Elder Carston Mark Calder

Happy Memorial Day! This morning I watched a short film that was talked about on Church News, " The Miracle at Gapyeong ."   It's about an artilleryman battalion from Southern Utah that fought during the Korean War. They were in a massive battle, outnumbered 240 to 4000 and they won without a single casualty. The interesting thing is that the artillerymen met with the president of the St George Temple not long before being shipped out, and he promised them that if they would be true to their God and obedient to His commandments they would all come home safe. I recommend giving it a watch, It's only 12 minutes long.  Today we went to play pickleball with some of our friends. An older couple in Arcadia ward, the Farnsworths, let us use their backyard pickleball court, and we had a great time. We played with Graham, our friend who's preparing to be baptized, and Michael our other friend who's preparing to be baptized but who we had to refer since he doesn't l...

It would have been nice to write some kind of special commemorative email for Week 50, but you know me.  In two days, on May 8th, I reach the 1-year anniversary of my first day as a missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ. It's funny because all of the missionaries I've met who have made it to this point have told me that once you hit a year, you look back and marvel at how fast the time has flown. For me, it feels like I left on my mission a very long time ago, I definitely feel like I've been on a long and arduous journey. But this last transfer has been maybe my very favorite and this next one is shaping up to be pretty nice as well. I finally feel like I'm starting to come into my own somewhat, and beginning to more easily enjoy the journey.  Imagine, it's a lot like going on a hike. You spend the first part down at the bottom of the mountain, and you look up and say "wow, that looks like a rather long, steep, rocky road. Two years, that's no joke." T...