Hola! Ultimo Semana en el MTC

Date: Wed, 8 Jul 2009

How is everyone doing? I hope everyone is having just a marvelous day. And I hope everyone had a great fourth of July. Oh how the time is flying and now I only have 5 more days here in the MTC. I'm so excited. Today while I was getting my shot I ran into a guy from Santiago and he just told me how I'm going to love the people.

So on Thursday I got my flight plans for where I'm going. i'm one of the lucky ones who doesn't have to leave in the morning. My companions and I leave the SLC airport around 3:30, Land in Dallas around 6:30 and then leave Dallas around 9:30PM and land in Santiago around 8:30AM It's going to be a long day but I'm anticipating it.

Most of my 4th of July was pretty much the same. Just normal teaching like always, but at the end we had a little production about America and how God made it possible for us to establish the church here in this land. It was so cheesy. The special effect were not that special and I spent almost half the movie laughing. That's okay. It had a lot of good information though. Afterwards they let us go outside and watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks from the MTC. That was pretty fun.

So this week is called our teaching week where we only have two hours of class and the rest is spent teaching the gospel. Kinda getting us in the mood for how it's really going to be like in the field. I am humble though knowing that I'm going to know diddly squat once I get there...

This past week we've had fun scaring each other. Elder Wilson hid in Elder Ray's closet the other day and scared him. We took one of the poppers Dani gave me for the 4th and we popped it next to Elder Moore who freaked cause he didn't know what was going on. It's just been a fun week. I'm going to miss this district.

Some things I've learned this week as a missionary:

I dislike big people. Now I'm not singling out fat people... wait... I dislike clumsy people that's how I should say it. There are so many tall/fat/clumsy missionaries who just don't know how to walk and don't know how wide their shoulders are. I can't count the number of times I'll just be walking and a guy just runs into me. C'mon.

As far as doctrine goes... I have learned from one of the teachers that you don't have to teach all of the doctrine in order for an investigator to progress in the gospel. I used to get anxious when we didn't start talking about the gospel soon. He helped me realize to just be a pal to them. He said, "Do your investigators need to know what an apostasy is in order to get baptized" obviously no, and he said, "but they do need to be reading, praying, and going to church. So focus on that." Which is true

Well that's it for this week. Until Chile!

Oh yeah my Chile addresses:

For packages send them to the mission office:

Elder Samuel James Yoshida
Chile Rancagua Mission
German Riesco 230 Suite 730
Rancagua
Chile

For pouch (which is single sheeted letters, folded into three-panels, and taped at the top NO ENVELOPES)

Elder Samuel James Yoshida
Chile Rancagua Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150
USA

That is how DearElders will work. Write the DearElder and then they'll put it in the pouch and send it to me, which will take forever and cost money. So just e-mail me after July 13th... it will be much easier.

I love you guys
Vive la Chile
Elder Yoshida

An amazing week!

Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009

I got a bunch of things to tell you so look out, here we go.

Last week's P-Day was fun. After I e-mailed you folk I got to go to the Provo temple and clean. It was so fun. I never thought I would say this, but I actually enjoyed the service. I don't know why, because I got stuck cleaning the grease vents in the cafeteria. Oh man, good times. Brought me back to the good ole KFC days when I had to clean those stupid vents above the fryers as well. Zach you know what I'm talking about. But then I got to go clean the baptismal font. That was fun. I didn't know that vinegar is a main cleaning surprise. Let's just say I almost died from inhaling too much vinegar haha.

MICHAEL JACKSON IS DEAD? wow! What's up with that? I guess you can say that's the first major event that has happened while I've been gone. Interesting... I heard he was just barely becoming big in Europe. I almost feel for the guy. But what do I know. He's dead now.

So my mission president went to Japan on his mission and he comes storming in to the chapel before priesthood meeting and starts writing some symbols on the sign and looks straight at me. I'm say, "what is that?" and he says, "It's you. This is the Kanji for Yoshida" I was like whoa! that's intense. I ask, "What does it mean?" He gets a huge smile and says, "This symbol means the mouth of the samurai. And this symbol means a field. So you are going to the field to teach the mouth of the Samurai" How cool is that? It's like the perfect missionary last name and I didn't even know it. Maybe I'll have to draw it in my next letters so you can see what it looks like.

