We aren't ready to handle all the success

3/23/10 Email Message

Family,

Hey! Thanks for all the awesome pictures mom! It looks like you had a lot of fun in chattanooga...or at least Asher does...what a cute kid.

I cant think of anything interesting to say today...its cloudy and snowing again today. but we have an exciting new development. In addition to raining, snowing, and just generally being cold all the time the wind has decided to start blowing at record speeds. I was going down the hill on my bike the other day and had to get off and walk it down because the wind wouldnt let me roll down straight. Im starting to wonder if this place even has summer...

Imoto san (the guy that came to our window) has decided to get baptized at the end of April...yayy!!

I played basketball today for the first time in almost a year - it was a blast...but I learned something. As a result of it being so cold outside for the past few months I havent gotten much of an opportunity to go outside and run around. As a result I am unfortunately serverely out of shape. An hour of half court, pick up basketball has completely worn me out. From here on out I will now be running outside in the morning instead of lifting weights inside. I dont care how cold/windy it is ;-)

We worked really hard last week though and saw a lot of blessings. It was basically the most productive week on my mission. We now have three investigators with solid baptism dates. All of them are so cool, and so interesting. Especially Wang san - our Chinese kinjin. I have decided that I really like Chinese people now. When the Church finally gets into that country those missionaries are going to have a free for all. Ive met soooo many prepared Chinese people on my mission. Im starting to think the reason the church cant go yet is because we arent ready to handle all the success we are going to see. There are billions of people in China - and if even a fraction of those are anything like Wang san look out. Its going to be something special.

Now its time for the sad but necessary part of this email...

I got my dying papers last week - sad day. They basically told me Im about to leave soon but that if I endure to the end I will be blessed. It also had my basic return information. My last day in the field is June 24 but my return day is Friday June 25. Apparently they will try to get me home in the early afternoon if they can, but they havent bought the tickets yet so they dont know for sure. They asked me a few questions, but I just want to clarify with you before I answer. Our airport is called the "Huntsville International Airport" right? Also am I right in assuming that Bishop Blake and President Draughon are still our bishop and stake president? I am guessing if there were any changes with that you would have let me know, but I just want to make sure.

Also Ive got my classes lined up for BYU next year. Kaicho told me to make sure Im prepared for it, so I got on and mapped out my next two semesters. Ive decided to stick to Accounting for now - but also to explore some other fields a little and make myself stretch more. Im going to take all the preRecs for the accounting program but also go the honors route and take a bunch of honors classes. Ill be taking Honors Biology 260, an honors PoliSci class (international relations), as well as Japanese, and a world religions class. (I threw in film and weight training for fun) As of now Ive got 18 credit hours for both semesters. Im guessing registration will be in a couple of weeks...

Anyways thats kind of depressing so Ill stop now. We are on our way to a Family Home evening from here so that shoud be fun.

I love you! thanks for the great emails. And awesome pictures. Talk to you soon!

Love, Elder Kingsford
p.s. - happy 21st birthday to me this saturday - i feel old already