Well, things sound to be going pretty swimmingly back on the home front.  Things here in New York are also going way good.  I'll be tearing up the cheque right after I get back to the apartment, and I think the Bank account would actually be the best way of sending me money from now on.  Cash is always nice, but the bank way just seems so much easier.

Anyways, congratulations Mom on your test thing.  That's probably quite a load off your back.  Also, that plaque is really cool, is that sitting on one of the showroom shelves?  If so, I'm sure that’s a good conversation starter and could give you lots of missionary opportunities.  I'm also putting up some pictures that you can enjoy.  I don’t have any with Elder Hampton yet, or of the apartment, but I do have a picture of our toilet that you might enjoy.  Elder Bowker caught a little friend in his study room, so we tossed him in the toilet.  It was pretty sweet.  You can also see his attempted and failed escape plan.  This week was just an all around fun enjoyable week.  Saw and met lots of awesome, and crazy people. 

So let’s start off with the crazy.  On Saturday I went on a split with Elder Miller and near the end of the day, we were walking to a look-up that we were going to do and then on the way, some guy sitting on a bench calls us over, which isn’t really all that uncommon.  Anyways, he just asks us to talk to his friend who is obviously homeless and has set up shop on this particular bench.  His name was Carmile, and he's a pretty nice guy, just a little confused about some things.  So we get over to the bench and he's trying to tell us that we're missionaries for a catholic church here in the area and that he's seen us serving dinners at said church (If you want to look at the church it's on the corner of University and Fordham Road).  Anyways, after we cleared all that up, he started telling us his life story, about what his parents did and what he and his brothers did and all sorts of fun stuff.  So here's some of what he said in his story.  For one, his father built Manhattan and was the biggest construction boss in Manhattan.  He was producer of the movies,” The Producers” and one other big movie.  When he was a kid he worked in the subway tunnels and often got lost.  His mom was a seamstress and she was also the lady who found Marilyn Monroe, John Travolta and many other movie stars.  In fact, if you named one, she found him/her.  He informed us that Al Capone was also the Indian Geronimo, the very same who beat General Custer at Little Bighorn or something like that.  And that there was only one plane at the two towers, the second tower was set on fire by some isotopes from the computer room in tower one and that it was the result of the computers.  He also told us that the Italian Indians walked here to America when the world was all together in Pangaea.  He also came up with the idea for color TV and gave the idea to his uncle to create one.  He also had his uncle bring Hollywood over here to New York, because it was better here. 

He was just one funny fellow, who kinda ate up like 1hr of our time, but we both decided that it was time well spent.  I think he was just happy to have someone to talk to who was also willing to listen to him.  It really is a rather sad story and I kinda feel sorry for him.  But hey, what can I do for him right now, aside from pray for him? 

Other than that I had another split this Monday, but for this one, I stayed in my area and my Zone Leader, Elder Deitz-Hermosa came with both Hampton and I.  Hermosa is also Canadian, he's from Montreal, and has been in the mission about the same amount of time I have.  He's just an amazing missionary.  Anyways, we had him with us all day and we were kinda winding up the day.  we had had two of our appointments juke us and so we just decided to knock the building that the last appointment lived in, even though we knew that is was a big drug center and a number of drug and gun dealers live there.  We started at the top floor like normal and I knocked the door and through the door told the person we were missionaries (people always ask "who" before they open their doors).  She told us that she couldn't open the door at the time, but that we could leave a card in the door.  So I stuck one in the door, but this time I pushed it into the door a little more than I normally do.  I don’t really know why, but I did.  And because of that she was able to grab it from the inside.  So we continued knocking the building and just before we were about to walk down the stairs to the next floor, the first door opened and the girl inside told us to come in.  So, we entered and met Darlin and her husband Herman, who both looked VERY black, but they're from Honduras.  So we were excited to have found a new investigator for us, things had been a little dry here lately.  So we started getting to know them and find out that they are very poor and that they have had to choose whether they want electricity, or an apartment to live in.  Suffice it to say, they decided to pay the rent instead of the electricity bill.  Which is sad for them, but they seem really awesome.  I mean, REALLY awesome.  They have committed themselves to coming to church on Sunday, and also to the English classes on Wednesday’s and Thursday's.  We even bumped into them yesterday and she told us without us saying anything that she was going to come to the church tonight.  So yeah, they're way legit and I'm super excited to work with them and help them receive the blessings of this gospel.  They also have a young girl, like 1.5 yrs old.

