December 31, 2013

Mom,

I definitely will need a cell phone. That's awesome that you were able to get an IPhone 5! I don't know what the 'c' means, but it sounds cool. I'm very, VERY excited to see the grandparents.

Everything sounds great!

Q of the W:

1.  Do you just keep on working everyday as normal up until you leave?

Basically. I'll be doing goodbye visits and everything, so it might be a little different.

2.   Would you be interested in flying to Texas with Dad and I for Melanie's funeral/ceremony at the end of January?  I would love to have the Texas family see and talk with you!  I asked Dad to buy you a plane ticket too - I think it would be fun.  It's not for sure yet but I wanted your opinion.  We haven't bought anything yet.

I would absolutely love to make that trip. I'm all in.

3.  Do you have any plans for New Years Eve/ Day?

Tonight, our ward is putting on a party. We'll be going to that, but we'll have to be home at regular time. President Jeppson has asked us to be home at the regular missionary time.


The Statue of Liberty!!!

It was super, super fun! So here's what went down: We all met up at the Newark chapel. The mission has a big van that can sit a total of 11 people including the driver and passenger seat. We all fit perfectly. President Jeppson drove us with Sister Jeppson in the passenger seat. There are nine of us going home, so we all fit perfectly in the van. Also, a senior couple, the Hendricksons, came along beside us in their van. They pretty much set up the whole trip. They set up the trip every time there are departing missionaries going to the Statue of Liberty. They're awesome. So we went to a dock in a city called Bayonne, or at least a city close to that. We entered a pretty good sized ferry that first took us to Ellis Island. Before we entered the ferry, we had to go through security. But we all got onto the ferry and then went to Ellis Island. We watched a short film of 30 minutes about the history of Ellis Island and what the emigrants had to go through to finally get to the United States. It was crazy what they had to go through. It would definitely be a scary trip. After the little film, we were able to go around the museum a little and look around. I bought a couple souvenirs. After we boarded the ferry again and we were taken to Liberty Island. The ferry took us around Liberty Island and we were able to see the Statue of Liberty from all angles. Way cool. We got off onto the island and we had to go through security again to be able to enter the statue. Right under the feet of the statue there is a little part that you can walk around. (I'm going to send a couple different pictures.) We were able to walk around and just spend time looking around. Unfortunately, we were not able to go up to the crown, despite how much the mission would love to take us up there. I was talking to Sister Hendrickson about that and she said that you can only buy tickets to go up to the crown with a credit card and you have to do it in advance. However, you're only allowed to buy four tickets at a time and you can only buy them every six months on that one credit card. Too much of a hassle, so the mission can't take us up there. When we come back to visit New Jersey/New York, we could go up. The ticket I had said that the whole Statue of Liberty trip only costs $17 a person. I guess it adds up pretty quickly in a big group, but I thought that that was a decent price, especially since we're here in the tri-state area.. After we were done on Liberty Island, the ferry took us back to the dock in Bayonne. Once we returned, we went to a 9/11 memorial just down the road from the docks. I don't know what it was called before, but now it's called the Empty Sky Memorial. There are two walls with the names of victims that were citizens of New Jersey written on them. Before the events of 9/11, those two walls lined up perfectly with the Two World Trade Centers. Now they don't line up with anything... :( Right in front of that memorial is a few of the truss beams from the fallen Twin Towers. Then we headed over to another 9/11 memorial. It's called the Russian Tear Drop. I guess the Russians were really sad for us, so they made a memorial and gifted it to us. The tear drop represents the tears shed for the victims of 9/11. Finally, to conclude our trip, we headed back to Newark and went to a Catholic Basilica. It was huge on the inside! We were the only ones in there. I guess that it's always open for anyone to just walk in and look around. We sang a couple hymns inside, because it's known to have really good acoustics. Haha, we sang a few hymns of the restoration: "We Thank Thee oh God for a Prophet", "Praise to the Man", "The Spirit of God". We sang a few other hymns and also "Army of Helaman". Something was definitely different about that Basilica compared to our chapels and temples. But that was basically it for the trip!

This last week was just basically visiting our investigators and doing normal missionary work with our members. This week will be a little different. I'll be doing a bunch of good-bye visits with members and some investigators. This Thursday I am going to the temple with President and Sister Jeppson and right after the temple trip I'll have my departing interview with President Jeppson. It'll be a fun week, but because of everything going on, I won't be able to do as much missionary work as I would be able to do in a normal week. I'm excited though. I'm grateful and happy to be a missionary. I will definitely miss this time being a missionary. It's two years I will never be able to live again. I've grown a lot. However, I miss the family a lot. Both immediate and extended. I miss my friends as well. I'm excited to hang out with Jesse and William. Kyle Byington will return just a couple weeks after me. Seth will be coming back later on this spring. Then Spencer, Tanner, and Luke will be coming home in that respective order.