Friday's devotional was amazing. We were all anticipating to hear from the first presidency, but none of them showed up, but that's okay. Elders Perry, Oaks, Holland, Bednar, Cook, Christofferson, and Anderson were all there. It was so sweet. Elder Holland spoke to us and we all know how his talks are. Especially on missionary work.

On Sunday we had sacrament meeting with a big group. After sacrament meeting we were making our way back to a classroom to have our district meeting. We spotted a few missionaries congregating around something so we walk over there and sure enough President Monson and President Eyring were just standing out there in the front just chilling. I was literally only 10 ft away from them as they spoke about their Spanish stories. It was so awesome. I was sad we couldn't shake their hands, but just seeing them was amazing. It turns out that Every member of the first presidency and quorum of the 12 except Packer were in a sacrament meeting. A guy in our zone actually got to pass it to Monson. Lucky kid!

So this shows you how immature I am as a missionary. Elder Wilson and I have found these cool looking bugs and everytime we see them we flip them over on their back and make fun of them. Well we were getting ready to take a picture with our camera when all the sudden it started flying at us. Me and Elder Wilson freaked and were screaming, "OH MAN WE'RE TOAST!" haha Everyone around us was looking at us like we were queers but that's okay. You gotta have some fun here.

Yesterday's devotional was fun. Gerald N Lund talked to us. If you don't know who he is he's the dude who wrote the Works and the Glory books. He was so awesome. He taught me an awesome lesson that may help the other missionaries out there. He said, "when an appointment falls through, immediately find someone to teach, because that might be the Lord putting someone else in your path at that exact time." He then talked about many miracles that happened of conversions that took place when other appointments fell through.

That's it for this week. People... 12 days left. So if you ever thought, "maybe I'll send Elder Yoshida something :)" you might want to get on it. Haven't heard anything from any of my friends in a week. Grr. That's okay though. The work is great and I'm sure you're all busy. I'm not sure how Dear Elders work. I think they print them out in Salt Lake and then they have to send them to Chile so It will still probably take just as long now. Anywho's I love you all. Sorry it's so long. Take care.

Hola

Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2009

I'm going to have to apologize before hand to everyone out there. Nothing exciting happened this week and I really don't have anything to write about. All the missionaries here are getting antsy for today and the rest of the weekend. As Braden discussed about getting a new president this week we get all of them! That's right, over 120 mission presidents are coming today to get the training they need. I don't know if Elder Hellewell knows him yet, but I've seen pictures of him. Although I can't remember the name. But anywho, because all these dudes are coming this weekend, we are going to have general authorities walking around left and right. Apostles, seventy, you name it. Instead of having our devotional on Tuesday we are having it on Friday, and we are expected to have one of the members of the first presidency speak. It is so awesome. I can't wait.

The language is coming great. Last week we taught the first lesson in Spanish for the first time. It was pretty hard. All we have left to learn is past subjunctive and then its just a matter of getting fluent at it.

The time is ticking down here in the MTC. We are now the oldest district in our zone. 19 more days til Chile.

Love you all
Elder Yoshida

Hey Everyone!

Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009

Another week gone by, and another week I'm getting closer to blowing this joint. Being a missionary is great, and this week flew. I don't have as many experiences to write, but I will try to entertain you.

I'll start with a Spanish lesson. NEVER DESCRIBE SOMEONE AS CALIENTE. Many high school teens will say "that girl es muy caliente" thinking they're saying she's very hot. No way. In Spanish, when you describe "someone" as being caliente. You're actually saying that they are very willing to... well the slang term is a 5 letter word that starts with an "h" hopefully you get my drift.

I'd like to give a shout out to my step sister Liz. Happy Birthday! and hope all is well.

Funny story: so last P-Day we were doing laundry, and I returned to my room. There's this awesome elder in my district, Elder Wilson, who I've become pretty close with. He dared me to jump a whole flight of stairs. I was like, "dude I got this" So I jumped, and cleared the stairs, however I did not give myself enough room to catch my self and bashed my head into the brick wall in front of me. I think I knocked myself out for about five seconds. It was funny, but very stupid as a missionary. I learned a valuable lesson there. :)

The TRC is a place in the MTC where you teach volunteers in real life situations. We go to the TRC once a week and boy does it get intense. The only thing I can compare it to is when I would get ready for a football game.

