Dearest Family and Friends,
I love you all so much. Thank you for the letters, emails, dearelders, and packages! Mom, you're a saint for many reasons. I have been getting all the packages. Sorry I didn't let you know earlier. They don't give us any time for communication here. I'll probably end up writing another letter to finish up everything I don't have time to say in email. The donuts were great, and I've been building my relationship with my district with all the other goodies. But it's not like our relationship needs a lot of building. We're all really close. It's cool to see how close the Spirit can bring people. We're definitely lifelong friends, I would say. Ok, there is so much to address. I forgot to mention a few cool things about the MTC last time. First off, The Cream Soda Tree. There is this tree in the middle of the MTC campus that smells like cream soda. It's incredible. I sniff it often. Second, the mountains of Provo are beautiful. I have made it a goal to summit Squaw Peak. It's been calling to me the whole time I've been here. To address TDKR, I will offer my heartfelt thanks for the news you all brought. I'm very glad to hear it was incredible. I thought it would be. I have great faith in Christopher Nolan. And Mom, thank you so much for sending the songs to Jason. Give him my thanks for being so kind and willing to help. I really appreciate it. I was going to be a little bummed that I couldn't get the full potential out of the songs. Tell him to take his time. I trust his musical judgement as far as what he will do with them, but I will say that if it was possible to have violin and harmonica placed in some of the songs, that would be really awesome, I think. But I'm going to be more than happy with any help. That's so crazy that my wonderful family is moving! And we're arriving in our respective destinations at the same time! So cool. The title of this email is such, because I learned something interesting along those lines. One of my roommates, Elder Broadbent, was saying that we are literally going to be spreading the news in New York. That was cool to think about, but what made it even cooler was my awesome teacher Bro. Reeves saying that the word gospel literally means good news. So we're spreading the good news! Cool, right? I"m running out of time, but I want to share a really powerful experience I had last week. The day after TDKR came out, we were all kinda talking about it to one of our teachers, asking him if he'd seen it yet, and telling him that we shaved the Batman symbol into Elder Phillips' chest. To our great surprise, he really chastised us. He called us out for being focused on the world and not on the mission, and basically told us we needed to straighten out. It was really hard to hear, but I think he made a good point. I think that it's ok to have a little clean fun every once in a while, but I know I was definitely being way too worldly. We all felt pretty humbled after that, and I know that at least for me, it was a tough day. But the incredible Elder Heiner saved us all from misery and woe. At the end of the night, we all gathered for district prayer, and Elder Heiner gave one of the most beautiful prayers I've heard. After the prayer, we all just sat in silence for a few minutes, because we all had a lot on our mind. Then, Elder Heiner started to give the most powerful sermon I've witnessed. The kid has the strongest spirit ever. He told us that he had been thinking about our district's situation, because he noticed that the other districts were all going to the same place. For example, the other district in our zone were all going to Salt Lake. He then pointed out that our district had Elders going to Tucson and New York, virtually on opposite sides of the country. He said he had been thinking about why this was, and he had decided that we were put together because we all had something to learn from each other. By this point, I was sobbing uncontrollably. The Spirit was so thick. He pointed out some of the things we each had that we could share with the group, and he asked us to think about what would happen to the rest of us if any two of us had decided not to serve a mission. It's not often that you can make a room full of adult men weep. But Elder Heiner has something really special, and I've learned so much from him. Honestly, that was probably in the top 3 for most spiritual experiences I've had ever. It was so awesome. Ok, so I really wish I could expound and tell you all more, but I'm almost out of time. I'll have a chance to talk a lot more on Monday morning when I call! I can't say exactly when I'll be able to call, but I'm leaving at 3 in the morning, so it could be really early. I wish I had more details, but I would say to just have your phones near on loud. I'll probably call Mom's cell if that's ok. I'd like to let you all listen to Make Your Own Kind of Music. I can't wait to talk to my family! I love you all so much! Have lots of questions for me to answer. When I sit down to email and the timer starts, I freak out because of the pressure and forget what I want to say. So make sure to bring up anything I've missed on Monday! Good work with the scripture assignments. We can talk more about those on Monday too!
Love, Elder McDonald
