January 30, 2012 letter

HELLO?

Okay, now I am really starting to wonder if you are getting my emails. I have sent the last 4 over again in hopes that you'll be able to see them but if not...sorry. Can't really do anything about it.
This week was kind of a bummer. We had 7 of the 14 lessons that we had scheduled cancel on us. It was alright though because we have a new investigator in the YSA branch! YAY! Something that we have been praying for for a long time. On Friday we were sitting in the car trying to figure out what we should do. We had about a half an hour before our dinner appointment and we didn't want to waste any time. We prayed to know where we should go or what to do. As soon as we said Amen the phone rang. Someone from the YSA branch said, "So I have this friend that wants to take the lessons, do you think that y'all could teach her on Sunday." Uhhhh...YEAH! It was awesome. I think that the only thing better than getting the referral was teaching her on Sunday night. Her name is Brittany. Her two friends are both return missionaries (love it) and have taught her a lot about the organization of the Church and the the Priesthood. I can't think of two better subjects that they could have talked about prior to our visit. I think what struck her most was the pre-earth life. That was by far the coolest part of the lesson. We asked her where she thought she was before she came here. She responded, "I didn't know that I was anywhere." We then went to Proverbs 8: 22-31. We explained that King Solomon was testifying that he was with God before our mortal life began. That he witnessed the creation and rejoiced in the Plan that Heavenly Father set forth; and that it wasn't just him that witnessed and rejoiced, but that it was all the sons of men. She just kind of sat with her eyes starring at the page. Then she looked up and the sweetest smile came across her face. Those are the moments that you live for on the mission. When someone comes to the realization that God is not some mystical being who has no care or worry for the people of this world; But that God is our loving Heavenly Father who knows each of us personally, and cares so much for us that he would provide a way to RETURN to him. Needless to say, the lesson went great. We will be meeting with her again on Wednesday night and I can't wait.

This morning Elder Dunbar found a IHOP gift card, so you best believe we had brunch at IHOP. While we were waiting for our food we of course played the table game where you slide a sugar packet across the table to get a corner off the edge. Well, this time we decided to play with the little half and half milk cups that they give you for the coffee that was already on the table (which we obviously were not going to drink). So the game was whoever had the edge of the milk cup over the edge of their side of the table had to drink it. You have to realize that this milk is nasty and warm. I had to drink four but Elder Dunbar had to have five. The waitress was laughing hysterically when she saw the empty milk cups. Ha ha ha. Also a good time that you live for on the mission. Not as cool or heart warming, but a good laugh is always nice.

Good news, I'm starting to write in my journal again. Good gosh I am terrible at writing in that thing. I have missed the last 6 months so I said, "Well, I might as well write for the last 6 so I at least have 1 full journal. Okay so in all reality, I don't know what to do if you are not getting these letters. I will forward all the letters to Dad on his email to see if it is just Mom's that is messed up. Okay...love you, bye...send stamps.

Love,
Elder McNinch

January 23, 2012 letter

Hello Family,

So I don't know if you got my letter last week...so I sent it to you again. The new companion is great. His name is Elder Dunbar and he is from Zillah, Washington. So awesome. Ha ha ha yes, just like it's spelled. Like godZILLA. He even said that there is a church in Zillah called the GodZillah church. Ha ha ha.

Umm, school? Yeah I guess that I would consider going to school in Florida. That is a super far way to go. I guess we'll have to see if I can get any scholarships or whatnot. I don't know...where ever is cheapest. Ha ha ha. That's how all missionaries think. I sent Dad a list of schools that I would like to learn more about two letters ago so you can consult that list. As well as look up some schools in Florida..I guess.

That Quail Ridge party sounds awesome. I will for sure tell Bishop Woodrum about it. Did you get to see Brett Leavitt? What is he up to? Is he married yet? I thought for sure that he wold be the first to get hitched. Ha ha ha. They still have the youth temple trip picture? Oh man, my hair was redonkulous in that picture.

I love that song. How can I be, like my brother Nephi...etc, etc? We played that as a special musical number in one of the zone conferences. I don't know how to play it. I just had a list of chords in front of me and kind of went from one to the other when the poly kid I was playing with changed notes...sounded okay though. I think that Kaitie is working on getting me the real chords.

Okay so here's last week... 