Aside from that though, not a whole lot of new stuff has been going on.  One of the ties I got from Grandma Smigel is a huge hit with all the elders here, all of them were commenting on it the other day and umm.. yeah, that’s about all I got for know.  Umm, oh yeah, the other day we caught a mouse in our apartment and I know that most of you aren’t going to approve of this, but we killed it too.  He did put up a pretty good game of hide and seek though; it took us like 30 minutes to find him once we first saw him.  He was super fast, but we did catch him and dispense of him shortly there after.  We’re hoping he was the one and only mouse, fingers crossed.

So yeah, I hope you all enjoy this email and that you have a great week.  I look forward to next Wednesday and remember I put up some pictures, so you can enjoy them too.

Les Quiero Mucho,

Elder Dilling



Why are P-Days on Wednesday?

OK, so first the money thing.  When I arrived in the Bronx I had to buy a Metro card (bus card) which costs 30 dollars.  All I had left of my mission money was 34 dollars, so when the next P-Day rolled around, we hadn't received the money for the next month, so I had to use my card, and I just decided to pay for everyone, and then have them each pay me back.  So I'm not really lending out money, it just made grocery shopping a whole lot easier.  Also, I got a cheque from Grandma and Grandpa Smigel on my birthday, but I have no way of cashing it.  I've tried multiple ways.  So what I was thinking is that it would probably just be easier if they put the money in my RBC US account, and I just rip up the cheque.   So let me know about that.

As for my Mr. Mac shirt, I haven’t received anything as of yet.  But I'll keep an eye out for it though.  Some more sponge pudding would also be great, but maybe you should hold off for a couple months.  I ate almost both packages on my own.  It was delicious, but not so healthy (the other elders didn’t want too much of it).

In response to your question about the Bronx, I live in "The Bronx Little Italy" which is pretty cool, and one of our members works in that bakery you saw across the street on Google Earth, and gives us deals occasionally on the $1 pastries, which are super good.   And then as for the Bronx Zoo, we plan on going there later on today.  Just need to go and get a haircut, and we're good to go.  So that should be way sweet.   I'll have some pictures to send home next week - a few of my area, and then of the zoo and stuff.  The really cool thin, is that on Wednesdays everything is extra cheap in NY.  It's called donation day, so you can go to museums or the zoos, and all that fun stuff for like $1.  That’s the reason we have P-Day on Wednesday’s.

And the carding technique is only to get into the building, so that we can knock the peoples doors.  We don’t try and get into their actual apartments. We only do it to get into a building if there isn’t anyone around to let us in, or if no one is leaving the building.  I've only had to do it like 3 or 4 times, mostly on the old crappy apartment buildings that don’t really have good security.  If you pulled hard enough you could probably force the door open.  Also, the buzzers don’t always work.  It's pretty ghetto here.  We’ve got a few projects in this area too (a project is a government owned building).  They're super dirty, and for some reason the tenants/ guests like to use the elevators as bathrooms.  EWWW!  They smell pretty bad.

This week has been pretty good.  We've been focusing a lot on finding people, and last Thursday I was able to confirm someone a member of the church, which was pretty cool/hard.  Giving blessings in Spanish is way hard.  Aside from that we've been having a little bit of success from contacting, and my district is doing great.  We also got special permission to go with the ward to a special service project on the 23rd.  We're going down to the super ghetto area of the United States to an area called Hunts Point, which is located in the poorest zip code in the United States, so that should be pretty cool.  I've heard there's some pretty cool graffiti down there as well.  Maybe I'll get some pictures of that.

I have a quick funny story.  Yesterday Elder Bowker and I were on a split in his area, and we decided to knock an apartment building, so we go to the top floor and start knocking.  It was pretty normal, lots of "no's" a few "no thank you’s" but there was this one door which was kinda propped open, and a dog was standing there looking like he wanted to be pet, but we didn’t pet him.  We just knocked on the door and kinda peeked into the room.  And when the lady saw us she said (in Spanish)"Oh no, who left the door open, the Mormon devils are here!!"   Her husband comes up and says they're not interested, and closes the door.  Elder Bowker and I just kinda look at each other like “what the heck that was funny”. 

Anyways, I gotta get going now, but I hope you all have a fantastic week and I look forward to hearing back from you next week.

