4th of July

Howdy family!

I finally got the pictures Cass and John sent! They came in this weird envelope thing and it said "Sorry for the inconvenience, but we kind of messed up your mail and destroyed it. Good luck!” The envelope was ripped open. The pictures look good and I think I got them all. I don’t have a book to put them in or anything so Mom, when you send that box of stuff, if you could send that picture holder thing that would be sweet.
Well this week was pretty crazy. For the 4th of July, we had a devotional by a guy who was the personal assistant to like 4 Presidents of the United States. He is LDS and he told us some pretty crazy stuff. He’s been all over the world. After his talk, they showed a little slide show thing with all these animated missionaries running all over the world to all the missions in the world and everyone cheered when their mission came up. The coolest part was after that, 4 bagpipe players, 2 snares, and a bass drum marched out of nowhere playing Praise to the Man and when they got to the front, they started playing Scotland the Brave while missionaries holding their countries flag (we have some from basically everywhere) and started from the back and made their way to the front. It was way exciting. Everyone was going nuts. After that, they let us go outside into the parking lot to watch the Stadium of Fire's fireworks show from BYU Stadium. We couldn’t see real well because there were so many trees in our way, but it was sweet.
On Sunday, we had a devotional by Sister Jenny Oaks Baker, who is the daughter of Elder Dallin H. Oaks. She would tell a story about her life then play a song on her violin. She is INCREDABLE! She has been playing since she was 4. She graduated with her Masters from Julliard. She has played for TONS of amazing orchestras and played for Pres. Hinckly on his 90th birthday. She stopped to raise her family, but now records and stuff. Look her up. Becca if you still have my iPod and if you can put her on it that would be sweet.
On the 4th, my comp and I and 2 others sat outside our apartment listening to fireworks and talking about the good ol' times. It sprinkled and felt so good outside.
The rest of the days kinda blended together and nothing really happened. They were just normal days.
Yesterday, Thursday, was the best day here. After being cooped up here for the last 5 weeks, we finally got to go out into the real world. We took a bus to Salt Lake City where we went to the Conciliate of Mexico to sign for our Visas. I don’t know if you know this or not, but the last year, people have been kinda having a hard time getting their Visas to Mexico. This means I am basically set to go to Mexico in 3.5 weeks! I can’t believe it’s been 5.5 weeks already!
Well the Temple is closed for the next couple of weeks so we have more time to relax on P-Days which is awesome. Nothing much has been happening here. I am just enjoying the weather.
Yesterday, while in freedom, we drove past the Riviera (Becca's old apartments) and we drop by the FYE Becca used to work at. I told everyone about FYE, but no one has ever really heard of it. When we passed by I asked people and still no one had heard of it. I guess it’s because they keep closing stores ha-ha.
One of our "Investigators" is getting baptized next week on the 15 so I’m pretty excited about that. I am also stoked because Trevor Schnepf gets here on Wed. I’m going to try to see if I can be his host and show him the Ropes. Well I got to go, but I’ll talk to you guys soon! Keep sending letters! I love you all and enjoy yourselves!

Love,
Elder Stark