Sorry there's not more to write about. The week just flew by this time with not much going on. We're getting new zone leaders this week. It'll be interesting to see who it is. I love you all and thank you for your support.

Elder Yoshida

Almost Halfway!

Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009

So I got to thinking today that in 3 days I will be halfway through my stay at the MTC. That's so crazy to think about. And then I'm 6,000 miles away. Kinda crazy if you ask me.

Not too much has happened this week. There are still some people getting sick, but for the majority of it it has died down. Until yesterday. Now I'm starting to get neck aches and congested sinuses. It sucks! I'm still good to go when I take some medicine, but not being 100% is a bummer.

Elder Ray is feeling better. This kid had everything but the flu that was going on. He had the flu at first but got better, then coughed for a week straight, got an ear infection, and then got pink eye. He is our sick mascot, but I think he's finally back to normal.

Funny story that happened to Elder Williams a couple weeks ago. As he was getting out of the shower one day some zone leader on the other side of the hall thought it would be funny to fill his garbage can with water and splash it all over him. Elder Williams got soaked. We found out who it was, and made him apologize. He had to beg our zone leaders not to report him, because they don't tolerate pranks here, and there would have been a good chance that he could have been sent home. Our zone leaders confided and the kid is lucky, for now. If it was me I would have told, but hey that's why I'm not zone leader right?

Speaking of going home something sad happened this past week. One of our zone leaders, Elder Cheesman was sent home today, because he was so sick. It was sad to see him leave, but there is a chance he can come back. I sure hope he feels better.

One thing I've learned from a mission, and I feel every young man should know. SCRIPTURE INSERTS ARE USELESS. You know those things you get in seminary where you glue the paper and then glue it into your scriptures. My advice is to not do it. All they do is flip pages when you don't want them to, and they just get in the way. I tore all of mine out, because they bothered me so much. Save yourself the trouble.

It's funny how things can be called different names. Since we can't play basketball "games" we basically resort to playing Lightning. But not very many people call it lightning. I've heard it been called "knock-out" "twister" and "speed" crazy huh? Oh and another thing. I think its only an Idaho thing but people call spinning in your car donuts. I call them cookies, but donuts do make more sense. I still prefer saying cookies though.

Thank you Uncle Kendall and Aunt Anne for the package. I didn't think you would actually send Dew. I love the package, and my companions love it too :)

For the grand finale we had an awesome experience yesterday. For our devotional we had David A. Bednar come and speak to us. It was so amazing, and I hope Braden, Kyler, and Shayne, read this. Elder Bednar said, "the most common question asked to me by missionaries is, 'How do I know when it's me or the Holy Ghost prompting me' My answer is, 'Don't worry about it. Press forward with faith, be a good boy, keep your covenants, and keep the commandments, and your steps will be guided" Wow that's awesome. So don't just sit around waiting for the Holy Ghost to bash you over the head with revelation. He related three stories of where he did things without even thinking about it, and not realizing it was the Holy Ghost til after he did it. I loved it so much and I wish I could share more, but I'm afraid I would be repeating myself, but remember, (this even can apply to you at home) Don't be searching for the spirit to guide you. "Be a good boy, be a good girl, keep your covenants, and keep the commandments, and your steps will be guided."

I love you all!
Elder Yoshida

I Am Legend

Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009

Day 21

Today has been the first time in four days that I've been out of the residence halls for longer than 3 hours. Things are getting pretty crazy here. The swine flu/regular flu has hit the MTC hard. I don't know how much longer I have until I'm the last one left. Around 60 elders have already had to be put into quarantine (solitary confinement with other sick elders). I don't know what is going on in there but I can only expect the worst. and I'm safe to say that at least 40% of the elders have been hit with some sort of sickness. It's only a matter of time before the MTC turns into a place full of Missionary Mutants and a movie called I am Legend 2 will be coming to a theatre near you.

There's my story for the week. It's all true too. Things are getting pretty crazy, and I've been blessed to not be getting this sickness that's going around. Missionaries are not allowed to leave the MTC until at least June 13th. New missionaries coming in only get to have their parents drop them off on the side of the sidewalk, and that's there goodbyes. Kind of sad, but that's how bad it's getting here. I think they have a thing on LDS.org about it all. No one be worried though. This will all blow over. I just wanted to make a joke of it all. I'm perfectly fine (knock on wood) I say I've been stuck in the residence halls because my companion has been sick and we've had to stay behind with hi. It's pretty cool.

