March 9, 2011

Hey mom!

Good to hear from you! Things are going great here in the mission and my companion and I continue to do good things here. We were able to get into contact with our investigators this week and will be meeting with them tomorrow! It's good now that we can get them back on track and hopefully they will be baptized by early next month! Can you believe that my year is up this coming week?! Wow, only one more to go and I'm sure it will be another exciting year. Full of ups and downs I know that but I will work my hardest to make the best out of each passing day.

It's been great here in New York weather wise. Still kind of cold. The days are really windy which makes the cold happen but it's really been nice out the last couple of days. Clear skies and just nothing really to complain about. A little bit of rain in the beginning of the week but it's nothing we can't handle. I'm used to rain after all, haha. It's the snow that I can't handle too much of. But it's been good!

This past Sunday we heard from Elder Rasband from the Presidency of the Quorum of the Seventy. It seems as though he has made a really big impact here in New York being a lead in building some of the church buildings here and also serving as a missionary and a mission president here. It was good to hear from him. I enjoyed hearing from him because in the MTC we had two occasions where we got to hear him speak and he is always a good person to really bring some insight about gospel principles. He talked about the importance of teaching the gospel in the family. I'm thankful for you and dad helping us all to really be in tune with the gospel and really help us understand it more and more. I think it's what really keeps us going in this great church. So that was a good experience. Yesterday, Tuesday we got to get together as a Zone with another zone and we had zone conference with President Smith. We just reviewed Elder Bednar's visit and we just talked about a few things that we would do going forward after listening to Elder Bednar speak. It was a good time and it's always good to hear President Smith and his insight to things. It was just another great learning experience. President Smith and Elder Bednar are great friends so it's good to see some one really close to Elder Bednar really speak great of him as a person and know that he is rightfully called as an Apostle of the Lord.

For things that are going on with us this week.. nothing much. We continue to go finding so we can increase our teaching pool but our focus is really on the Fernandez family and getting them into the waters of baptism. They are great and really receptive to the gospel so I hope the more we teach them the more excited they will be about getting baptized. Hopefully we can get them out to church on Sunday. Let's just pray for good weather so they can take their new born baby out.

Next week for my year mark we will be going to a members home. They invited us for dinner and I'm sure they will cook up something interesting. They are from Africa so they always cook some good traditional African dishes. The weirdest thing I had was probably the Fufu with peanut butter soup. It was spicy and it was really interesting to try.

That's good you and the girls and the cousins got a chance to go to Disneyland once again. Looks like you all had fun from the pictures you all took. That's really good! Seems like Disneyland has changed a bit and put up new signs and attractions. That's cool! I miss going there with all of you guys and I hope to go many times when I go back. You will probably have lots of time to go during Spring and Summer time since the girls will be off of school. Maybe the whole family will be able to go. That is always a fun time. Thank you for sending the pictures It's always good to see you are doing well and having fun back home!

Just like missionaries and how we try and work our hardest to reach our goals for the week. It's always a good way to measure how you work and how much more work you should be doing so it's really good to set up goals. I made a goal to get some really good exercise in the morning. To wake up and not feel so tired and do a good workout so I feel good for the rest of the day. It's been good so far and I hope I can continue to work hard at it so I can too be in good shape when I come home.

I hope all continues well at home. Hope work isn't too hectic. It seems fine since you are able to get out and have fun with the girls. That's really good. Continue to do well there and be sure to tell the two girls I said "hi" and that I miss them! Thank you for writing me this week mom. It's always good to hear from you each week and see how you are doing. Hope the rest of the week continues to be well for you and dad! I miss you and I love you both. I'm always so thankful for you and dad. You've helped me out so much this past year and I'm ready for another year to go! I will talk to you again next week mom! I miss you and I love you!

Love always,
Your son Elder Derrick Joseph Castro