April 18, 2013

Dear Mom,

Everything is fine here. Wow that is crazy! Did the lighting hit the van or was it just nearby?

Tell Matt congratulations for me! I told you I didn't have to worry and that I would graduate :D Thanks for your prayers; I am being temporarily reassigned while I wait for my visa. I will find out where I am going and when I leave sometime today. I will most likely leave on Monday or Tuesday and I will probably only be in my reassigned mission for a few weeks. They will let me call home for a few minutes when I find out where I am being reassigned so watch for my call because I don't know if I will be able to call again until I am at the airport.

The Tuesday night devotional was awesome! Elder Richard G. Scott came and spoke to us. He talked about prayer and how we can make it a better experience by not simply saying a prayer but TALKING with God. He talked about three ways we receive answers they were: 1. A peaceful/calm/good feeling (a yes) 2. A stupor of thought/uneasy feeling (a no) and 3. No answer.  Number three is what he focused on the most, to summarize he said that sometimes we don't get an answer so that we can grow, because God trusts us to use the knowledge we have to act on what we think is the best decision.  At the end of his talk Elder Scott gave an apostolic blessing on the missionaries in the MTC. I don't have my notes right now so I will send you what I was able to write down in a letter but the thing that stuck out to me the most was that he promised that if we work at it we will be able to MASTER the language. I'll send you the rest of what I was able to write down later but it was an amazing opportunity and one that I wouldn't have had if I had gotten my visa and left when I was supposed to (would have missed it by one day) so me not getting my visa turned out to be a blessing.

Love you all and can't wait to see you all again in 2 years.

Love,

 Elder Blanding

Another email later that day:

I just got my reassignment; I leave for the Texas Dallas Mission Monday morning at 5!!! I will be able to call you at 5:45 Utah time (right before dinner). Should I call the home phone or your cell-phone?

He called my cell phone at 4:45 (our time) and since I was refereeing a soccer game, Steve talked to him. It was a short phone call and he basically said what is in the above email. Steve said that he could hear happiness in his voice and that he was enjoying the work and excited to be going to Dallas temporarily.