Much love,

Elder Dilling

20 feels the exact same as 19

Well, 20 feels the exact same as 19.  The only difference is I'm one year away from being old enough to drink here in the states. Not that that really means anything to me.  I'm just excited for 25 so I can rent cars.  Anyways, thank you everyone for the presents.  I got them all yesterday and waited till today to open most of them.  I did open the sponge pudding though and was very happy with what that gift contained.  Also I guess I should say happy belated birthday to Dad, seeing as that was a few days ago and happy anniversary as well since that was on Monday.  Also, those letters were really nice.  I especially liked moms and learned a few new things about myself.  One question I have though is how does someone as skinny as myself take 48 Hrs to be born.  I always thought that the fat babies would be the harder births.  Also, I’m glad that the cone head has gone away and that the suction cup wasn't a permanent change.  On a different note, I'll say I’m jealous of a few things.  First, you get to go see wicked and second, Sarah got to go see Transformers, but it's ok, I'll see them both eventually.  Hopefully I'll see Wicked here on Broadway.  I'll be sure to write thank you cards to everyone that sent me a package as well.  Hopefully within the next two weeks.  Oh yeah, before I forget, I've spent some of my personal money.  I had some surprise expenses come up, and I didn’t have enough mission money to cover them all. SO you'll have to add some money there.  I'll send some home to cover it when I get my mission money again and when my companions pay me back.

On another Note, the Bronx is WAY sweet.  So different though.  For one thing, there are people everywhere.  It’s a missionaries dream come true.  Plus the members here really like the missionaries.  I haven’t been fed quite as much as my last area, buts that’s mainly cause we've been busy with other stuff.  So far I've had the opportunity to interview three people for baptism and had the pleasure of saying that they are all ready and able.  One of them, Brenda, when asked who she wanted to confirm her pointed at me and said "him".  Needless to say myself and Elder Bowker the missionary who taught her were both really surprised.  Anyways, her and her niece are getting baptized tonight and then getting confirmed on Sunday.    Aside from those two, Elder Bowker is baptizing another gentleman named Luis on Saturday and then the third companionship in my district has a few other baptismal dates coming up soon.  So, things are hoppin' here right now.  One of my zone leaders is also from Canada, (technically he was born in Ecuador.) but he's lived in Montreal for much of his life.  As for my position as District Leader, we don’t have training really and district meetings are every Monday.  The elders in my district are Elder Topham and Elder Miller, Elder Bowker and Elder Smith, and my companion elder Hampton.  Out of all of them, I have been out the longest.  But really that means nothing.  I've learned so much from all of them.  This is Elder Smiths first area as well.  Finally the language, I'm still speaking a more proper Spanish, but in a way I need to change to speak like the people I'm serving.  Mainly because they feel more comfortable if you speak the way that they do.  For instance I speak normal Spanish with people from Ecuador, Mexico, and most other Spanish countries, but I am trying to learn some of the Dominican and Puerto Rican Spanish to talk with them the way they like to speak.  I'm still doing all my practicing and teaching and stuff in proper Spanish.  I'm just trying to change for the general street talking if you know what I mean and of course for joking in the apartment. 

As for a little explanation of my area, (you can look at it on Google maps) I live at 2367 Hughes Ave apt 16 Bronx, NY 10458. (Remember that this address is only for Google maps purposes.  Don’t send stuff here, especially packages, as it is against mission rules.)  My area covers from 200 St in the North, to 177th / Tremont in the south, and from Grand Concourse on the west to the Bronx Zoo in the east.  It's a pretty decent size area, and the church is on the corner of E Kingsbridge and Grand Concourse.  There are lots brick buildings and they all pretty much have the same dirty interiors.  The other day we were contacting a building, got down to the bottom floor and knocked on the doors there, while inhaling some good 'ol Marijuana smoke.  It was great to finish that building by contacting the kids who were smokin' it up.  Another useful skill I've learned is how to card doors.  If the door is locked, I just slide an old card I found in the day and Presto!  we’re in.  I figure it'll be a good skill I can put on my resume.  But don’t worry, I'm careful about when and where I do it.  Aside from that I'm not really sure what else you'd want to know about my area.  Next email just ask me some questions if you have any.  Oh, my shoes still look GREAT, almost like they did when we bought them.  I try to polish them often. 

Anyways, that’s about all I got for this week.  I look forward to next Wednesday and I hope you have a great week as well. 

Love you all,

Elder Dilling

District Leader

FAMILY!!!!

