and that means following my call to be a missionary.  I don't worry about it so much, because I know that soon enough I'll see you again.  These two years I will never see again.  Sometimes I have to remind myself of that, but I always get right back into the work.  We learned so much this past week in the language.  If I come home and say things weird grammatically, it's because of Slovak.  Also I never say a lot of common English words anymore, because one of the things we do to learn the language better is speak it all the time, as much as we know.  So a lot of sentences are like half-Slovak, others completely Slovak.  But words like yes, no, hello, goodbye, thank you, and a few others never come out of my mouth anymore.  Bear with me if I come home and still do that.  It's what happens.  French I have locked away for use when I return.  I know it's all still there (sometimes I accidentally use French words while trying to speak Slovak), but I avoid thinking it or saying it.  I've prayed though that I will retain it and not lose it, and I believe that I will be blessed with that.  Thanks for all of your letters and dear elders, it means a lot to me to have those.  I feel the strength of your love in everything you send.  I do my best to send you mine.  Thank you for raising me how you have.  My progress to be here was almost entirely a result of being taught in my youth the ways of righteousness.

For dad, thanks for all of the hard work that you do to support our family.  I understand something now that I thought of while in the temple.  My calling right now is to serve investigators and help them come unto Christ.  Your calling is to do that with us kids.  You do a great at supporting mom in teaching us. All the time you put into a job that you don't enjoy very much blesses our family a great deal.  You are a fantastic dad, and I wanted to thank you for all that you do.  I miss going to the movies, watching sports on TV,  and playing games with you.  We'll have to catch up on that when I get home.

I'm halfway done here at the MTC as of Sunday, I believe.  Time hasn't really flown, but it hasn't really dragged either.  It's just going along, passing day by day.  I'm going to be working on some letters today, so I'll get those sent.  I don't know if they'll get to you by tomorrow, but they should be there by Monday, I think.  Cheer loud at the football game, I was always yelling my lungs out every time, so you have to cover for me.  If you see any of my friends there, tell them hi for me.  I believe Sarah will be there with her family, so if you see them give them an "ahoj!" from me.  Lane probably will be around too, so give my brother a hug if you see him.  I was glad to hear you've all learned how to say "I am a child of God".  It's pretty important.  Except usually I'm saying that "we are children of our Heavenly Father" to the investigators, but hey.  Close enough.  I've seen a bunch of people here that I know from Bear River (most of them are the guys and girls who were a year older than me), and a couple people my age.  Unfortunately I've only had my camera when I saw two of them, because I really only have it on me while I'm going on the Sunday temple walk.  I'll try and get you those pictures today during laundry time, I forgot the memory card again.

I decided that I'm going to be putting all the stuff I don't take with me to England into a box that I'll leave here for Lane with his teachers.  That way he doesn't need to buy as much stuff here, and I'm not just putting it in the free box for any old person to have.  (Stuff like my belt clip for my ID card, my little purple monster friend, my memory card reader for my camera, and any extra candy I have).  My district has gotten good at knowing when other districts are leaving so that we can get all the good stuff out of the free box (basically a box that Elders put the stuff that they don't want to take with them but that other Elders might want into).  I don't take very much candy because I don't have a lot of time to eat it, but some of the Elders have quite a stash now.  Well I hope that this email was somewhat adequate.  Like I said, I'll be sending letters as well.

Love you all very much :) ,

Starši Zachary Brown