October 1, 2012 Email

Dear Mom and Dad,

Hey, its me!

This week was the Moon Lantern Festival, which was a lot of fun.  Basically, everyone goes home for a weekend and has a BBQ.  Our ward had a BBQ at a member's house, super fun.  On sunday, members gave us a bucket load of fruit and cookies.  We are pretty stoked.  Elder Chen's grandpa is a famous baker, so Elder Chen's mom sent us a big box of cookies and candy.  Super good.

We have a super fun investigator right now, his name is Bro. Chen.  (Yeah, Chen is kind of like Smith in Taiwan.)  We found him during english proselyting, but he is super interested in the gospel.  We meet about 4 times a week.  We taught him about prayer, and afterwards, when I asked what he would ask God, he said he would ask God the purpose of his life.  And he did.  We loved teaching him the plan of salvation.  His prayers are so straightforward, last time, he told Heavenly Father that he would normally visit a church once or twice, and wouldn't have any interest, but he feels different this time.  He said, in his prayer, that he didn't feel like he was learning about religion, but he was coming to know that God exists, and that he has a relationship with Him.  Yeah, it touched my heart.  We showed him the baptismal interview questions yesterday, he has a solid baptismal goal for the 28th.  Pray for him.

Whoo, its a good thing I wasn't in that sunday school class.  I try to be patient with those who have different opinions than mine, especially at church.  But I'm still not afraid to speak up, especially when I feel their behavior is inappropriate.  Is it really that fiery right now?  Thats super interesting.  I wonder how many Democrats speak up in church.  Anyways, the elections sound fun. 

I try not to be unfocused, I'm focused on studying dilligence and enduring to the end the next month.  I want to leave my mission on a good note.  I had a new missionary suggest that last week on exchanges, great advice.  Leave on a good note.

I have thought a little about school.  I've already declared my major in History Teaching, I'll probably do a double minor in Political Science and Chinese.  I'm going to visit the Air Force ROTC office to see what options they have.  I'd also like to talk to someone from the law school up at the U.  I don't know why, I've thought about law school the past few weeks.  We'll see.

Well, I love you both.  

Have a good week!

-Elder Travis Leatham