March 3, 2011

Hey mom!

Good to hear from you this week! Things have been going really great lately. Good to see things are still well at home. I can't believe it's almost a year since I entered the MTC on March 17th! Time has flown by really fast. I really think I'm in a good point in mission so far. Everything lately has been so fun and it's been great serving around the missionaries I've been serving with and the ward is really great.

Today was a good day. This morning we went to the church and we did a big clean up of the church. Before the clean it wasn't in the best state. It was really dirty, like the bathrooms were really bad and there was trash everywhere in the floors and stuff. It felt good to clean the church because it is the house of the Lord. We go there every week and it just stinks that no one would ever clean it. We just decided to do it ourselves and it was a really good time. It was fun to clean the church.

On Friday we had the great opportunity to hear from an Apostle of the Lord. Elder David A. Bednar visited our mission on Friday. Him and Elder Clayton from the First Quorum of the Seventy was there too. It was so great to hear his words because they were specifically for the NYNYN mission. He touched on really great subjects such as praying as agents and not as objects. Also, he talked about note taking and how we should go about taking notes. He also went over a lot of things in talks he gave in past General Conferences. It was really good because the time was more informal than other talks. He asked us questions and we answered and we asked him questions about the gospel and stuff. It was good to have that sort of interaction with an Apostle. At the end we all got a chance to go and shake Elder Bednar's and Elder Clayton's hand. It was cool. An experience I will never forget. Elder Bednar is quickly becoming one of my favorite Apostles to hear from. He is really wise. Also, he looks so young in his pictures right? He looks old in person, haha.

That was such a great experience and was probably the highlight of the whole last week. It was what we were all looking forward to for the whole previous week. The mission has just really been fun in the last couple of weeks. I'm so happy that I decided to come out on my mission. I know the choice will be something I will never forget for the rest of my life. I'm thankful to be serving the Lord and I'm thankful for you and dad and everyone else support from home.
That is really exciting news that so many others are going on their missions! And to interesting places too! That's good for them. I know if they all work their hardest they will get the most of their missions. They will really enjoy it. I heard the Kunz other son got his mission call too. So many will be gone for their missions when I'm back but that's good. They're all out serving the Lord which is good for the building up of the kingdom.

I'm excited for conference again. It will be good to hear from everyone again and hear their counsel for us. It's always an exciting time for everyone to hear from the Prophet and the Apostles and other General Authorities. Can't wait to hear what they have to saythis coming April. I hope you all get to get tickets so you can go in the conference center once again. We are blessed to be able to go there each conference to watch and be there live.

That's good you all hold FHE every Monday and you even include Nicki. That is really good. It is so good that technology has gotten so good that you are able to do such a thing and still have family home evening with everyone. I can't wait to be home with you all and have FHE. Here our ward does ward FHE every last Monday of the month. We just recently did it last Monday. It was fun and we always have food afterwards. Reminds me of the branch and the bunches of food we have after church, haha. I would like to see how you guys do that so make sure to send pictures next week!

Thanks for e-mailing me again this week mom. Good to hear from you always. I miss you and I love you so much! Thank you for all your support during this time. Hope the rest of your week goes well. Tell everyone I miss them and I love them. I will talk to you again next week! Take care!

Love always,
Your son Elder Derrick Joseph Castro