March 28, 2012 Email

Dear Mom and Dad,

I love you! Sorry I couldn't write you on monday, today was temple day. It was great, we were able to go do an endowment session this morning. Taibei is really pretty, even for a huge city. I loved being inside the temple, I was able to recieve some great personal revelation.

We have a great investigator, a sixteen year old kid with a huge desire to be baptized. I mean, this kid is super great. He began obeying all the commandments on his own, so whenever we invite him to do something, he tells us he's already doing it. The biggest problem is that his parents currently oppose him being baptized. I definitely have faith in him, because he is talking to his family about his desire. At first they completely opposed, and after a week, they said he can decide when he is eighteen. So with time and with helping his family understand, I know he can hit his baptismal goal of April 7th.

Yeah...I would love to have candidates calling me daily. Hahaha! After the mission. My release date may actually be Election Day, how cool would that be if I stepped of the plane and stepped into a voting booth?

I try not to think too much about after the mission, but one thing I fear is that I will not endure to the end. I have so many flaws, and I already have a history of not being obedient to the commandments. So I want to make plans to help me have an active lifestyle. I will be in school, which will help a lot. I'm also highly considering the Air Force. That probably makes you excited huh? This doesn't mean I won't be in school, I'm still thinking about ROTC, so I'll graduate as an officer. If I have a degree in a strategic language (CHINESE) I can get free tuition. There would be a military commitment, I can't remember if it is 2 or 4 years. But it would be a stable career, and look really good on a job recommend. It also would allow me to continue using Chinese, and I could have a degree that would allow me to go into education, probably teach Chinese. It would also require me to be physically fit, which will be a great blessing as I try to overcome my own personality flaws. That's what I've thought about, there's a lot of other benefits. I would just be in the military. I lost that paper you mailed me about the U of U ROTC when I moved. If you could send that in an email or something again, that would be great. Sorry. Haha! I'll pray about the Air Force thing, if you could pray about it as well and think about the pros and cons, that would be great. I'd love your input.

Well, sorry I spent so much talking about AF stuff. I love you, and I put a bunch of our family on the prayer roll today.

-Elder Leatham