June 23, 2011

Hey sistur! haha

What's up? I am doing well this week. Just here at the church. We be
emailing and eating Taco Bell. Yum! Hahaha. It's been a good week.
Good weather and lots of fun here. Yesterday night we stayed an extra
hour after the deaf institute class finished because we were doing ABC
and 123 stories. That's when you take the signs 123 or ABCs and you
use them to tell a story. It was really fun and we all had a good
laugh about it. I love those things about ASL when you just have to be
really creative and stuff. It's really lots of fun. Haven't done much
today for P-day. It was a rather chill day today just because there
was transfers. We didn't go to the transfer meeting because nothing
was changing with us in the ASL program. They are creating a new zone
in Manhattan though, they are calling it Manhattan Central zone.
Weirdy because they took lots of missionaries from the North and South
zones and put them to the middle of the island. But I guess there is a
need for more missionaries in that area so I think they are going to
test how that goes. We don't know if we will be moved from South zone
to the new Central zone. It does take us a while to travel for
district meetings on Monday but I think we're used to it. We'll see
what happens though.


That's sweet you are enjoying the BMB. Looks like you guys have lots
of cool activities. I'll probably have to check it out when I come
back home, haha. The sock wars thing looks like it was lots of fun.
Thanks for sending me pictures BTW. It's cool to see that you are
having fun with the branch and that you are just enjoying everything
where you can. Looks like a good balance between work and your
activities which is always good. I wasn't having too much fun working
a lot when I was home but then again I wasn't doing much at home when
I wasn't working so I guess it was good, haha. But cool that you are
still enjoying going to the branch. I'm sure you will kick butt when
you give your talk on Sunday. Just let the spirit guide you as you
prepare the talk and as long as you are good and prepared you will be
able to give an amazing talk! I have had lots of time to prepare lots
of talks here in the deaf branch because we speak practically every
month! Crazy huh! I will probably touch on every subject in the gospel
principles book when I am done here, lol. The branch sounds like it
does lots of cool activities though and that's good. I think it's
always good to have lots of activities where people can interact, oh
singles branch. lol.

That's awesome that you like rollercoasters now! Sheesh, about time!
lol. That's good though so now when we go to theme parks you won't be
scared to ride the rollercoasters. Shoot you were missing out before
but at least now you'll be able to enjoy them more. That's cool that
so many of you have annual passes at Disneyland. It is most definitely
different when you go to a place like that with your friends rather
than family. Depends though. That's cool though you had fun with that.

Funny thing about BYU-H. We met a member here that goes there and she
was totally selling BYU-H to me. It does really sound like an
interesting place to go to. It would be fun to be in school in Hawaii
so it's something I will consider.

Aw man, the Del Mar Fair is amazing. I can't wait to go next summer.
It will be awesome! I would love to try some of that fried food. Some
of it sounds really interesting. Fried Kool Aid sounds.. Weird! But it
would be good to try it just to try it. I always loved going there and
I can't wait to go again. We should go to the fair as a family next
summer. That would be fun.

That's good you are starting to write a blog. In this new age of
technology it's a great and easy way to document all the things you
do. It's good to keep those things in memory so that you could always
look back at it and see the fun things you have done in the past. It's
always fun to look back at good times. I'm trying my best to write
down special events that happen on my mission. It's been good to read
back and see the things I have done since I started my mission. I read
back when I reached my year mark. It was cool and interesting.

The Mormon.org ads are so cool! We've seen some already on Taxi cabs!
It's really cool to see those ads and know other people are looking at
them too! I hope lots of progress in the work comes from it. We get
people that walk up to us and talk with us all the time now instead of
the reverse which is really cool to see. Definitely everything going
on here is just changing the work if not making it more effective with
the ads. Our work has been great lately. Might get changed companions
because the other two aren't really getting along but we just hope to
continue what we are doing here in Manhattan. I love being a
missionary, especially during this time.

I hope all continues to be well with you. Hope your job is going well.
Take care of the girls and help mom and dad all you can. Especially
with what happened to dad recently. I hope he's alright. Look after
them. I love you and miss you sister! Hope your week goes well and
write me again soon! Talk to you again soon okay?

Love always,
Your big brother Elder Derrick Joseph Castro