Hi, Matt. It’s Saturday. How are you? Dad wants to dictate a quick letter to me to send you. Here it is:
Dear Matt,
So, tomorrow is your first Sunday in Mexico. I’m sure it will be a wonderful day for you. I remember my first Sunday in Japan. We had to ride our bikes for about a half hour to get to the upper floor of a rented warehouse where there were about seventy members. To see the moms and dads and the little kids, and to hear them sing the songs of Zion, and to be around people who believed in the gospel, was a strengthening experience. It helped me realize that this is what missionary work is all about. I can hardly wait to hear about your experiences. I hope that everything is going well for you. Please know that you are in all of our hearts and prayers. The other great thing about members reminds me of something my dad told me. He said the great thing about being a member of the Church is that no matter where you go in the world, you will have friends. Both my mother and father were convert baptisms. You are only the third person in our family with the Cole name that has gone on a mission. I don’t know what your experiences are with the Spanish language in Mexico, but my first week in Japan, I wondered if I had learned another language in the MTC instead of Japanese. Well, better let you go.
Love,
Dad
Hi. This is Mom again. I sure hope you have been having a wonderful week. No matter how hard it may seem at first, I know that you are in exactly the right place doing exactly the right thing. The times in our lives when we can say that unequivocally, are very precious. Heavenly Father brought you to this point, and He will help you.
Yesterday was a nice day I got to spend a lot of time with Dad. We did the laundry in the evening, and afterward Miriam, who had her car in town, offered to drive the kids home so that Dad and I could go on a date. It was such a sweet gesture, and Dad and I had so much fun. We walked to the frozen yogurt place by the hot dog place and back. We also drove around a bit. We enjoyed just being together. Thomas didn’t work yesterday so he took care of Grandma a lot including making her breakfast and feeding her dinner. He also cleaned out the shed and reportedly had an epic battle with herculean spiders, but he prevailed. Katrina and Miriam worked. We got the papers to admit Grandma into the care center on Monday. I sure hope everything goes well with that.
Yesterday I talked to Cassandra and she was telling me how cool the Kindle is and I wonder if I should get one. I could bring it with me wherever I go and never be bored again! Katrina is sure enjoying hers. I like it because you know how I give Frosties to the kids when they read classics? Actually, now I give them packs of gum instead, but we still call books that qualify, “Frosty books.” With Katrina, when she wants to read a classic, I give her the reward ahead, meaning a dollar fifty to buy the book on Kindle. It’s much cheaper to buy old classics than any other type of book, and Katrina is reading many more of them. She’s downloaded Les Miserables, Anne of Green Gables, and the Complete Works of Shakespeare to name a few.
I also talked to Jonathan yesterday. He had a few questions about insurance, so I referred him to Dad. Cassandra helped him spiffy up his resume, so that should help his job hunting, I hope. He seems to really be beating the pavement, and I hope it pays off!
Today we are getting ready for our trip. I am doing what needs to be done at home, and Dad is taking care of what needs to be done away like getting the oil and transmission changed. He is going to exercise while that is happening. My plan is to have everyone pack as much as they can first thing, and then they can find what is missing, wash what is dirty, etc. I also plan to get Grandma out of bed so that she can partake of the chaos. It should be a pretty nice day.
Today I studied about the fruit of the tree that grows from the seed of the word of God planted in our hearts. I learned that the fruit is precious, sweet, white, pure, desirable to make one happy, fills the soul with great joy, more desirable than any other fruit, and the greatest of all the gifts of God. If we feast upon it until we are filled, we won’t hunger or thirst. Tasting is not enough. Some have made their way to the tree and tasted the fruit but fell away because they were ashamed by the mockery of others. But if we feast on the fruit until we are full, we will never hunger or thirst. More motivation to continue my efforts to plant the word of God in my heart. I need more motivation because I get lazy and forgetful.
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