Hello familia!

Hello familia!
How´s it going? I´m doing pretty well. Kinda been a rainy week here, but it´s been good. Sounds like you are getting a lot of snow there. That´s awesome. I miss snow. You should send some down to me. So we have some famous people from our school now. Cool beans. Too bad I wasn´t there to try out, that would just fulfill all my wildest dreams :) Just kiddin, I don´t think I would like being on American Idol. Just kidding, of course I would, because I would be singing. But anyways, that´s cool. Sounds like the world is still revolving over there. Sports going on strong and school carrying right along. You´re going to see Next to Normal? Is that the musical about the really messed up family with depression and stuff? (I´m sure that made it sound super great :) ) You´ll have to let me know how it is. I really miss musicals. Mostly being in them. I´m going to tell Mrs Dunn to save me a spot in the fall musical for when I get back :)
This week has really just been normal. Same old, same old. Of course I´m not sure if you even know what I´m really doing right now. Basically my job here in the office is this. I take care of all the money, housing, and telephones. So when the owners of the apartments aren´t happy I deal with them. I also pay the bills of almost 100 different apartments and deal with the journaling (keeping track of the money spent) for the whole mission. It´s amazing to see how much importance the church puts into knowing where every cent is going. I suppose it´s because really it´s the Lords money. Pretty cool. It´s also interesting to see how little of a missionary´s expenses are paid by the 400 dollars a month. I mean that helps, but wow. There is a lot of help that goes to every missionary. But yep, that´s my job. So most of time I am dealing with payments, and complaints from people who´s bills get lost in the mail (or the missionary´s never give them to me :/ ) It´s a really good learning experience. And when I´m not doing that, I am doing normal missionary work.
So my thought of the week comes from a conversation I had with Elder Castillo. He was talking about some studying he was doing. He said he was reading one night and read about the final judgement. Basically it says what we have all heard a thousand times. We will be judged according to our thoughts, desires, and actions. And he said that normally when he hears that he thinks, as most of us do, eesh! My thoughts and desires and actions. I´ve got a few of those (or not so few) that I really don´t want anyone to know about and really don´t want to be judged for. But as he read again he realized that it really says the thoughts and desires of our hearts. Now on the surface that´s the same thing. But he thought, Well hey, really deep down I always really want to do what is right and help people. Really I would do anything in my power to help someone else. I don´t WANT to choose what is wrong, even though I do so often. Really the desires of my heart are righteous. And really I´m okay with being judged for that. I agree. I´ve done stupid things. (Really?!) I have had unclean and inappropriate thoughts (No way!) And at times, on the surface, my desires aren´t aligned with those of the Lord (wow.) But deep down, I always want to do the right thing and really I strive to. Brad Wilcox said something to the effect of this. I may not be walking on water yet, but at least I´m out of the boat. That´s how I feel. I may not have reached my full potential yet (I sure hope not, or this would be a kinda lame full potential :) ) but I am on my way there. And every day, I take a few steps closer. May we all focus on not what we are not, but what we can become. Maybe not in the full course of our lives or throughout all eternity, but just on what we can become tomorrow. Where we will be in a week. Have goals for the future, of course, but really worry about what you can do now to become better tomorrow. I love you all a bunch and hope you all have a wonderful week and are better people by the end of it.
Con amor,
Elder Charlie Flint