Catching Up: Info from Multiple Letters

From 7/20/09:

A question to consider - "What kind of man do you want me to be when I get home?"

From 7/27/09 - 8/10/09 (some of the difficulties of missionary work):

1) "(One of the people we have been teaching) was gonna get baptized Saturday, but she got evicted Friday morning from her place - so we have to re-find her." [Papa's commentary: Learning to deal with the consequences of others' bad choices can be painful - especially when you come to love someone and want so badly to help bless their life.]

2) He was humbled by a young man who has had an incredibly difficult life but for whom the Gospel just "clicked" as he heard it for the first time. Now Elder DeGraw just has to help convince him to marry the mother of their children.

3) Another woman who had been working toward baptism disappeared to get away from an abusive boyfriend.

On the bright side, he baptized someone for the first time as a missionary about a month ago - a really neat experience!

From 8/15/09:

He wrote of suddenly realizing how miserable it would be to live a life of trying to make others miserable. What a waste of energy and time. There are people who live FOR something and people who spend their lives living AGAINST something. He wants to live FOR goodness and joy and love.

In each letter, he asked us to make sure someone in particular knows he loves her. He really does.