Hello mom!!
Wow, it was great to hear all your voices back home. Even though it was really early for everyone is was good to talk to you all and see how you were all doing. It was the best Christmas gift for me this year. That was just a good way to start that Christmas dayand the rest of the day ended up going really well. The trip up to Scarsdale was really fun! We had a great Christmas program that went really well. Each zone shared a Christmas song of their choosing and my zone did "Away In a Manger." We have a diverse group of missionaries in our zone so we sang each verse in our respective languages. First Spanish followed by Chinese followed by ASL and finishing off with everyone singing in English. It was fun! President Smith ended the program and shared a story called "The Little Shepard." It was a very touching story that brought tears to everyone's eyes. I have a copy and maybe I'll send it back home to you all so you can read it. After the program we had our early dinner. It was really good! We had ham and potatoes and green beans. It was really filling and I loved the ham because it reminded me of the ham we would always make at home for the holidays. We had Costco cheesecake for dessert. Each missionary was also given a little Christmas packet that included the copy of the story President Smith shared, an official NYNYN Mission t-shirt, a NYNYN key chain and also a Manhattan temple pin. That was really nice of the mission to fix each missionary up with one of those. They are really cool and I will keep them always to remember where I served my mission.
We arrived home in the evening and we all opened our packages. Elder Melkonian opened the one from you guys first. He was very thankful for everything you sent him and really enjoyed the white pretzels saying it was his favorite. He really liked the stocking too and noticed the mispelling but earlier in the day he got the correction so all was well with that. Thank you so much for sending such a wonderful package. I loved everything you sent to me. May take me awhile to eat everything but I will enjoy every bit of it. I love the white chocolate truffles you sent me. Those are my favorites! Also all the shortbread cookies too! I love eating those and am glad you sent so many! I'm definitely thankful for all that you sent me. I will be using the Costco gift card asap! Ahh can't wait to get some goodies from there!
I'm glad the package got you guys alright! I saw the pictures! I'm glad everyone enjoyed their gifts! I just wanted you all the have a little bit of New York and also just feel like I'm still there with gifts for you all. Glad you all enjoyed!
I'm glad the past couple of days have been good for you all at home. Your pictures really show you all having a very good time. I hope you enjoyed all the pictures I sent back home! I tried my best to take pictures and print as much as I could. Lucky for me Rite Aid had a special on printing pictures and I was able to print 10 pictures for only 99 cents so I was able to do a lot!
It has been really crazy and all here the past couple of days with the snow and all. It was at times really harsh to the point where we'd have to retreat back to the apartment and wait for it to slow down outside but it's kind of died down now. The snow is starting to melt now. There is lots of gray slush though that you really have to be careful of. They are deep gray puddles of melted snow that can really just mess up your shoes and socks and stuff. Other than that no really slipping around and stuff. The shoes I bought remember are doing a wonderful job of helping me tread through the snow and keep my feet protected! I like the snow but it's just tough to walk in after awhile. The snow isn't pretty after tons of people have walked through it and cars have driven through it. It just looks gray and dirty looking.
I can't believe a new year is starting. Lots of work to be done in this next year. I know losing myself in the work will speed up time and not make me really think of home. I'm just keeping my focus on that. Hope you were able to get all those letters to who they were supposed to go. Still have a few more people to write to but I'll get that done soon. Thanks again mom and thanks again for the Christmas package. It was great and I loved everything you guys sent! I miss you all and love you all! I'll continue to pray for you all everyday and hope you stay safe during the new year time. I'll talk to you again next week mom! Thanks.
Love always,
Your son Elder Derrick Joseph Castro
No comments:
Post a Comment