Hey!  things sound like they're going just swimmingly up there in the Great, not so white right now, North.  Things here in Kingsridge are going great.  Thats right I didnt say Peekskill, I said Kingsbrige.  I am now serving in the Bronx!!!  WOOO HOOOO!!!  I can't really express with words how happy I am to be out of Peekskill.  Not 'cause I didnt like it, but because I get to see something different finally.  My New companion is Elder Hampton.  He's from the LA area of California and he was trained by my First MTC companion.  So in missionary terms, I'm his mother.  and myself and Elder Mitchell (his parents) met in the Pre-existence (the MTC).  Another thing to add onto that is that I have been called as the District Leader of this district, talk about a big change for me.  I skipped straight past senior comp. to DL.  So yeah, these last couple of days have been a bit of a blur and now that I'm here, I'm excited to get to work and to start learning a totally new type of Spanish.  Dominican Spanish.  dun dun duuh.  From what I've heard, the Spanish of the people from the Domincan Republic is terrible.  They drop their S's and use all sorts of improper grammar and what not.  So I'm excited for that.  On another note, I'm gonna do a baptismal interview tonight.  The other elders in my pad have a date coming up and then I probably will have to do another interview on Monday.  Aside from that we're going to be doing an English class tonight as well.  Suffice it to say, I'm super excited about being here and working in this area.  As for my new address, I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I'll let you know next week.  I also have the most time in the mission out of every other person in my district, which is pretty cool.  I was pretty suprised when I heard that, but hey, I have been out here 9 months today.

Just a quick little thing for Daniel.  If you memorize the articles of faith, you'll have done it before me.  I still don't know them all.  In fact, I'm not even sure I know more than 4 of them.  So good luck with that.

But anyways, thats about all I have to tell about for this week.  I'm sure I'll have more next week.  Good luck with everything back home.  I know that you're praying for me and I'm also doing the same, so yeah, have a fantastic week all of you and I look forward to hearing back from you on my Birthday. (next week.)

Les Quiero Mucho,

Elder Dilling

Ricardo's Baptism

Hey all!

First off for your "Spanish".  I can understand it, although google translate definitely isn’t perfect.  I could make it out though.  So yeah, we're still staying pretty busy, although there are those slow days that just seem like weeks.  But that’s ok, because weeks feel like days.  The temperature here is still really nice.  Today it hit 100, which was ridiculous.  I'm glad it was P-Day and I didn’t have to wear my regular clothes all day.  That’s too bad that it's been raining alot there.  I haven’t seen much rain for about a week and I'm glad, cause when it rains the humidity jumps another 20% and this humidity is dirty and disgusting, nothing like Mexico.  But like you said, at least it's not snowing.

So this week was great, the Baptism of Ricardo went very well, even though it had a few bumps along the way.  Unfortunately the baptismal fount didn’t want to let warm water out, so we helped warm it up with warm water from the kitchen tap, which actually did a pretty good job.  Aside from that, it all went very well.  His wife wasn’t baptized as she is already a member, but after the baptism while he was changing she got up and bore her testimony about how happy she was that her family was finally being united in this way and how much she's looking forward to being sealed in the temple in the future.  So yeah, it was really great.  I'm happy as well to finally get to see some of the fruits of my labor (not that I wasn’t happy before).  We also found out that the lady we've been teaching from Toronto can be baptized here, so we're planning on giving her a baptismal date soon.  Also, once she's back in Toronto, if you ever want to visit, she's willing to offer her house as a place to stay.  Her name is Blanca, and she's Hermana (Sister) Suna's aunt, a member in the ward who was baptized last year.  We've been teaching her and I'm pretty sure that she is ready to get baptized.  She just loves the gospel.  When she lived back in Ecuador she was taught by the missionaries, but when she moved to Canada in 72' she lost contact with the church until she came here to visit her niece.  Hna (Sis.) Suna really wants her to get baptized to and has been a great help.  Also they love to feed us whenever we come over to teach, which is awesome and I certainly won’t complain about that.  As for Elder Fotu and me, things are still going well between us.  It actually gets better as time goes on, but we would like a couple other missionaries to converse with.  As for the picture thing, I'll try and get some more pics. 

It was good to hear that Sarah's grad went well and that she enjoyed it and yes, that is a very nice picture with Dad.  I also really like the dress.  Hopefully it stops raining in time for Christina's graduation.