Monday:

We played pool at the Elder's apartment in the Frisco 2nd and 6th wards. That was a lot of fun. For whatever reason pool is much more fun when you speak in a British accent while playing. We were rolling on the ground laughing because we all sounded like idiots. Missionaries are just weird, don't worry about it.
We ate dinner that night at the Herrera's. They are hilarious. Somehow we got on the subject of children and working in the primary and nursery and brother Herrera says, "Oh yeah, I like kids...well done with BBQ sauce." Ha ha ha. Guess that explains why they have no kids.
 

Tuesday:

We had our first officail zone meeting with the new zone. We had introductions and it was a lot of fun. We put up a timeline on the board that had marks at 6, 12, 18, and 24. You had to go and sign your name on where you were in the mission. It was hilarious because my new companion, Elder Dunbar, is the oldest. He is at about 20 months. One of the newer missionaries gets up there and says, "Well, my name is Elder Evans. I have been out for about four months now. Four months goes by really fast, doesn't it Elder Dunbar?" Ha ha ha we were all dying laughing.
 In the evening we taught the Villa and McGuire family. They were both really good lessons. With the Villa's we taught the second half of the Plan of Salvation and invited them to come to church. We are really hoping that they are going to start coming on a regular basis now. For whatever reason it is really hard for them to come. The Mcguire family's lesson was way fun. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a white board. Drew out the pitfalls of life and how we use the Gospel as steps to get out.
 

Wednesday:

Wednesday was kind of a bummer day. We were trying to figure out how we could best help the YSA branch here. We thought...okay...lets go near the college campus and try to find some YSA investigators. Turned out that that apartment complex was chuck full of old people. Not young single adults.
That night we went to dinner with recent convert named Matt Fichtel and his fiance Stephanie Mullin. They are so funny. We had a lengthy discussion about gay rights and stuff because Matt likes to talk about controversial things. Never ceases to amaze me how smart both of them are. Like, if I could come up with half of the rebuttals and points that they do, I could be a really successful lawyer.
 

Thursday:

SUPER AWKWARD DAY. All of the lessons that we had tonight were really awkward. Taught a part member family where the kids didn't really care to listen to us. Then went out and tried to fellowship the inactive young single adults. Always find some awkward situation in which the girl that answers the door has less than modest clothing on. Then at the end of our night we had a situation that would take the whole email to explain. I'll just say that our investigator lied to us, the Bishop, and the President but we can't do really anything about it.
 

Friday

We went to the Lopez family's for dinner. Brother Lopez is training to be a chiropractor, so you know that we got hooked up with a free back adjustment. I was all sorts of jacked up he said. For dessert Brother Lopez made us this Razzleberry pie. It was like taking bites of the Celestial Kingdom.
We then went and taught the McGuire family again. The lesson was way fun. We taught the Restoration with Jenga. Built up the tower, played the game like normal, then related it to how Christ set up his church with the foundation of apostles and prophets. (Eph. 2: 19-20) Then we taught about the apostasy and how the foundation of Christ's church was taken away. We explained that all of the blocks that made up Christ's church (the gospel of Jesus Christ) was broken into pieces and different churches were set up in attempt to replicate Christ's original church. Then of course talked about the Restoration of Christ's church through a prophet. It was great. The kids loved it. They were giving us fistbumps and high fives all the way out the door.
 

Saturday:

We helped a sister move. She was an elderly woman and had no idea how to get to her new apartment. At least she knew the name of the apartment complex. Good thing that the Elders that live in Prosper live right next to her. That was a big help.
In the afternoon we went by a bunch of former investigators. People that have just dropped off of the face of the Earth. We went by this one girl who hadn't returned any of our phone calls or been home when we went by. Well, we tried one last time and she was there! She came to the door in a tank top and boxer shorts...great. She said, "OH I'm so sorry! I changed my number and forgot to transfer y'all's number to my new phone." I said, "Oh, okay, sweet. So what's your new number?" As I took out my pen and planner she took them from me to write the number in herself...weird. So I made small talk while she was writing. "So you've just been busy with school or what?" She said, "Yeah. School and work." Now when we had taught her before she hadn't found a job yet, so I was way excited to hear that she had found one. I said, "Sweet! So you're working now? Where are you working at?" She replied, "Victoria's Secret." Umm...uh...umm...uh. Okay...we'll give you a call...later. Bye. Ha ha ha. I had nothing to say to that. I felt really weird. I mean, I don't know that we should go back. I don't know if we can go back. I mean, she's 19, works at Victoria's Secret, and is no where near ugly looking. Not that missionaries seek to teach those who are ugly, but I think that you catch my drift. That's like missionary kryptonite. Not that either I or Elder Dunbar would fall to something like that, but still. Dang. Nothing much else happened that day. Spent a lot of time tracting and contacting.
 

