Passive Religious Culture

Reality of releases:

I am almost confident that you talk to the Stake President and he comes over that day I get home and releases me. No waiting as far as I know.

I still feel like I'm in the middle, as much as I did a year ago in La Cisterna with Elder Myres. I know what I'm doing a little more but not so much. I'm starting to freak out when I think about people that have kids and stuff (and I remember when I was a kid 21 wasn't that young - you could have kids at 21 and that was okay) are my age and younger and I kind of just sit there staring at them because I am definitely not that old. I feel like an educated large fourteen-year-old. Is that bad?

No, it's all good. I make it work.

Everyone's getting back from vacations now so I'll have more to tell you about it next week. We contacted a lot, for there was very little peopleage in the sector. We did find some pretty good new people. They were a mom and two fraternal twin girls. We only talked about some basic... nondenominational (to say it that way) christian stuff, throwing the Restoration on the end. The girls were really pretty interested. The mom too, I think, but she recited some classic no-church-necessary stuff. It's all about the Book of Mormon in those cases. It really is about the Book of Mormon in every case, but especially these people. Our area president calls it "Passive Religious Culture."

One of the things that's been on my mind lately has been our power to define ourselves. Those non-conformist people are as lost as a Turk in fog! They let society make them whatever it wants. Real non-conformity is defining one's self. Why dress in black clothes? What a product!

It's very interesting to me how much power I have in my own life to change what I am. Not personality (you can if you want, but I like my personality), mostly speaking about work habits, thoughts, vocabulary, and on a longer-term scale, attributes and tendencies.

As a result I've been thinking too about what I'm going to do with myself. (Not when I'm not supposed to or anything.) I got a paper last wednesday about my mission termination paper! I have to write an essay with ten goals for the future and what I learned in the mission and stuff. I still don't feel like I'm going anywhere. Even if I will only write home three times more - ever. I still have baptisms to do and stuff so it's not over for me. We are splitting the sector, so it's going to go super fast. I just know it. It only slows down when you resent it. If you just go out and stuff and laugh and get to know your companion and do family nights and it rips away.

Wierdly the only effect going home has on me nowdays is it makes me impatient. I can't stand waiting for people to come to the door. I can't take people saying they can't see us this week. I think, "Hey - I need someone to get out here so I can contact them." or "Hey - I can only teach you for so long, man. Let's get on this thing. What are you waiting for?" I don't even know what trunky is. It doesn't make sense to me.

Therefore I feel totally okay giving you this idea:

Priority one : Mountain Dew. I don't care in what medium. I only need there to be a decent amount and it needs to be cold.

Two: Mexican Food

Three: PF Changs

That's really all.

Four: Shasta

Five: Good Chocolate Milk make from milk and powder

Six: Peppery steak Italian Place Sandwich

Seven: Burgers

That's all.

I feel like I hear the Indiana Jones theme song. I'm going to keep going. See you next week.

Love,
Elder A Conrad Crist

Note C
I have an idea, furthermore. I think it would be cool to make a two-part journal after - one part written of my writings in journal with printed out letters put in at corresponding dates. Two - all the recording plus an interview with questions of your choice in style of interview. Maybe some sunday we could sit down and let everybody ask or say something. I think that's a good Conrad thing to do. In fifty years people will kill for that recording.