This Week's Email

Hello again!

Mom and Dad, I hope you are having a wonderful time in Italy! I love hearing about it.

Dad, happy birthday! I bet it will be a good one, considering the setting. If you ever figure out if someone did resign, pass it on! I'm kind of in a news vacuum.

Well, it was another good week. Classes and our "teaching appointment" on Saturday were canceled for General Conference. Besides the meetings, we didn't have much going on for Saturday and Sunday, which meant a chance to slow down a little and breathe! (I got some ironing done--exciting!--and shined my shoes. I had never shined shoes before. A new experience.)

We watched all four two-hour sessions of conference all dressed up sitting in the big assembly room. I have never done that for Conference before--at home, when it is broadcast, I quite enjoy watching it in my PJ's (though I do sit and take notes even if it's at home on the couch). It was good to listen so attentively, though, and I got a lot out of what the speakers said.

Sunday nights we all meet together for an hour-long fireside. Last Sunday, though, I was a bit suprised that we were having it after already having so many meetings that weekend. They did keep the time-spent-in-meeting factor in mind, though, and the fireside was mostly made up of musical numbers.

We always sing prelude hymns before the meetings get started, since people have to be in their seats early--there is usually an overflow room where the meeting is piped in. Sunday, though, they announced first that they were packing everyone in the same room--no overflow--and second, that one of the prelude songs would be "all eight verses of 'Book of Mormon Stories'."

"Book of Mormon Stories" is a primary song, much beloved, in a minor key, with actions, that most of us hadn't sung in a very long time. And maybe because the rules of a mission help you enjoy simple pleasures, the announcement was met with a lot of excitement. The two thousand of us sang it, many with the actions and a bit of foot-stomping. While this was happening, more people than the room could handle were coming in, and people were trying to sort out where they would sit. Soon elders, in their suits and ties, were carrying in the couches from the hall, lifting them over their heads and arranging them in the front of the room.

Like I said, a mission helps you enjoy simple things:)

I love you all!

--Carrie