Sunday:

LONGEST DAY OF CHURCH IN MY LIFE! Wow. We had ward conference and it took forever. We were in the first meeting for TWO hours straight. I have never ever battled head nods more in my life. I got so tired that I had to start creating lesson plans in my head to stay awake. I can now relate every Disney movie that I have seen to the Gospel.
 
 Well, That was my week. Glad to hear that y'all are doing well. Hope to get a letter from y'all soon. Please don't forget that I am in dire need of stamps.

January 16, 2012 Letter

Hello,

Do you share these emails with the family? It sounds like you and Dad don't really share what's going on in the letters. Ha ha ha. For information on the BYU football game see the LAST letter that I sent to you MOM. Ha ha ha. Oh dear, so this week was pretty awesome. Here are the details...

Monday wasn't all that exciting. Same old, same old. Wake up, study, shop, play basketball, write letters.

Tuesday was really interesting. We tracted pretty much all day. Not kidding. We have a couple return appointments from it so it wasn't all for naught. I would say that the best parts of the day were when we met a man named Page. Page said that he wasn't interested in what we had to share but that he had a question that no one could answer. He started off and said, "So, baptism. Was that a Jewish custom? Because, I mean, John the Baptist was doing it even before Christ came to him right?" We of course agreed. Then he said, "Okay, so Jewish custom or not, why did Christ get baptized? Wasn't he perfect?" We just sat there and were like...there is no way that you just said that! Have you read the Book of Mormon?! "No, I have never even heard of that." Oh man...okay so...you NEED to read it! It answers that question. We gave him 2 Nephi 31 to read and set a return appointment. We are so excited to go back this week. The next experience was in the lesson with the Villa family. The little girl Savannah (11) is so smart. At the end of the lesson was asked if there were any questions. She said, "So, if we come from God, if God is our Dad, where did God come from? Does he have Dad?" We were like...uh...well...uh...What do you think? Ha ha ha. I mean we can respond when adults ask us that question but it was so weird to hear it from an 11 year old. I mean, when I was 11 I was just wondering what was the best way to pick my nose without getting caught. Savannah is pondering the mysteries of life. This little girl is probably the most spiritually inclined kid that I have ever met in my entire life. It was awesome to witness.

Wednesday was great. We had interviews with President Durrant. During the interviews Elder Dunbar and I train the Zone on the new focus for the month from Preach My Gospel. It went...okay. Interviews were great as always. I go in, he asks if there is anything we need to talk about, I say no, he says 'thank you, how is your family', I say good, he says great, and I leave. Ha ha ha. I love President Durrant. He

Thursday we had a crazy day. In the morning we went and studied with Brother Amidon. He is the brother that broke his hip on Thanksgiving. He is recuperating quite well, but it is pretty rough for him. We asked if we could come over every Thursday and study with him during companionship study, and he said that he would LOVE to study with us. Ha ha ha. I love Brother Amidon. Things are really hard in his life right now but he has the most positive outlook. After studies we went to the city of Allen for a doctor's appointment. Elder Dunbar had to have the bottom of his foot looked at. Turned out to be pretty bad. He has a HUGE blister on the bottom of his foot now. Tracting is pretty rough. Wanted to get crutches but they are super expensive. Thursday night we had two dinners...BAD IDEA. One was the normal dinner that we had with the Stroud family. I love the Strouds. They are like the epitome of a missionary family. After that wonderful meal we went to the Cavitt family. The father is the only member and the other members of the family are Catholic. They are an awesome family! The kids are hilarious. Anyways, so we had dinner and then came dessert. Blue Bell chocolate chip cookies and cream ice cream. OH MY LANTA. Couldn't resist. Pretty sure that I gained 10 lbs that night. Doesn't help that we can't run in the mornings anymore either.

