Dear Home,
Mom sent me a few questions to answer, so I think I'll respond to those first.
Have I ever sung the Canadian National Anthem since arriving in Canada? Yes. Once. When I first arrived in Canada with the rest of my MTC Distric, we were taken to the Mission Home (where the Mission President and his wife live). We spent the night there, and the following morning, we had a kind of 'Welcome to the Mission' meeting in which we sang multiple verses of O Canada. Up until that point, I didn't know it /had/ multiple verses. Then again, I bet most people would be surprised to find that there's more than one verse of the Star Spangled Banner.
Question two: Are you ready for {-25.2 C (the average low in Prince Albert in the winter)}? Answer: I think so. My boots are good. My longjohns are good. My gloves could be better. My jacket could not be better. And since we saved a lot of money not having to buy boots, there's plenty of cash left for a neckwarmer, better gloves (maybe), etc. Anyway, my bases are covered. I'm plenty warm enough to get me through the now, and by the time it gets colder, I'm sure I'll be even better prepared. ^^
Third and final question: How cold does it have to be before they tell us to stay inside and try not to freeze to death (which I swear will NOT happen to me)? -40 C, which is the same as -40 F, which, I hear, is pretty cold. But I'll live. ^^
(( Note to Mom: So, I'm in a library, right? I just noticed a Reader's Digest 4-in-1 type book, the kind you often read. I thought of you. ))
Now for what I was actually planning on writing to you. XD
I can't believe I'll have been out on my mission for 6 months in a few days (Oct 22). It doesn't feel like I've been out here for half a year, but there are some of you for whom it's felt like I've been away from for longer than a year. It's a strange feeling. I don't want to be anything but a missionary right now, but at the same time, I wish I could've stayed with my family while I serve my mission. I guess being away from home is part of my consecration, but it feels both like an eternity and like a few weeks since my mission began.
Still, I'm learning a lot. For those of you that belong to the Canada Winnipeg Mission facebook group, please pass these insights on to the rest of the future missionaries in the world.
No matter where you serve, make sure your suit pants DON'T have cuffs on the bottom. Sure, they're styilish, especially if you wear pinstripes like I do, but dirt, leafs, grass clippings and small rocks often get caught in the cuffs, and it's a hassle to have to clean them out.
Also, if you plan on marking your white shirts so everyone will know they're yours, make sure you use a bleach-proof laundry marking pen. Otherwise, the writing will eventually disappear and your shirts will consequently become slightly less white.
When you track, keep track of which houses didn't answer, so you can come back to those ones later. It's frustrating to know that there are people in some of those houses that haven't heard your message yet, but you don't know who they are.
If you plan on serving in Canada, you might want to make sure that at least some of your shoes don't use laces. Tying, untying, and retying your shoes whenever you enter someone's house can be an unconvenient waste of time.
If you serve where it's cold, get used to using mechanical pencils. They're convenient, erasable, the refills are cheap(er), and the ink doesn't freeze (because there isn't any). Though you'll still need a pen because mecha pencils don't write on passalong cards.
Now I have a question for all of you: What do you want for Christmas? I'm told that if I want to get a package to you by Christmas, I'll have to send it within the next 6-week period. So.... what should I send? I mean, I don't want to be lazy/cheap and not send you anything (as I'm sure many of you would tell me to do), so tell me what I can send you, or I'll have to send whatever I can come up with, and the gift will be really lame. =( Then I'll feel bad about my lack of creative gift-giving skills, and I won't be able to focus on doing a good job as a missionary on account of my failure to be a good son, brother, or friend. And we don't want that to happen, so tell me what to send you! =P
Your Demanding Missionary, Elder Andrew Robarts
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