June 29th email

Dear Family: I have some questions that you have answered before possibly but I need to ask them again because they are either lost or I forgot, sorry. This type writer is fabulous... I have to really PUNCH every key for it to work.

1. What is the full name of the stake president so I can send his letter to him? Ummm, I actually can't think of any other questions... ha-ha... maybe later.

I'm pretty sad I won't get to see this fabulous play, it sounds like it's going to be pretty good. I like river rafting, don't so much like 17 year-old boys that pull you in but that's always a part of it, and I like 4-wheeling, and camping, and hiking. Then there is that other side of me that loves dance concerts and being refined to some degree and clean and dressed up... that part of me will come back one day after my mission, for now the camping side of me is useful :)

We will meet our new President this week, I'm sure he will have some great influence on my mission since he's in charge of it, but I wonder what the impression of yours implies :) Hmmmm, only time will tell as with most things. I don't have a lot of fabulous stories right now. It is just a slow and continual process of trying to have more patience in learning the language and getting used to new-ness of all things all the time and making slow but important changes to the way some things are done so that baptisms will happen! I printed some more pictures today that I can send you along with a hurried one we took so you can at least see the face of my new companion; we don't have many pictures yet though.

I will finally remember in my next letter to send you my card numbers so you can try to activate it so it will work at the ATM's because I really need to just get out some cash and use that... nothing major important but it would be simpler for a few things. Guess what we did for service the other day? We dug holes in the ground for the poles of someone’s new home since theirs was destroyed in the storm. I dug dirt out with half a coconut shell... amazing!

Here is something insane... at the end of this next month I will have been gone for half a year! That's so fast. Thirteen months still seems far away so I don't feel like it's all going TOO fast yet, but isn't it mean how life works. It will go slow until I feel comfortable speaking and then it will be gone! I was reading the Liahona in Tagalog yesterday during part of ward council (that was a-okay with everyone, no worries...their meetings aren't altogether formal to say the least) and it got me so excited about school and working with Church publishing. I don't know that it is something I will end up actually wanting to or even being able to do but just having for once an actual purpose for my studies really add to my desire to learn. I also really love language, we communicate a lot without it but I was in the book store getting myself a small Tagalog bible and saw some books/authors I love and remembered they existed and how much I love to read and write and although I love non-verbal communication through art and danceI LOVE language and learning a new one really helps you appreciate your own and how amazing language is. I also understand English better than I did before.

So, the Stake Pres said something in my blessing when he set me apart that I wonder about sometimes. It kind of scared me thinking about it that night after and still has me wondering in what way, dramatic or more subtle etc. that it will come about. But, he said that there will be times on my mission that I will feel like I cannot put another foot forward, take another step etc. but my strength will be in pulling others with me... anyway, that's the gist of it. I don't think I've experienced something where I just don't think I can keep going -- not everything is pleasant but it's all bearable.

Sometimes we get really set in a schedule and pattern of how things should go and will go and we visualize our future that same way to some degree... I feel as though I can picture what my next year of life will be in some way because we do the same basic things every day but really a lot of things I can't imagine or expect will happen and people will come into my life that I can't imagine yet it's just an odd thing to think about actually so this really isn't going anywhere, sorry :)

Well, I'm going to write some hand written letters now because I'm really behind and I don't have much to say in email, sorry. I'm glad your hot summer seems to be going well and I love you all too. Even though times are hard and won't get easier, but harder, we're awfully lucky to have the proper perspective and proper place for trust through the true gospel.

Love,

Sister Landrum