Congratulations Elder Hellewell on a successful mission. I actually have two missionaries in my zone that were supposed to leave yesterday to the Mesa spanish speaking mission, but can't leave because of the sickness.

The gym is finally fixed and I've been loving it. It's fun to play basketball with the other elders, but two days ago they cancelled playing basketball because it's a "contact sport" and they don't want people getting sick. Yeah crazy I know.

Funny experience. I go to the temples on Wednesday after I e-mail. Last week I went to the temple and after I had received my name I was waiting for my companion. There was an old guy waiting at the bottom of the stairs making sure we all had names. He told me to go on upstairs to the chapel. I told him, "Oh, I have to wait for my companion." and he said, "go on upstairs." and I said "my companion's just back there" and then the dude yelled "GO UPSTAIRS" I couldn't help but laugh. An old guy in the temple yelled at me :( It's okay. he's old so I didn't frown on it too much. It was still pretty funny.

One of my favorite things about this place is how everything here is so cheap. In the bookstore everything in here is like 40% off for missionaries. I get bags of candy for like 40 cents, but hey still send me more cause I love candy. I could seriously get the quad scriptures for $30. Pretty nifty if you ask me.

Sorry this letter isn't very long, and I hope everyone is doing well. I'm loving the work and can't wait to get out in the field. It's crazy to think I'm already a third of the way through my stay at the MTC.

Yo Amo Ustedes.
Elder Yoshida

First Week in Pictures

Sam sent us these pictures from his first week in the MTC. Enjoy!

"This is the pic I took of Kate in the explorer."

"Mis companeros at the map."

"Our district minus two.
Top elders: Ray, Crabb, Beckstead, Williams, Moore, and Willie
Kneeling: me, Burton, and Mitchell"

"Elder Yoshida and Elder (Tyler) Owens"

"Williams B-day party.
Top: Mitchell, Burton, Willie
Middle: Beckstead, Crabb, Wendt, Wilson, Williams, Moore
Bottom: Ray"

"My companions at the MTC sign"

2 weeks down!