As for the Question about the Shirts, Yes I'm still a 15.5 tall.  For the short sleeved ones and they’re fitted as well.  (Fitted = much better looking)  But anything you want to send is good with me. 

I'm out of time for today, but I hope that you all have another fantastic week, good luck in your final weeks of the course and I love you all.

Elder Dilling

Things here are going pretty good

Hey everyone!

Things sound like they're going pretty good on that side of the border.  Good luck Sarah with High Jump and Shotput I never would have expected you to do high jump, but hey, that’s cool.  Has any progress been made with the Dog Run and Getting Chester to use it?  By the sounds of our grass condition, I guess that’s a negative. 

Anyways, things here are going pretty good.  We've just been doing A LOT of finding people and so far haven't received much success, but that’s how it is, some weeks are good, others slow.  It’s kinda like the tide, it comes in and goes out.  But I am excited for this coming Sunday, Ricardo is getting baptized!  Neither of us are doing the ordinance itself, but that’s ok because I think it’s better when a member does it.  So yeah, we're excited for this Sunday and so is Ricardo and his wife.  Her more than him, I think.  Nube's doing alright too, we keep trying to meet with her, but when we set an appointment, her boss seems to know and always asks her to stay at work longer and of course she's not in a position to say "No".  We have an English speaking investigator who is a part member family and the wife speaks Spanish.  He knows Spanish, but just grew up speaking English, so he likes it more and his wife speaks perfect English, but is the opposite, she prefers to speak Spanish.  Kinda fun.  The problem with them is getting to church, they have a hard time making it there on time.  But hey, church is the problem with most I think.  Unfortunately, Elder Fotu and I are still here alone and by the looks of things, it's not gonna be changing anytime soon.  The mission is a little short on missionaries at this point in time and also there really isn’t enough work to put two companionships here.  The PEC meetings here are great, they are super effective from what I've seen and from what I've been told by other missionaries.

Anyways, I have some good news and some bad news about the ticket.  I didn’t receive any points and by going to court it got dropped down to a parking ticket.  The bad news is that a parking ticket in Eastchester, NY costs $150.00  So I'm sorry, that kinda really really sucks.  You can take the money from my tax return.  I don’t want you to pay for my stupidity/blindness.  The reason I got the ticket was for turning left at a no turn left sign.  The reason for doing that was that I didn’t see the sign, until I was halfway through the turn and there were cars coming towards me.  That was somewhat unfortunate, but it's all taken care of now. 

As for the birthday ideas.  I've been thinking a little about it, and decided that I'd like a couple more Short sleeved shirts.  If you could find ones that are more fitted, and without button down colors that'd be perfect.  The ones I got from Mr.Mac were perfect.  They're Enro's.  Aside from shirts, music is always nice, I really like music without words, like the Scores from movies.  I have the Gladiator Soundtrack, which is really good.  If you could find it, I'd really like the Prince of Egypt Soundtrack.  What you could also do if you wanted them as well, is put them on the computer, then send me burned discs, that way if they get scratched I could just as for you to send me a new burned one.  Now to the candy ideas.  I've really been craving an eatmore recently.  Those are fantastic.  As for that I'm not really sure.  Also, I lost my knife (The pocket knife dad has. (black one).  I wouldn’t mind a new pocket knife, they come in handy occasionally.  Umm...what more.  I heard there's gonna be a new Call of Duty MW3 so you could preorder that and have it waiting for me when I get home :) JK.  Socks are never a bad Idea, I really like the ones made form Bamboo fibers.  They last really well too.  My shoes are in pretty much in perfect condition still a few scratches, but that’s not a problem.  Another watch would be nice, I’m thinking of sending my Nixon home.  I don’t want that to get lost/broken/stolen.  So yeah, maybe a DSLR.  I prefer taking pictures with the Pentax over my current camera.  Once again JK.  But yeah, I'll be happy with whatever you want to send me.  I'm really not in need of any more P-Day clothes though.  Maybe a few pairs of socks.  I really like the American Eagle Super Low Ankle socks.  They stay on my foot, and don’t slide off the heel.  But any super low ankle socks are good.  I would only need like 3 pairs.  Anyways yeah, that’s about all I've got.  I've been pretty good at staying on top of my letter writing.  Just need to write Sam a letter here soon before he leaves for the MTC.  I'll do that during this week some time. 

So yeah, I hope that everything continues to go super duper with each of you and I look forward to reading your letter next week.

