October 4, 2010

Dear Home,

I love General Conference. ^^ And I love serving with Elder Hall and Elder Sheffield. We're all having a great time. =)

We've been pretty busy the past couple of days. Elder Sheffield and I spent our first day or two in Saskatoon unpacking, and then Elder Hall arrived, and he spent his first day here unpacking, too. Of course, we got other things done, too. For example, we bought our bus passes (Why they're having three missionaries bus instead of having a two-missionary companionship bus is beyond me. It'd be cheaper for the mission to only have to buy two bus passes, but whatever. They know what they're doing.) And, of course, we also bought Ice Cream.

Holding to the Robarts family tradition of having ice cream between the Saturday Afternoon Session and the Priesthood Session of General Conference, I made sure that at least my companions and I had plenty of ice cream. ((Of course, my family changed the tradition on me, moving the Ice Cream party from Saturday to Sunday, but that's just the way things go sometimes.)) Luckily, we were able to include the rest of the district, too, but it was too late to organize a zone-wide ice cream party. Oh, well. Maybe next time. I wonder where I'll be next General Conference. That'll be very close to the end of my mission. ...Wow, it doesn't feel like it's been that long. But I've got plenty of good memories and lots of lessons learned. It's been a good year and a half. =)

One thing I love about this new companionship I'm in is that we're all so alike! We have lots of the same interests and personality traits. Plus, this companionship will be a good opportunity for me to step up and be a leader. President Paulson said that we should switch off weeks for us to be Senior Companion. I volunteered to be the senior companion of Week One. It'll be good for me to take charge and make decisions. It'll be good practice for later in my life. It's going to be tough to be an adult, but hopefully, strengthened by my missionary experiences, I'll be up to the challenge.

Man, missions strengthen you. Physically, spiritually and mentally. I feel WAY different than the person I was when I left home. I hope I keep these new improvements. I want to be more confident, determined, focused,  and strong.

And speaking of being stronger, since we're in a bussing area, Elder Sheffield, Elder Hall and I are going to be getting a lot of exercise, which is great news for me! If I'm going to try and climb Half Dome at the end of my mission (and live to tell the tale!) I'm going to have to be at my best. Go Cardio! Running down buses, walking for miles each day, It's going to be great. My pedometer is going to be racking up step-counts in the tens of thousands daily. =D I'm excited.

Another thing I like about being back in Saskatoon is that we get to go to P-Day activities again. =) Today we played Ultimate Frisbee and Two-Hand-Tag Football. It felt good to go running again, but boy did I need water! I'm going to have to be better prepared in the future. But it's not a big problem. Live and Learn.

Anyway, the other missionaries are checking their watches and I didn't have too much to talk about in the first place, so if something else comes up, I'll tell you next week. By the way, I'm not sure if or how printing Emails is going to work in this area. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, study your General Conference notes. There were a lot of good messages shared this weekend. =)

Much love, your City-Boy-Boomerang Missionary,
Elder Andrew Robarts