Friday was so funny. We ate dinner at the Stelling's house. Both Brother and Sister Stelling are converts to the church and are the sweetest people alive. They have 4 kids, one girl and three boys. Sound familiar? By the way, Elder Dunbar has a sister and two brothers as well...wiod. All of the Stelling kids are under the age of 10 so dinner is a RIOT! Ha ha ha I love it! After dinner we of course we shared a scriptural thought. Brother Stelling asked his youngest who was squirming around, "Who are those guys?!" The boy said, "It's the Eldoorths." Ha ha ha Brother Stelling asked, " So what do they do?" Without hesitation the little boy said, "Pee pee." HAHAHAHA! We about died laughing.

Saturday was AMAZING! We had the baptism of Nicholas Alves. He is 9 years old and has a more solid testimony than some of the missionaries that I know. We spent most of the day preparing for the baptism, but it was completely necessary. We got to the church to fill the font and found that the font was full of dead bugs...great. So we clean out the bugs and decide that we should probably scrub out the bottom. Oh dear. That thing hadn't been cleaned in a while. Anyways. So I turn on the water for a minute or two to wash out all the cleaner and junk only to realize that the plug in the bottom of the font was closed. All of the water and junk was NOT going down the drain. But now the drain was covered by the water which was too deep for me to just step down into. So I had to abandon the shoes and socks, hike up by suit pants, and drain it out. It was so weird. We got pictures of it that we'll have to send to y'all. The baptism was amazing though. We had a talk by Nicholas' step father on the Restoration and Joseph Smith, then a special musical number by Nick's primary class (tear jerker for sure), and then the actual baptism. So spiritual. Then to top it all off, we had 3 sets of fathers and sons go and bear testimony while they were changing. It was so AWESOME! After the testimonies I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and relying on it to guide our lives. Then we closed in prayer. Short, sweet, simple, spiritual.

 Sunday was a great day. I got a lot out of each of the lessons. Figuring that I should try to find something different in each lesson, because I get the same lessons 3 times throughout a six hour period. Two of my favorite quotes that were used were.

"Patience is actively working toward a goal."

"I believe in God like I believe in the sun rise. Not because I can see it, but because I can see all that it touches."- C.S. Lewis

Okay, so to address a few things...need some stamps. Also, I am going to send home a large box. You have to promise me that you will not open it or look inside it, okay? I love y'all SOOO much and wish you the happiest week of your life!

Love,
Elder McNinch

January 9, 2012 Letter

Hello Family,

 

Dad! That is so flippin cool! The Barnhouses showed me the picture of it on Facebook. They LOVE your art! Ha ha ha. It's so cool. They were telling this guy that we were visiting last night all about it. They were looking them up and showing them to him on Facebook as he was chillin in the hospital bed. Ha ha ha. Speaking of last night...I'll have to tell you about the wonderful experience we had with a guy named Brian Taylor. BUT FIRST...I'll talk about the week.

 

This week was a little skiwompus. Started off on Monday with Elder Evans. Elder Evans, I, and Elder Jones were in a tripanionship until Sunday night when Elder Jones got called to be the new Assistant to the President. So Elder Evans and I took care of what we needed for the day and figured that we would have to set aside time on Tuesday, when we got our new companions, to go shopping and what not. So on preparation day we played games with the zone until about 3, then went tracting, ate dinner, and headed to some appointments out in Prosper (where Bishop Lynn L. Woodrum lives). It's so funny that I get to see Bishop Woodrum every month. I feel like I'm twelve again.

 

So Tuesday we (Elder Evans and I) had to go into Dallas to pick up our new companions. We thought that we had everything figured out but of course something went wrong. I swear as a missionary something ALWAYS goes wrong. Then you add in the fact that I'm a McNinch and you've pretty much guaranteed yourself a problem with something. So we get there, exchange with our new companions, and try to figure out how to get back to Frisco. Well, turns out that Elder Evans' new companion has broken his collar bone. He apparently got tackled by some polly kid while playing football on p-day. Great. So now we have to wait for approval from Salt Lake before we can get him back out into the field. TOOK 2 HOURS!!! So finally we got him cleared to stay in the mission and not get sent home for his surgery.

 

Wednesday. My companion had a doctor's appointment in Carrollton because he had broken his collar bone just 8 weeks prior. After the appointment which took 3 hours, Elder Evans' companion gets called in for surgery. So my new companion, Elder Dunbar, and I have to stay all day in the hospital with Elder Evans so he has a companion. That night I was going to take Elder Dunbar to all our investigators to introduce him, but Elder Dunbar got food poisoning from the night before. He was throwing up everywhere. It was gross. I felt really bad for him.