With mucho love,

Carson a.k.a Elder Dilling

A Baptism Soon?

Hey all,

Your letters were great as always and It's good to here that all is going well in Calgary and that the weather is getting better.  Things here are going quite well.  We had the interview for baptism with one of our investigators and now we're just working out the kinks and getting the date and everything else ready.  Which is freakin awesome!  His name is Ricardo, he's the one that got married a couple of weekends ago and now he's ready for baptism, so that’s good.  It’ll be great for the entire family.  Aside from that we've been working to find more new investigators and teach as many people as we can.  Finally, the weather has cleared up a little here too.  It's been overcast for the last 8 days or so and raining everyday too.  We got back in contact with Nube the other day and found out that she's been going through a really hard time.  Her ex-husband is being a jerk.  He is planning on going back to Ecuador and leaving her with no support money for the kids. The government here is also talking about sending her son back to Ecuador, even though she is legal and he was born here.  Finally, her mom recently contracted cancer.  So suffice it to say, she could really use some prayers and I'm sure she would appreciate it if you'd include her in your prayers. 

I can’t remember if I've told you about this one guy that lives in Peekskill.  I saw him my first week here in the area and he always starts talking to himself or whoever else, about how dumb the Mormons are and blah blah blah.  It's really kinda funny and I look forward to the times when he sees us and walks past us.  It's gotten even funnier recently because he's changed from Mormon mode to JW mode.  Now he assumes we're JW's and talks bad about them when he sees us, which I have no problem with, it's almost like he's working to help us and remove the interest in the JW church that others might have, especially seeing as New York is like the JW Utah. 

Another funny thing that happened today is that Elder Fotu decided to clean the bathroom and grabbed a bottle that he though was 409 (like fantastic) and then sprayed it all over the bathroom.  He then noticed that someone had written “PER” on the bottle.  After he sprayed it he came to ask me what “PER” meant?  To which I responded.  "You didn't spray that did you?  That's permethrin."  (A really dangerous pesticide that if you spray indoors you have to leave the house for the whole day.) So now we're stuck outside with nothin really to do. Elder Fotu also told me after the fact, that permethrin is illegal in NY, but since the Church is an  organization, they get to use it.  So yeah, just an event that I figured I'd share with you.  I thought it was kinda funny.

As for Chester I think I know what the problem is.  He misses me.  Duh, it's because I've been gone, he never tried to run away before I left did he?  I didn't think so, so that must be the only reasonable answer.  You’ll just have to wait for about 16 more months and then it'll be alright again.  But hey, you have to give to him credit too; he's a pretty smart dog, having figured out how to open the gate.  You can’t really call him dumb, just a coward.  Just tell dad though that he really doesn't need a 3rd eye.  Maybe just try an electric collar.  I've met a couple of dogs here that it seems to work pretty well for.  Now as for dad and using my bike, that's totally cool, (as long as you buy it a new front fork.) JK, you can go ahead and use it.  It’s actually a very comfortable ride.  And as for your question about talks, I haven't given one yet.  I've been rather lucky and this ward really likes to use its members for most things and not the missionaries.  They feel that it strengthens the membership within the ward. 

The church uses Sprint for their phones and but I think the way you did things for me worked out quite well, just buying some international minutes.  Otherwise, I'd probably go with Verizon or something.  She shouldn't really need to be making a bunch of calls.  Texting is much easier and then if she does need to make a call, just keep it short.  Is Sarah going to bring my laptop with her?  Finally, I have faith in you dad, keep shedding those pounds.  I myself would like to put on 20lbs of muscle to bring me up to the 190-195 range, but that is rather challenging as a missionary because we really don't have control over our diet and not entirely enough time to sustain whatever muscle we do gain except from walking, which is even harder when you’re upstate and a lot more driving is involved.

Now finally, about my birthday.  I'm really not sure what I want, some ties would always be nice and to be a little more specific, ties that go with a blue or brown suit, and that aren't striped like [///] hope you get the idea.  But if they look really cool it's alright.  They don't need to be super conservative, like all red or blue... some different colors would be nice.  But I'll try and think some more over this next week and I'll let you know some more ideas in my next email.  Bye for now, 

Elder Dilling

P.S.  I got a ticket for turning left where there was a no turning sign that I dint see, so I'll have to use some money to pay that off.  The ticket doesn't tell me how much, and I'm going to court on the 31st.  I'll let you know what happens next week.  Have a good one.