Today, I am doing well. Yesterday was Zone Conference, so today is 

Preparation Day. We had an excellent Zone Conference, centered around 

improving our teaching. When it comes down to it, there are only two 

things required: 1) the Spirit, and 2) continual improvement on your 

part. For lunch, we had corn on the cob, cake, and ribs (they had at 

least 20 lbs worth!).

I don't really have access to anything but a CD player. If you get 

any videos, I can't really use them yet (maybe later in Springdale), 

but I could always use more Marshallese audio resources. I bought the 

2006 and 2007 Liahona magazines in Marshallese (they come out with 

one per year). A Marshallese Bible would come in handy, but I don't 

know of anyone that has one. If you can, see what you can dig up.

I haven't gotten Spoken Marshallese yet. You wrote on Jan 28th that 

you were going to send it out on the 4th. I also wrote the author of 

my dictionary and Spoken Marshallese if he had any other resources, 

and he suggested one called Practical Marshallese. I'll check it out, 

and let you know how you can purchase it.

Elder Erickson and I are getting along quite nicely. Elder Erickson's 

pretty laid back, but still works hard and is obedient. I'm a lot 

more willing to show him my personality than I was with Elder 

Morrill. He looks really young (like 17 or so, but he's been out for 

16 months), and has kind of a high voice. He's cool. Apparently he's 

pretty popular, because since he's been here, he's gotten 2 packages 

and tons of letters. I've gotten two: one from Cindy, one from 

Professor Bender, who wrote my dictionary and Spoken Marshallese. So, 

for those of you who have or asked for my address, please write me.

Fort Smith seems like a big Price to me. There are some areas with 

nice houses, some with trashy ones (mostly our area). Just take 

Price, make it bigger, and add in a bit of an accent, confusing 

roads, and the weather, and you've got Fort Smith. Oh, and make all 

of the churches different.

I dunno if I would ever live here. If  Utah becomes too expensive, 

maybe. I have noticed that here, they don't get too much in the way 

of light rain. When it rains, it's torrential. I like that. But the 

summer humidity? I hear it's bad. Dunno about that.

The members are really cool, but the ward can't really grow. We're on 

the west side, bound on two sides by a river, and can't really expand 

to the east. But the east side can expand further east and south. The 

organization works as such: every branch/ward has a set of 

missionaries that cover the ward boundaries, which are referred to as 

"areas." The areas are grouped into "districts." These districts are 

grouped into a "zone," which includes all of the missionaries that 

work in a stake. So a stake is equivalent to a zone, and an area 

equivalent to a ward/branch. There's just an additional subcategory 

of "district."

There are a lot of people that respect the church and what we as 

missionaries do, but just don't agree with our beliefs. There are a 

lot of God-fearing people here, and I know they will be blessed for 

doing the best they can with what they know, but most people seem to 

be satisfied with what they have or their state in life. There also 

seems to be some that believe in "relative truth," in which what's 

true for you may not be necessarily true for me. I think it's a load 

of hogs wallop. If you drop something, it's going to fall down to the 

ground, and this is true no matter who you are. Likewise for the 

gospel. I often had the same question as Pilate: "What is truth?" 

What is this "truth" that we speak of in the church? It's this: God 

lives, He loves us, and He has restored His church on the earth, and 

His gospel that tells us the purpose of life, and what we need to do 

in this life to return to live with Him. All other truths aren't as 

important.

I haven't ridden my bike for a while. After Elder Morrill's accident, 

he decided he was done with biking. Elder Erickson lost his helmet 

during transfers, so we've been walking for the past week. I don't 

know how many miles I ride it in a day.

On Monday, Elder Morgan and I (we were on exchanges) went to see 

someone that Elder Morrill and I had talked to who invited us back. 

Their names are Bunny and Mike. Bunny's daughter-in-law, son, and two 

grandchildren were each shot by her daughter-in-law's father, who 

then turned the gun on himself. Bunny went to the funeral, and was in 

a very distraught state when we arrived, and Elder Morgan and I 

taught her the second lesson, answering questions about where her 

grandchildren (ages 3 and 5) were going, and that cremation cannot 

stop the resurrection of a body (she had her grandkids cremated, and 

was concerned that they wouldn't be able to be resurrected). She went 

from weeping and unable to cope to doing very well. Elder Erickson 

and I went back two days later, and she was under a lot of medication 

to keep her calm, but could recognize the spirit and the feeling we 

brought into her home. Mike kind of hung back, but still listened to 

the lesson, and apparently he's been reading from the Book of Mormon. 

I just find it fascinating to see the hope that the gospel brings in 

the darkest times of one's life. I've experienced this myself, and 

that's why I'm here. We haven't been able to see Bunny again, but I 

believe she will accept this gospel.

Everyone is getting sick here too. I dunno what it is. But my time is 

running out, and we have to go shopping. So, I will see you all next