 

Thursday. We planned and tried to figure out how in the world we were going to be able to visit all of the people that we have. On top of it being planning day we had to prepare for the stake president report on Sunday. Well, it took us forever to get a hold of all our missionaries to get their individual reports. So it took us even longer to type it all up. Then, to make matters worse, we get an email from President Durrant that says that the format for the report has changed. Great. So now we have to retype the entire report in a different format. It took us all day. No joke. Then that evening we went to go to do a baptismal interview in The Colony. Well it turns out that the lady my companion did the interview for could not be baptized until August. (legality issue) That was an awkward conversation.

Friday. We had a baptismal interview for a boy named Nick. He is going to be baptized this Saturday and we are so excited. He is a super smart kid and passed the interview with flying colors. That night we went over to the Bell family's house for dinner. The Bell family is super spiritual. They love us coming over too. So we had a nice sit down lesson with them afterword and then headed to teach Yolanda (recent convert) and her twin daughters. The lesson went pretty well. As well as it could go with two 13 year old girls I suppose.

 

Saturday. We finally had a coordination meeting with our ward mission leader and ALL of our ward missionaries in the 3rd ward. It was awesome. We talked through each of our investigators and made specific assignments to help them. It was great. Then, that night all of our appointments cancelled. Not cool.

 

Sunday. Okay so this is what I was talking about. We went to the stake center to report on the missionary work in the stake at 8:30. Somehow got to our sacrament meeting at the legacy building at 9:00. Went to church for all three hours. Went home and ate lunch. Went back to church for another three hours. Got out at 5:30. Went to dinner and then met up with the Barnhouses to go to an appointment. Well...we thought that the appointment was going to be golden...but it wasn't. Brian Taylor invited us in. We look around at his home and it is beautiful. Pictures of the Savior, their family, their wedding, it looked like a "Mormon" home. Well, besides the huge cross on the wall. We sit down and introduce ourselves and start to establish expectations for our visits. We hadn't even started in when Brian interrupts and says, "I hope y'all know that you didn't come here to convert me." ...this is going to be a great discussion. He starts going off about everything. "Why do you believe in the Book of Mormon?! You know that Joseph Smith was a thief right? Did you know that he was arrested for 'glass-looking'?! They have the court cases on record where he was proven guilty!" Blah, blah blah, blah blah, blah blah. He went off for about 10 minutes, brought up some scripture in Daniel chapter nine, and then was quiet and waited for our response. All we said was, " We have been called by a prophet of God, to teach people what He would have them know, in order to prepare for the second coming of His Son. Thank you for your time." Then we left. Sister Barnhouse was kind of shaken up by the whole thing. She said that she had never come across someone so antagonistic about the church. For my companion and I it just reminded us of being out in east Texas. That's how every lesson went out there. Ha ha ha. Anyways. I left from that lesson glad that we didn't try to prove a point, or dispute doctrine. But I was terribly sad. I feel like I'm trying to give someone a million dollars and they just won't take it. Everytime that there is a door that is shut, or a discussion that is made into a confrontation, I feel so sad. I just wish that people would set aside what they think, long enough for God to give his opinion on the matter. I don't know how the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith get twisted into a "cult" or a "brainwash". Something that causes someone to believe in, or follow the Savior more closely cannot be of the the devil. I don't know. Sometimes I feel like saying, "Okay, if you would just take your brain out and play with it for a minute, maybe it would work!" Of course that would be rude and disrespectful so I don't, but you know what I mean. I think missionaries often feel like Paul. Paul stands before King Agrippa and gives beautiful testimony of the divinity of Jesus Christ and all he gets out of it is, "Almost, thou persuadest me to be a Christian." This is some of the most frustrating work on the planet. I mean come on! Who doesn't want a million dollars!? What Christian doesn't want to find another testament that brings them closer to their Redeemer?

Although the work is frustrating, although my knuckles are sore, although it seems as if everyone is telling me this is wrong, I have never felt that I have ever being doing something that is more right. I have never felt more peace in my entire life. I have never ever felt closer to my Savior. I have never wanted to share what I know with everyone, until now.

 

Needless to say, this past week has been a little interesting for me. We talked a lot about goal setting and stuff on Sunday and that just got me all freaked out about school and what not. Yes, Dad I know that the "end" is coming soon and that we need to figure out school stuff. We have to try to figure out the application process for a couple of schools. UNLV, SUU, UVU, and BYU. If you want to get back to me on those next week, that'd be great. I wrote each of the kids a letter this week so hopefully Shannon will be there to get the letter.

