So, I told James I would do this blog for him, but I've been slow on getting it up. Here is the 2nd email we have gotten from him. Stay posted on many more that we shall be receiving! I'll be posting pictures up too! -Rhiannon (his sister)
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Hey Family,
Before I talk to you I just want to tell you a few things. I don't have a lot of time on the computers, so if you send me an email I won't have time to read your emails to the full extent that they deserve. If you are in the US, just send me a letter and it will make everything for me a lot easier. For the parents, I will only reply to your individual emails. Is that alright? OK!
My immunizations have been taken care of, thank you for sending my contacts and patriarchal blessing too!
Well I only have one more week at the MTC and so far, I have been loving it. I have been studying a lot of gospel stuff and teaching a lot. I have about four progressing investagators and they are all very special. I teach one lesson everyday if not two or three lessons. I love my MTC district. If you want me to go into more detail, just write me a letter. Because email is really shallow and I can't really share you my feelings I have chosen to share with you an entry from my journal. This is how I felt a few days ago, but the problems that I was facing then are not the same now because I have already resolved that conflict. It is mostly about how I kind of miss my life previous. Enjoy!
Both of my companions have girlfriends that they are writing back home. Today their girlfriends's sent them letters.
Although I am not writing to a girlfriend while on my mission, I am leaving someone that I am deeply in love with: Myself.
Last year while at BYU I would spend long hours with myself enjoying the things that we both liked to do. Watching the seasons change, laughing at jokes that only we would think are funny, and having deep and pensive conversations that only we could follow or understand, these are just a few things that we both liked to do.
When I refer to "we", I do not mean to imply that I am crazy or suffer from some mental disease, but rather the person that I would spend time with when no one else was around. Also, when I say that I am in love with Myself, I do not mean that I don't care about anyone else or that I am excessively self-centered. Instead, I mean to say that I loved spending time with the person that I was, in solitude.
Why shouldn't I? In my mind's eye, the person that I loved spending time with had the same interests as I did. We would read all sorts of newspapers and magazines, like National Geographic and the Economist and the Daily Universe. because that is what we both like to do. We loved watching Japanese Anime, films with subtitles, and we would go to random lectures and symposiums on campus about different cultures and nations. We loved International and Global things because frankly we both felt strange living in Utah where everyone was American. We discovered together a common passion in learning.
Overall, I am confident about the person that I am and the relationship that I have with myself.
Actually6, I was confident about my relationship with myself until I started my mission on June 29, 2011.
On June 29th, I kind of feel like I left myself at home. I can't spend time with that person that would stay connected with the outside world. I can't spend time with that person that would watch the world in silence. I can't spend time with the person that is named "Myself". It stinks because I miss that person. A lot.
But this was my choice and this is my sacrifice. The Lord requires this of me and so I have to continue on with faith. In fact, there is a scripture somewhere that says that whatever you left behind at home, you will receive a hundredfold if you serve God with all your might on your mission. Also, I am supposed to loose Myself in the work. And now I know what that really means. I just need more faith in these words. I just hope that when I am reunited with Myself after my mission, that he hasn't changed too much, or if he has changed, that I still like the person that he is. But my name is no longer James Longstaff, I am Elder Longstaff and I am a servant of the Lord.
-Elder Longstaff
