6 Agosto 2001

Dear Family,

Well, I hope you enjoyed the tapes. [Nick sent three audio tapes home for us to enjoy.] I hope that it sounds good enough so Doug or someone can translate the parts in Spanish for you.

Things here in La Isabelica are good. I'm starting to get a hang of my area - it's a bit harder than my last areas because this one looks all the same. The ward here is a good one, and our bishop, as now is the "thing," is young - about 25 years old. The Maracay Ward had a bishop this young, too, and in this stake right now all but 1 of the bishops are under 30 years old. They're the RM's with fire and good, fresh ideas that are willing to plan stuff and do it.

My comp, Elder Castillo, is an excellent missionary. He works hard, is friend of the members, etc. But, he's also been in this area for awhile so is expecting to leave here soon. He just turned 20 on the 2nd of August, so I bought for him (and Elder Draper, who turned 23 on the 3rd and is from the group that came in to Venezuela at the same time as I did) some plastic guns that look way real and shoot really hard. But then I remembered that Elder Draper's comp Elder Adair turns 20 on the 19th of this month so I bought him one too and since I didn't want to feel left out, I got one for myself. :) Elder Castillo has about 8 months in the mission, has 6 years in the church, is from Cumana, and is best friends with Elder Fuentes, whom I lived with in Puerto Cabello.

Nothing too interesting has happened. As District Leader, I did my first baptisimal interview, that went well (but he couldn't get baptized . . . but he's going to this next week). During some service project Elder Draper killed a rattlesnake, we saw a dead guy on the side of the road, I got sick for 3 days (all better), I got robbed while I was doing a Baptism contact (he stole my wallet sized picture of Jesus being baptized . . . needless to say, he's not getting baptized :P), my backpack broke (don't worry, I'll just get a new one), we saw a drunk guy passed out laying in his own urine, and we just got back from the mission office because a sister in the ward treated us to Wendy's, taxi ride into Valencia and all, and she wanted to stop by the mission office. So, I was able to get 2 letters from you, dated the 17th and 24th of July. I also got the marriage invitation of Elder Speirs! hehe. Let's see what there is to say about your letters . . I still haven't said anything about Curazao? I was hoping you weren't going to say that, there's a lot to write. I'll save that for next week because this letter's already a long one. I talked about the cuatro on the tape, I got it up at Colonia Tovar for 24,000 bolivares. There's only one Elder Brandt in the mission and I knew him from my first Tuesday in Venezuela.

Well, you say that you like to hear about how I feel about my work. I don't know exactly what that means but in terms of my being a missionary, I love it! At first, 2 years sounds like a long time but you really spend from 1 to 1-1/2 years really getting the hang of things, and you only get like 1 year (or less) time to really hone your skills and consecrate yourself in the work. It's like learning to ride a bike. At that start, you're always thinking about and paying attenion to trying to get going (even though you are biking down the street) so when you finally get a hang of it you're halfway to your destiny and you wish that you could do it from the beginning but with your new added knowledge. If I hadn't forgotten how to speak English that story would've been a lot more comprehensible. The last Zone Conference Elder Gleed and a few other elders who I knew gave their last testimonies, and at the end during the time when anyone can get up to have their testimony I got up and said, "sorry to those who're leaving, but I'm staying right here." I'm just now learning that there is no time to fiddle around, or do things slowly. Just do it. I love working, I love obeying, I love feeling the Spirit.

Don't worry about the Space Pen. As fas as powdered drinks here, there are tons and they're way cheap and don't require sugar. So don't sweat over that. Curazao food is just . . . different tasting Venezuelan food. We ate goat. Lots of bones. You're dead on about the "I don't like cooking" part. Neither is there time to cook. Hoobustank is getting big, huh . . . one Elder from Idaho, Elder Hobbs was in a punk band and he had heard Hoobustank before. And as for too many packages? So such thing as "too many." (Alma 56:27)

Well, I'm officially "old" in the mission. I have one comp as an assistant, and 2 elders from my group are in the office. One's a zone leader (Elder Howard), one's training (Elder Norton) and we're all District Leaders. Gotta go!

"The Kingdom of God or Nothing!" John Taylor

Love Elder Onken P.S. I listened to Truman G. Madsen's Joseph Smith tapes . . . definitely recommended. P.P.S. How's FHE going? And family prayer? and Family scripture reading? and the reference giving? Just Do It.