Holy crap this letter is long.

 

Love YOU ALL,

Elder Michael McNinch

January 2, 2012 letter

Hello Family,

This past week has kind of been crazy. Sorry that I didn't get to write y'all last Monday. We were running around all over the place with appointments and what not. Anyways...we had transfer calls this past Saturday and sadly I have lost my companion. Elder Jones is now an Assistant. Couldn't think of a better Elder for the job. I will definitely miss Elder Jones. I haven't gotten my new companion yet though. I don't get him until tomorrow. His name is Elder Dunbar. He has been out for about 20 months so he is either going to be super hard working or super lazy. Ha ha ha hope that it's the first. Honestly he sounds like a great Elder so I am pretty excited to work with him. He has never been a Zone Leader before so this will be the second Zone Leader that I have trained. I have been a Zone Leader for a year now. A YEAR! ISN'T THAT NUTS! Ha ha ha. It's really not that big of a deal to me anymore.


So on Friday of last week most of our mission got to go to the BYU game at SMU. IT WAS AWESOME!!! BYU won in the last 40 seconds! They faked a spike and threw it in the corner. It was beautiful. Speaking of beautiful (not to sound like I am distracted), guess who they had the missionaries sitting right in front of at the game? The cheerleaders. WHO'S DUMB IDEA WAS THAT?! It was slightly ridiculous. Like, they were all down there doing their splits and high kicks and what not, trying to get the crowd all pumped up and we were just kind of sitting in the stands trying not to look at them because we felt like we were apostate if we did. So despite the lack of cheering and chanting from the missionary section BYU still managed to pull off a win. OH! Even better yet! Before the game we got there early so that we could try and figure out how to get into the game. We saw a bunch of blue and white tents and said, "Hey! BYU fans! They can tell us where to go." No sooner had we headed for the blue and white tents when the whole cheer leading squad came running out to us. Apart from all of us about peeing our pants, we had no words to say either. We were all struck with terror; That if we were to speak God might strike us down or something. Anyways...so they come over and start talking with my companion and I and 3 other missionaries. I suppose that they came because my companion was so good looking. The first thing that they ask of course was "Where are you from?". Their comment to me: "Ooo, a Vegas boy huh?" Good gosh. In my mind I was like, "Please just let me watch the game. That's all I want. Just get me in the game." But...alas, they continued to ask questions. "So how long have you all been out? Oh! Wait! More importantly, which one of you comes home first?" I was like...you have got to be kidding me. Low a behold, guess who just happened to be the oldest one in that group of missionaries. Yup, that's me. So the conversation got shoved from awkward to uncomfortable. They asked for a picture with all of us. Ha ha ha. I thought that that was so funny. Five missionaries with the cheer leading squad. Oh dear. It gets better though. So Elder Evans (my temporary companion) goes to church last Sunday and gets this. "Elder Evans! I saw pictures of you at the game!" "Sister Wells, how did you get pictures from the game?" "Oh my niece is one of the cheerleaders in the picture that y'all took! It was all over her Facebook." HA HA HA!!! I was dying! If President Durrant ever comes across those pictures we could be in deep trouble. I thought that it was soo funny though.

Other than that there is not much to report on. We SHOULD have 5 baptisms this month but the Montague family is really struggling. It's kind of hard to teach someone if they don't answer the phone or door. I am trying to be more obedient. I feel like I am but I want to try to be more obedient. All I know is that obedience brings blessings and I definitely stand in need of the Lord's help in this area. Glad to hear that Jake is finally engaged. Took him long enough to find someone. Ha ha ha just playing. Can't wait to meet Kelsie and welcome her to the family. I am sure that New Year's really opened her up to the McNinch family way of life. Now if she can get past Grandpa Syl it'll be smooth sailing from there on out.

So wait...are we going to Yellowstone or Florida? Where are y'all getting all this money? Good gracious. Aren't those trips expensive? Not complaining, just saying. Okay...well sorry that this email is a little bit shorter than normal. I hope to write y'all a super long letter next time. I love you all very much and I hope that you have a great family night tonight.

Peace, Love, and Church

-Elder McNinch

PS- Send stamps please? =) Also...where are the letters from Gladys?