Week 4: To Be Like Thee!

February 10, 1988

Dear Mom, Dad & Family,

I made it to California okay.  I love my mission president, he is so cool.

Before my group got off the plane, we all switched name tags; I was wearing Elder November's tag and was the first to meet President Douglas.  He called each of us by the names on the tags we were wearing, until he got to a Hispanic elder wearing a tag with name of Juliett on it.

"That can't be right," he said, and then he proceeded to match, from memory, our faces with the pictures we had all mailed to the mission office before we entered the MTC -- "You're elder Juliett, you're Elder November and you must be Elder Cox."  And then he laughed this great and wonderful laugh, and I knew right then that I was going to love my mission president.

From the airport we went to the mission office for a quick tour, then over to the mission home for a nap, lunch, orientation, interviews with President Douglas, more orientation, dinner, a testimony meeting and then a good night's sleep.  After breakfast the next morning, we had some more orientation before meeting our trainers and heading off to our respective areas.

At the testimony meeting, I picked up another new favorite hymn, "With Humble Heart."  I was particularly struck by the end of the second verse and the beginning of the third.

Help me remember, I implore
Thou gav'st thy life on Calvary,
That I might live forevermore
And grow, dear Lord, to be like thee.

To be like thee! I lift my eyes,
From earth below toward heaven above,
That I may learn from vaulted skies
How I my worthiness can prove.

Too be like the Savior!  To think that as I serve Him here in California that I can grow to be like Him.  Wow!

In any case, we arrived in my first area, bought a bike, some food and some bed sheets, and moved in.  So, I bet you are wondering where I am.  I live in a four-man flat with my trainer, Elder Golf, our district leader Elder Fox and his companion Elder Lima.  Elder Golf is from Kingman, Arizona -- my second comp in a row from Arizona -- Elder Fox is from Calgary, Canada, and Elder Lima is from, get this, Bountiful!  Grounds and I are on bikes, but the good thing about our area is that it is flat.

So, where am I?  One thing out here that is interesting is that P-day is on Wednesday, which is why it took so long for me to write this letter.

On Saturday we went to a stake baptism and then to a dinner appointment with the family in our ward who the baptism was for.  On Sunday our ward mission leader gave us a ride to church -- the chapel is at the far end of our area -- and his wife invited us to dinner afterward -- she also invited a neighbor to dinner.

My comp was sick on Monday and Tuesday.  I read the entire book of Luke on Tuesday, which was great.

We played basketball this morning, and I didn't do too bad.  Later we did some sightseeing around town.  Even on P-day, when we are out and about town, we have to dress in our suits and ties.

Getting back to last week, on Friday we went tracting.  We didn't get in any doors, but there were a few door approaches where I thought I did a good job.  More tracting on Saturday, but this time it was different.  On each of the doors when it was my turn to give the approach, I barely got one word out before the man or woman of the house cut me off.  Still, not one of them slammed the door in our faces; Californians, it seems, are just too polite to do that.

On Monday, we started out on our bikes, but my comp's pace was slower than usual -- I had no trouble keeping up with him that morning, which was definitely unusual.  My comp led us in a short loop that took us right back to the flat.

Oh, by the way, I'm in Palo Alto!  It is a great area.  I'm in the Stanford District, serving in the Palo Alto II ward of the Menlo Park Stake.  Everyone here has got money; we see a lot of BMWs and Mercedes Benzes, even some Italian sports cars.  The highest tithe paying ward is in this stake.

Well, life is good.  I'll write again soon.  I miss everyone.

Love
Your Missionary
Douglas