Dear family and friends at home,
How are you all doing? I love all of you and I hope that this weeks e-mail finds you all happy healthy and strong! I have a few fun things to tell you about.
Everything as usual is going really well. True to rumors, Jeffery R. Holland did come and talk to us. His talk was fantastic! He talked about how lucky we are to be able to have the Gospel in our lives and to have the ability to bring hope and meaning to others through the Gospel to His children here on Earth. I really felt reassured that I am here for a purpose and that the Lord is with us.
Yesterday, Anziano MIller and I went to the Consulate in Salt Lake and got his visa papers finally submitted. According to the Church travel representative, Katie, his visa should be in next week so that will be nice. She is also insistent that we will be leaving the day after Christmas not the 18th. So we will see. I guess everyone else's visas are in the office too so there shouldn't be any hitches For which we are fortunate because I have seen from a lot of other missionaries that visas can be really hard to come by for some. And some consulates don't exactly love to be giving out visas. We are very fortunate.
Thanksgiving itself was pretty great. We had of course, Jeffery R Holland's address and actually something form his granddaughter who has been called to the Italy, Milan Mission. Can you believe that? Way cool. We had some programs including some skits that probably confused all of the missionaries who aren't American. Anziano Criscenti kept whispering "Is this America?" to himself. He had no idea what was going on. Our humanitarian project was fun too besides that it triggered memories of working at Papa Murphy's. We assembled medical and educational kits for people in Mali. That was really fun.
Also on Sunday, I was called to be a district leader which here at the MTC, doesn't mean so much except for that I fetch the mail and represent my district and attend meetings for zone leadership. That is really cool.
Every day I get more and more excited to go to Italy! We are learning more and more which is fantastic! I wish that we could learn more about the culture but right now we are trying to nail down the language. We are doing pretty well at SYL (speak your language). Immersion is definitely the way to go for learning a language. Some times I resist Italian, but other times it comes super naturally. All of my other languages have been absolutely ruined. I tried to talk to the French missionaries and found that for the most part, I was speaking Italian with a French accent. I don't know if I have dreamed in Italian quite yet. I will let you know though.
I love you all very much. I wish that I had more for you. We have pictures, but I have to find my camera charger.
Oh also, Hey Mom... The package that you sent me... I have a quick question, what happened with all of the contents of that box? Also, if you have the chance, can you send my consecrated oil? There is a silver vial and a glass vial and I had them in my window sill. Other than that, hoodies and T-shirts would be fantastic. It is starting to get cold here.
Love for everyone,
Anziano John Colin Cook
How are you all doing? I love all of you and I hope that this weeks e-mail finds you all happy healthy and strong! I have a few fun things to tell you about.
Everything as usual is going really well. True to rumors, Jeffery R. Holland did come and talk to us. His talk was fantastic! He talked about how lucky we are to be able to have the Gospel in our lives and to have the ability to bring hope and meaning to others through the Gospel to His children here on Earth. I really felt reassured that I am here for a purpose and that the Lord is with us.
Yesterday, Anziano MIller and I went to the Consulate in Salt Lake and got his visa papers finally submitted. According to the Church travel representative, Katie, his visa should be in next week so that will be nice. She is also insistent that we will be leaving the day after Christmas not the 18th. So we will see. I guess everyone else's visas are in the office too so there shouldn't be any hitches For which we are fortunate because I have seen from a lot of other missionaries that visas can be really hard to come by for some. And some consulates don't exactly love to be giving out visas. We are very fortunate.
Thanksgiving itself was pretty great. We had of course, Jeffery R Holland's address and actually something form his granddaughter who has been called to the Italy, Milan Mission. Can you believe that? Way cool. We had some programs including some skits that probably confused all of the missionaries who aren't American. Anziano Criscenti kept whispering "Is this America?" to himself. He had no idea what was going on. Our humanitarian project was fun too besides that it triggered memories of working at Papa Murphy's. We assembled medical and educational kits for people in Mali. That was really fun.
Also on Sunday, I was called to be a district leader which here at the MTC, doesn't mean so much except for that I fetch the mail and represent my district and attend meetings for zone leadership. That is really cool.
Every day I get more and more excited to go to Italy! We are learning more and more which is fantastic! I wish that we could learn more about the culture but right now we are trying to nail down the language. We are doing pretty well at SYL (speak your language). Immersion is definitely the way to go for learning a language. Some times I resist Italian, but other times it comes super naturally. All of my other languages have been absolutely ruined. I tried to talk to the French missionaries and found that for the most part, I was speaking Italian with a French accent. I don't know if I have dreamed in Italian quite yet. I will let you know though.
I love you all very much. I wish that I had more for you. We have pictures, but I have to find my camera charger.
Oh also, Hey Mom... The package that you sent me... I have a quick question, what happened with all of the contents of that box? Also, if you have the chance, can you send my consecrated oil? There is a silver vial and a glass vial and I had them in my window sill. Other than that, hoodies and T-shirts would be fantastic. It is starting to get cold here.
Love for everyone,
Anziano John Colin Cook
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