Letter dated July 13, 2010, Missionaries can have fun too!

Querida Familia,

I want to start off by saying working hard as a missionary is one thing, but playing hard as a missionary is another. We can walk constant hours and miles up and down huge hills while carrying heavy scriptures, pamphlets, umbrellas and all sorts of things and be perfectl fine the next day, to do it again. That’s everyday life. Capture the flag, or capturer la bandera as a P-day pastime will chew you up. We played best out of 5, teams of 8. Elder Smith and my companion Elder Bowman were on my side, Elder Winkel was on the other, which made things difficult because that guy CAN RUN! The field was split in a parking lot of rocks and weeds, with muddy slimy grass in the back of each side.

Drawing included in his letter

To get to our flag they had to run up a hill, to get to theirs you had to slide down a slippery slope, so it was fairly even. We won, they won, we won, they won. 2 – 2 last game me and Elder Smith sat back both guarding the flag…and pretty much chilling. We were main contenders in the other 4 rounds but decided to play a bit of “king of the hill.” Whenever someone from their end would run at the hill, we would run back at them giving them no where to get ground at the top. At one point in the match we held off nearly 5-6 guys by stratagem. In the end we got most of them out and freed our prisoners, making it 8 on 2, with them sitting on top of their bottle-flag. We, by a little bit of personal sacrifice, got our prize and won the last game. What? Missionaries can have fun too.


Unfortunately, being it a somewhat rainy day I forgot about sunscreen and am now thoroughly red on the face, neck, arms, and legs. Ouchies. Not just that but my legs are sore as rocks. Still, I will press on. I had my fun-time to work whether it hurts or not. I’m fine, really, all is well.

Speaking of playing hard! Lacrosse, skating, soccer! Not to mention I keep hearing Scott, you seem to be finding all my friends! What happy and lucky blessings huh? Keep getting buff you guys so we all will be when I get back, ok? I run, or do push ups and sit ups every other day, not to mention the 20 hills we scale a day. Now all I need to improve is my eating. More I switch cookie or chip snacks with lettuce, apples and bananas. Every week I buy a big fat carrot, an onion, oatmeal, yogurt and awesome stuff. I NEVER buy soda, only on occasion on P-day for lunch. Always tons of water, some milk, eggs, beans, rice, ham, tortillas, and plenty of healthier yummy stuff.

(The rest of Andrew's letter was Spanish lessons for us.)