June 26, 1997 - Thursday (Letter Home to family)

To: AhKuna Mattahing Herricks


On the back of the envelope - I'll have you know that there are three Klingon Warships off the bow of this Letter...So watch it bud. Remember all letters to be sent to Elder Walter D. (stands for darn cute) Herrick as before - namely the pouch - but now add South after Moscow - Thank you for your gratitude and charity. May the Lord Bless you, my little ones. South Mission Rules!!

Dear Family, We had a couple of contests this week in our district. The first one was about less-active work. You had to pick a family and see who could get the most hours with them and D's etc. We one [won] that one because we got members along with us on the Ds.

The other was SYLing. Speaking your language, meaning speaking in Russian the most over 5 days this last week. We also kicked but on that. We spoke about 58 hrs. those 5 days. The most we could have gotten was 80 hrs. We were just animals. It was really cool because it's the first time that I thought that I could speak well. And I've seen that it has helped me speak a lot better. So my comp. and I are thinking about SYLing more this week too. Your last letter dated June 8th was addressed to Gilbert so I'm wondering if he got mine. It was pretty funny to read.

As I was on the metro today I was reading in 3 Nephi and I found this scripture and I thought about it a lot. 3 Nephi 15:9 "Behold I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall life; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life." All it says is to look to him, Christ. How could that be? Those are some of my questioning thoughts. Then I just pictured I was in the dark and I saw a light ahead. Of course I would head for the light. I would look and move toward it. In my opinion when we walk to the l[ight] it just means keeping the commandments and reading the scriptures and going to church. So when we do the basic, all of the three above, BOM, Church etc. we are constantly drawing nearer to Christ and we will be filled with his light when we endure to the end.

It’s amazing th[at] the only thing that separates problem less or inactive families from good strong active families is going to church and reading the BOM. If they don't do those things it's hard to work on the other less outward virtues, like charity etc. I'd also put tithing in there. I tell you now know [now] that there will never be a time in my life when I won't be going to church. I've really gained a testimony of that here in Russia.

That's sad about Sister Plunkett [she got sick with cancer, and died while I was on my mission, but my mom didn't tell me about her death until after I came home from my mission]. I hope the family pulls threw [thru] whatever will happen and stay close to the Lord.

Well I gotta go now. Please mail this letter to Vernae and pass on this other letter to Sis Plunkett as soon as possible