Date: Wed, 27 May 2009

Hello to all of my friends and family as i get ready to start another wonderful week in the life of Elder Yoshida. Let me just say that this last week went by about as fast the first two days. Things are a lot better now that we're kind of on a set schedule. However, I'm kind of depressed I have only received one DearElder and one email from my friends. I think they need to step it up a little bit. It would be best if you would DearElder me or write me a letter, cause like I said last week I only get 30 mins on the computer so it would be better use that time to write everyone than read a bunch of emails. Not that I don't love them of course. Well I got lots to touch on plus a lot of personal emails so let's get started.
The District is great and I love my companions. However, there is one missionary that I'm not sure everyone sees eye to eye with. I'm not going to say his name, but sometimes I want to punch him. He just acts like he knows everything, tries to teach our classes, and then tries to lecture us when we're not following the rules a hundred percent. I don't mind getting a simple reminder... wait I'll just tell the story. So I was being a gangster one night and I was in his room. My pants were sagging a little bit (my sweats i should say) and this is what he said, "pull your pants up, and get out of my room" i wanted to punch him so i quickly left before anything happened. Now five minutes later I was still gangstering it up when another person in my district saw me and said. "Elder, you might want to pull your pants up just a little bit. Just to respect the garment a little more." and I just thought... you're right and I'm glad you approached me and said that nicely. Maybe I would listen to this companion if he would actually obey some of the rules himself. But I'm supposed to be positive so that's enough on that. I'm having to ask the Lord with patience, and maybe this is good practice for when I'm out in the field and get stuck with someone like that forever.
D&C 31: Elder Halford gave me this scripture right before I left. It talks on how my families will be blessed because of my service. I think I can feel it happening, and I hope I am blessing your lives by my service. Not to mention it says my future families will be blessed so girls: keep that in mind :)
Every Tuesday we have a general authority come and speak to us. First week it was Elder Neuenschwander and this week it was Elder Callister, both of the Seventy. Elder Callister's talk was amazing. It was on Christ and how we always need to testify of Christ. It was so awesome. I'm so looking forward to the coming weeks, because every year they have the new mission presidents come in and there are apostles and the prophet roaming around the mtc. I'm looking forward to that.
My branch president Baird's daughter came home from Taiwan and she shared an amazing scripture. I think it's 2 Timithoy 2:4-5? It talks about being soldiers of God and it just makes me enjoy the work.
To all of you out there. Caffeine is allowed here :) They just don't sell it. They have caffeine free mountain dew but that's kind of like hamburger helper without the hamburger. So for any of you contemplating on sending me a package. I will love you that much more :)
I was given advice by my brother in-law Brandt and cousin Spencer about being yourself, and I have taken that to heart. Almost a little too far. I have become the District's singer and I sing so much to them. They all love it, but maybe I'm not being a good example :) I'll sing Disturbed and Linkin Park and whatever pops into my head and everyone loves it. I couldn't think of not being myself. That would make this experience so boring.
The MTC is still on alert for Swine Flu. How annoying is that? We can't handshake or do anything. If I miss out on shaking an apostle's hand I will be very angry.
> I'd like to give a shout out to Elder Halford. Happy Birthday. The BIG 21. Now you can drink :) I guess that will have to wait til you get home haha.
So I didn't even realize Monday was memorial day until Sunday night when a speaker had to remind us. That's how busy/locked up we are. But I actually like it. I think the more things I worry about outside the MTC the more homesick I get, however I would like to hear updates on the playoffs. The last I heard Cleveland is having a little trouble with Orlando and they're losing 2-1? And the Lakers are beating Denver 2-1? I have no idea.
On P-Days we go to the temple and it's just amazing. I learn something new every day. I look forward to going every week.
Last Thursday I accidentally got me and our companions locked out of our room. That was an adventure. We all had to sit around in our towels for over an hour while we had to wait for another companionship to get us a key. I felt dumb after that.
One funny thing. So most of you know how I was/is obsessed with Pokemon. haha. My companions were too. We had about an hour long discussion on which games were better than the other one. It was awesome.
And on a last note. I'm glad I know how to sing, because I think the rest of my district is a little tone deaf. We try singing hymns in Spanish and man they don't go so well.
I'll email personal emails later today but my companions want me to go considering they had a timer.... SUCKERS! anyways I love you guys and you are all in my prayers. Keep it real.
Love,
Elder Yoshida

My first letter

Date: Wed, 20 May 2009

Hola Mi familia! It is great to be getting letters from you all. Oh How I love being a missionary. When we first got there everyone from our zone that had already been there for a couple weeks were telling us, "Just make it until Sunday, and you'll be fine" Boy were they right. I won't lie when I say the first two days sucked. I mean they were great spiritual wise, but it's just getting into the flow of everything kind of made it hard to adapt at first. And now that we're starting the new week we are on a set schedule so its a little less stressful.
So Wednesday is my P-Day and that's when you'll be receiving my e-mails. Since I don't have anyones home address I can't really write anyone letter until they send me a letter first. For all my friends my address is:
Elder Samuel James Yoshida
MTC Mailbox #177
CHI-RAN 0713
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604
Mom I hope you forward this to all my friends and Zach can help you with that. I appreciate the letters I got so far. I was a little worried you had forgotten about me, because I haven't received a letter until yesterday. Then I heard the story about Katelyn, and I must say that is a little funny. For all you friends who find it too hard to write me. DearElder.com works wonders. You send the mail and I'll get it in a letter form the same day. It's muy bueno.
When we got there they organized us into our district. There are 11 Elders in our district. I will send pictures soon! 8 of them are going to Honduras, and the trio (Me, Elder Williams and Elder Ray) are going to Chile. I love my companions. Elder Williams's birthday was yesterday, celebrating the big 21, so we had a big party for him. He is from Mapelton. Elder Ray is from Mesa. Elder Beckstead is in my group and we were talking. I guess he was a roommate of Braeden Clayson at Idaho State. He wasn't too fond of him I take it :) He's from Clifton, Idaho. I have seen many other Elders I know. Elder (Tyler) Owens is in my same schedule so we have gym at the same time. It's great stuff. I got a picture with him next to the big map and I'll send that as well. I've also run into Elder Moon, Elder (Tim) Johnson, and a couple other Elders who were in my singles ward. What a small world.
The food here is bueno. Some of it can get nasty, but for the most part it's all good. However it does give you some major gas. I've never has such bad gas in my life. I feel sorry for my companions. And for all you. I still can drink pop :) However, no caffeine. They do have caffeine free coke but its not the same. I would love it if someone sent me a package with Mt. Dew :)
The classes are great. My teacher is so awesome and he looks just like Jason Bourne. We always crack jokes on him killing us with pens. I'm progressing a lot in the language. On your mission you use the Usted form instead of the Tu form. For example a lot of people say Come Esta, and you say muy Bien, y tu. WRONG! I guess it's improper and you can say it to your friends. When you're talking to people you don't know you say "muy Bien, y usted." Zach can help explain that. Yeah Mrs. Early was a retard. I learned more in two days then I learned the whole year with her.
I hope all is well and everyone is doing well. Please write, because I love to hear from you all. The Lord has blessed me immensely with not feeling homesick. I do miss you, but a greater work is to be done. I love you all.
Yo se que la iglesia es verdadero. Yo se que Jesucristo es mi Salvadaor y mi redentor. Yo se que Jose Smith es un profeta de Dios. Yo se que el Libro de Mormon es la plabra de Dios.
Elder Yoshida.
P.S. Congrats Helen and Kyler and Happy Birthday to Kylee!

