Hold onto your hats! Drake is excited!!!

Polska flag!

Dear Mommy,

SO much has happened this week! So here we go!

First, I lost my retainer. I accidently left it on the lunch tray and so they let me go dumpster diving through the trashcans back in the kitchen. It was scary back there. I had to swim through gross old food, half eaten hamburgers, warm lasagna, and nasty stuff. I did not find it. If you can send me a replacement, you'll porbably have to send it to Poland because I don't think I will be able to get it in time here.

Also, Elder Richard G. Scott came for our devotional this Tuesday!!!!!!! Woooohooo!!!!! YAY!! :D :D It was sooo awesome. We had been here almost 8 weeks without an apostle, and finally got to hear from one!

It was so good. His talk was on receiving answers to prayers. He also gave a SUPER awesome apostolic blessing! He blessed all the missionaries learning a language that they will be able to master it. Yay! :)After his talk was over, we sang the closing song. And then a Sister Missionary got up to say the prayer, but Elder Scott BOLTED to the podium and said "Wait!"

He moved so fast... It was awesome! haha. Then he said, "I have one more thing I need to tell you." You could hear pens clicking across the whole congregation as missionaries were getting to write down what he would say.

The first words he said were, "Remember, the Lord called you on your mission to succeed, not to fail." Then he went on to tell us more of how we would grow and learn form our missions and how it will bless our lives.

Then! We got our travel plans!!! We fly out of SLC on Monday at 11:00AM. Then we fly straight to AMSTERDAM!!! :D Woo hoo! I get to go to the Netherlands!!! I am SOOO excited!!!! It's a 13 hour flight. Then we fly from Amsterdam to Warsaw.

So, I will try to call you from the airport in SLC on Monday morning. It will probably be around 9AM your time. :)

We leave in a week!!!! AAAAAAAAAH!!

At this time exactly in a week, I will be on a plane flying to Europe! What the heck!! haha :)

Sweater Day

Three of the sweaters are mine...

OH!! I finished the Book of Mormon this week!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D Yay! Awesome awesome awesome! :)

I like that book :) Now it's time to share it with others!! :)

I went to the temple today. It was last time I'll go for the next 2 years. Crazy. It will be much needed to go when I get back :)

OR! Maybe we'll get so many baptisms, that they'll announce the Poland temple, build it super fast and I will get to go there! :)

oorrrrr, because the mission is doing poorly...they'll combine it with the Berlin mission...and I'll get to go to the Freiburg temple!!

haha

probably not either of those.

BUT! Dad, if you and Mom come pick me up from Poland we should go to the Freiburg or Frankfurt temple :)

I hope I will be able to at least understand the Poles when I get there. Because I will be running into a bunch of them when I get there!  hahaha  Like KayLee!! :D hahahaha

It is really soon that I will be there.  It's crazy. I don't know if this week will go by slow or fast. If it will be filled with anxiety or just pure excitement. I don't know. haha, but I am excited!!!

Grandma Southwick's story is so amazing. Tell her thank you so much!!

Oh, since I am leaving Monday morning, I think I might be able to email you on Saturday.

I have a lot of packing to do! :)

I'll send more pictures later today ! :)

Love you!

-Starszy Drake Allen

P.S. from Renee -- I just now got Drake's joke about running into Poles after reading the letter the 3rd time.  Yes, I am slow!  :)

Another P.S. -- Click on Drake's first picture with the flag and check out all the Polish language learning aids on the wall.  Looks crazy hard!