Tuesday, October 23, 2012

October 22, 2012 Email

Dear Mom and Dad,
Let me answer your question yi xia xia.  I recieved my mail in ballot today.  Hurray!  I'm going to take it to the post office today.  Let me tell you about who I voted for!  I voted for Barack Obama for President.  Suprised?  I almosted voted for "Rocky", but I decided against it.  (Just Kidding.)  Suprising turn of events, I voted for Orrin G. Hatch for senate and Gary R. Herbert for governor.  Honestly, I have no idea who Scott Howell is, and you didn't have much good to say about Peter S. Cooke.  I figure Orrin can stay in office until he's ready to run for office in the spirit world.  And the fact that the UEA is supporting Herbert made up my mind.  I guess he's doing okay.  I did vote for Jay Seegmiller, I like what I can recall of him.  He's been trying to run for office for quite a while, I'd like to see him win. 
Enough about that, we had stake conference last sunday.  It was good, Pres. Bishop was invited to speak.  It was fun hearing him speak, the man served his mission here 35 years ago, but he's been able to pick a lot of it up again.  I fear my Chinese will likely decrease in quality, but I hope to find opportunities to continue learning and practicing.
I've set some goals for what I'd like to do for the last four weeks of my mission.  Its something Elder Chen has asked me about, I was glad to think about it.  I set a goal of learning how to control all of my bad habits at the beginning of my mission, I'd like to polish that up before I go home.  Other than that, I just want to focus on being dilligent, 100% obedient, and worthy of the Spirit.  I hope to leave on a good note, I guess you could say.
I was reading about Gentiles in the Bible Dictionary, it pointed out that Paul was called the "apostle of the Gentiles."  While Peter opened the ministry to the Gentiles, it was Paul who established the church among the Gentiles.  He was responsible for establishing the church in Europe and Asia Minor.  I had always wondered why we have so many of Paul's writings in our canonized scriptures.  Some apostles were proselyting in areas around Israel, some were proselyting in far away places, such as Ethiopia and even as far away as India.  Some were busy with other responsibilities.  The Epistle of James is addressed to the "twelve tribes scattered abroad," and John and Matthew were working on their respective Gospels, recording the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.  But Paul was addressing the people in Europe and Asia Minor, the people who took Christianity and adopted it as the religion and heritage that we celebrate in the Western Hemisphere today.  The European Christians loved Paul because he was addressing THEM.  The Epistles of Paul, translated correctly, should be as significant to the European descendants as the Book of Mormon is to the American Indian descendants of Lehi.  Anyways, that's what it made me feel like.  I would like to study the Epistles of Paul more dilligently in the future.  it also made me wonder about all the records addressed to other people that we haven't recieved in this dispensation yet.  It's exciting.
I'll try not to worry about dating or work. :)  I've thought a little bit about work, thanks for asking around for me.  I think there's a lot of opportunities that I'll have when I get home.  Who do you want to set me up with when I get home? Haha!  I guess it doesn't matter right now, I'm just curious.
Well, I love you.  Have a good one.
-Elder Travis Leatham
PS  You can send Nick my emails if you'd like.  I sent him a letter last week, it should be there in a week or so.  I love you Nick, hang in there bro!

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