Farewell...

Hello to readers of Sammy's blog. This is his sister Danielle. While Sam's serving the Lord and unable to blog, I will be posting updates so friends and family can keep up with how the mission is going. I thought I would backtrack and post some pictures from the day of Sam's farewell and leading up to when he entered the MTC. Sam did a great job on his talk and I'm sure I can speak for Sam when I say he appreciated all of the friends and family that came to support him that day. After church, we went to Lorraine's Day Care for lunch and had a great time. That following Tuesday, Sam was set apart by the stake president as a missionary. As the stake president was giving him the blessing, Katelyn was being antsy so Linds stood up with her and walked over by the president's desk. Kate quickly spotted a bottle of hand sanitizer and, of course, she wanted some. To keep her quiet Linds grabbed the bottle and meant to squirt some in Kate's hand, but the bottle was clogged and instead it squirted straight up and hit Kate right between the eyes! Of course, Kate immediately preceeds to rub the alcohol-based gel into her eyes and starts screaming, so Lindsay has to weave around all of us to take her out of the room. It was hilarious; for the rest of the blessing I could not stop laughing; my family all thought I was sniffling from the sacredness of the occassion. Nope, I was laughing; it was really funny.

Anywho, after Sam was set apart we drove down to Utah and stayed with Parley and Marilynn for the night. The next afternoon, we took Elder Yoshida to the MTC. On the way we asked Sam if he wanted to stop and get anything to eat as his last meal. He said something fruity sounded good so we took him to Jamba Juice. It was his first Jamba ever (such a deprived soul), so we had to get a picture. I think he liked it :) We had to strap his luggage to the top of the explorer to make room in the car, so when we got to the MTC, Sam had to climb up the side to get them down. When he was standing by Kate's door she grabbed onto his belt and had this look on her face that said either "Don't go Uncle Sam" or "Take me with you!" It was cute so I got a picture of that as well. Then, we all went in, Sam got his nametags, and we met in this huge room with a gazillion other missionaries and their families for a little meeting. At the beginning of the meeting, they announced the opening hymn by saying "and now, we'll sing THAT hymn, and sister so-n-so will give an opening prayer." Then we all sang "Called to Serve" with gusto. It was intense. After a couple of speakers it was time to say goodbye. Tears were shed by some, but it was good; Sam looked excited and ready to go. So he went out the missionary doors and we went out the family doors. For any of you who haven't been to the MTC before, it is a neat experience. It's great to see so many young people so willing to give up their lives for the next 18 months to two years and serve the Lord. They are such great examples.

Elder Yoshida has been in the MTC for two weeks now and is doing a great job. He likes both of his companions and the other Elders in his district. The Lord is blessing him and helping him not to feel too homesick. Syd received some pictures in a letter from Sam a few days ago so hopefully we'll get those posted soon. My plan is to post the emails/pictures that Sam sends to the family each week on here. Feel free to leave comments about the posts if you feel you don't have time to write him a complete letter that week and at the end of the week I can print off all of the comments and mail them to Sam along with my letter. We'll see how this works out. Thanks again to all of Sam's family and friends for their support.