Polly Wolly Doodle All the Day

Dear mom,

I wanted to start by illustrating a small story: I heard it said that Elder Jeffrey R. Holland had glued together Song of Solomon (Old Testament) together. I wondered why. Never read it before. So, naturally, I decided to read it. But my little bit of OCD (now conquered- I'm free!) caused me to have to read the entire Old Testament up to that point first, so I could fully understand it and such. By the time I got to SS, I had heard enough rumors to be dissuaded from pursuing the present course. I read the footnote found on the first page of it stating that "the songs of Solomon are not inspired writings" and so I just skipped on ahead. I had, for the past few weeks, still been slightly tempted to read it. I know that the best way to avoid temptation is to, well, avoid it. So this morning as part of my personal study I decided to destroy the temptation once and for all. I took pictures of Christ from the pamphlets we use and cut them to fit the pages, then glued them over the poisonous text! :D I'll show you one day (pictures, Skype, or when I get home. Depends on how lazy I feel. Which, when it comes to pictures, is pretty lazy.). It's awesome. 

So, Guess what? President and Sister Holm are friends with President and Sister Wolfert! Who knew? I'm going to write them a letter today.

President and Sister Holm spoke yesterday in the Lake Murray ward (same building as us in Gilbert, as well as Lexington) and afterward President took a moment to talk to both Elder Stanley and myself. He is so inspired! And Sister Holm really is amazing at being mom-away-from-mom. They are so in tune with the Spirit- I'll tell you more about it one day. It's not really something to be public knowledge and I'm getting kinda tired of typing right now.

So yesterday we got drenched again. I only have 5 ties that aren't silk. The rain is ruining all the silk ones.... We don't even have a single store in our area that sells polyester ties either! :/ It's going to be a repetitive and boring summer of ties. :p Ans speaking of monotony, I'm kinda sick of black pants. I thought from my call packet that black was really the only approved color. Turns out it really don't matta. People have light grey suits, brown suits, brown slacks, blue suits, you name it. Sheesh..

So there was a conference call (they happen often- at least once a month) with the whole mission. One of the things said was that "the music we are listening to is 'off the plan' as a mission" and that we are going back to the basics. It doesn't have to be Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but it DOES have to be about the Savior, and fit some other qualifications. Most missionaries listened to Tenth Avenue North (I don't like em much though, but other companions I've had do), which is Christian rock, and many were guilty of listening to just slower-tempo music and instrumentals. That I am also guilty of. So I purged my music library. Thankfully I still have some BYU and MoTab cds and a good 20ish songs by Celtic Woman that fit the budget.

Man, teaching here is going so slow. We are about where we were last week, and the week before, and the week before, working with the P. family (part-member) and D. and A. They're all just kinda at a standstill- the P. need to come to church to progress and D. needs to repent and trust in the Savior and PRAY. Polly Wolly Doodle All the Day.

By the way, those back scratchers are being thoroughly used. :D Good thinkin!

Aight. That's about it. Love y'all!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Seaver