‘Twas the Week Before Thanksgiving

Q/A letter from Elder Mackelprang this week.  Dads questions are mixed in with Richard’s answers:

Do you ever see any of the Mandarin-speaking elders around the MTC
campus?  If you do, give them a big NiHauMa from the Mackelprangs.

Well, I do see Chinese/ Mandrin speakers or people with oriental type characters  on their nametags, and sometimes I hear them counting in Mandrin. :P It's funny that I can still understand what the numbers are from when Dad taught us as kids. 

I'm glad all is well on the home front, and it's great to hear about some of my childhood memories because there are many stories that I don't remember like the rattlesnake picture/ story you talked about. I still can show you the scar from that wound I got at Kartchner pond... that was rotten.  I look forward to your package, and I can gauge how long it takes to get from NC to Provo, and have an idea of how long it'll take to get it to Santa Rosa.  I'm sure that I can find some fun pranks to pull on some of my companions with some of the things you said you'd send me. ^_^  All in good fun of course! I'm sure Josh will be telling me all about his new game in a Dear Elder or his letter, :P it'll be fun to play around with him a little when I get home. 

As for your questions...

How did you spend your "allowance" this week?  What things did you buy?

I spent about $2.5 on snacks and about $2 on spare change costs of dry cleaning/  necessities. There always seems to be something more that I need from the bookstore at the beginning of the week.

Can you receive pictures in your emails?  How large?  How many?  What's the max size?

Pictures can be sent here, I don't know the size limitation, but I know you can send at least 3, just make sure they aren't too big. 

Do you do floor prayers at night in the alcove near the janitor's closet?  If so, do you see Seth there?

We don't do floor prayers, but I think it would be a great way to unify our Zone more, so I'll suggest it to the ZL's. However, I see Seth just about everyday. 

Tell us yesterday's menu?  What did you have for breakfast / lunch /
dinner?

The menu sounds better than it actually is, but I don't complain that the food is bad, it's just not home cooking (doesn't quite match the quality of the BYU Cannon center).  Usually it's Eggs and Hash browns for breakfast, some sort of sandwich for Lunch, and some type of meat or salad for dinner.  They have ice cream on Sundays, and Wednesdays so I have to watch out a lot! 

Send us a copy of your schedule book for last week.  It would be fun to see all the meetings you have scheduled.

My schedule isn't all that exciting either. It's nice, but it also is just about the same pattern for everyday except for Tuesdays where we go to the TA, Wednesdays because it's P-Day, and Sunday because it's completely different. 

Who spoke to you at the last devotional?  What was the subject?

In our last devotional we heard from the Pres'ding Bishop Edgely who talked about missionary work and how everything we do has an effect that we may never see, and to not judge the success of our missions by the number of baptisms, but rather by how obedient we were to do that which we were commanded. 

I hope you all are doing well and enjoy my next letter which I just sent off today. Hopefully I'll hear from you guys soon!

I love you all!

Elder Richard Mackelprang