The Challenge

hello family!

is haley really pregnant or not because she said that she was kidding. anyway she better be pregnant if you say she is. [editor's note: Ben jokingly wrote that Haley was pregnant - which she's not, unless there's something she's not telling]

The MTC this week has been a blast! we are all getting so much better at speaking german that we go days without speaking very much english at all. It's hard but we've done it. I am also about thirty pages into das Buch Mormon. so i'm in chapter 13. alot of the stuff i can read without the help of the english version.

we also switched up the leadership in my branch so i'm no longer my district leader. But my companion and I were called as zone leaders so that's cool and all. We have a lot to do now.

I had another really cool experience this week. a few days ago i had this really strong feeling that i should always keep my oil with me at all times, which came in handy when we had a sick sister in need of a blessing last night and no one else had any oil. So i gave my first blessing. It really made me be happy that i am able to exercise the preisthood and that God knows where we need to be and what we need to be doing in order to use it. He knew that the sister would need a blessing so he used me as a tool. That's really what the priesthood is.

Oh a nother cool thing! I gave a totally unscripted talk about the atonement in german this last sunday. It was cool because i had a talk written but just as i was supposed to get up and speak i decided to just leave it becuase i didn't like it so i just spoke from my heart. We really do learn at an unreal speed here. only one month in and i can be asked to speak without knowing beforehand, and still do well in a foreign language.

Ben-

That's sweet that you got you drivers liscence! I'm sure that you feel a great amount of freedom. It's also kind of strange that you talk to youself..... oh well, keep doing it. you never know what you can teach yourself.

Sucks that your back is hurt. I hope you get to play this week. just don't hurt yourself more. But since you have all this freetime i want to give you a challenge. it's up to you if you want to do it or not but if you do you will be happy that you did. Purchase or find a cheap paperback book of mormon, and read through the whole thing with a blue scripture marker. every time that you see a reference to Jesus Christ (literally or symbolically) mark it. Don't mark anything else. I think that you will be shocked at how much you learn. Also if you really want to learn, do it in 59 days, which is about the same amount of time that it took joseph smith to translate the book of mormon. I think that you will be incredibly amazed and strengthened.

Anyway, the choice is yours. I wish i had the time to do it with you but i can't study for my own enjoyment here.

Also you better paint me a picture of a wolf on the moon in a space suit planting a flag with dead aliens all around him. That would be sweet. oh and here is a cool phrase i learned lately that you would like "Shade für dich." It means "sucks for you!" ask dad to help you pronounce it.

Well i better go now. the time is running low.

Chuss!

Love, Elder Eldredge

P.S. I haven't heard a word from many of [editor's note: yes it really ended right there]