Dear Maren,
The bottom picture is Elder Johnson. He was my MTC Zone Leader. The second picture is Elder Roberts. He was the only other missionary from the Oregon City Stake.
Jessica and Katrina stood us up, so nothing is going on with them. Let me tell you what happened at Mike's lesson. We finally gave a lesson to Mike Gunn. Throughout the whole thing I wanted to bang my head against the wall. We read Alma chapter 32, a great chapter on faith, but he told us that he believes you don't need to pay 10 percent in tithing. If your neighbor is in need, you should give them that (10%). Elder Packard tried to set him straight by saying, "Well, that's good, but try paying 10% AND give your neighbor some money." It didn't sink in, darn it. I was fighting myself not to scream out, "No a full ten percent, no less!" I didn't.
This is the one I had the real problem with. Mike believes that you can drink, as long as you don't get drunk. Again, so wrong, but I couldn't put that nicely, so I didn't say anything. It is just that Mike is so far from a bcd (baptism and confirmation date). His father John Gunn is coming along quite nicely. When we doing service at his house, he asked us about baptism for the dead. We got to tell him about it.
Thank you for the package. I was expecting a box, so when mom's package got here, I thought it was from you. The next letter I got was yours and I really enjoyed it. Now I can buy more stuff. The pictures were funny, well, at least the one with Braden and Brody. Brody has no idea what's going on and Braden has that cutest cheesy face. You know, when you tell Braden to say cheese and he says it and smiles really big?
You should enlarge the Hope Dr. and Faith Dr. picture and hang it up on your wall, so when people come over they will ask about it. You can tell them that your brother took the picture on his mission. If they are not members, you can tell them about what it means to go on a mission. That is a big part of missionary work, relating anything and everything to the Gospel. I dare you to find something I can't relate to the gospel. Oh, if you have time, check out a band called Inside Out, the song name is Book of Mormon Stories. What? I am a missionary and I don't get real music.
What you should read this week is the section on the Holy Ghost in the topical guide. Well, that is all for this week.
Elder Forsberg