Hi friends and family- we got this e-mail a couple of weeks ago, but then waited for a letter that never came. I waited by the mailbox all week!:)

hello family. i wrote you guys a letter. thanks for all the dear elders. i got ten today! wow. plus a letter from the packs and from emilie which was awesome. so i cant send a mem card home this week because i dont have any more cards so you guys need to send me those ones back. It stinks that lady isnt doing anymore mini pmgs. they are so cool. a bunch of people left today. now my district is the "old" district and we will get new mandarin speakers in a week. we also have a new distric leader and his name is elder van noy. if there is one person i want to be like besides Christ it would be him. he is 100% obedient and is kind and uplifting to everyone. k gotta go. i will see you guys in??????? two years.
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See ya in two years,

Elder Graham

Then we got another text last week explaining why there was no letter in the mail:


hello family. sorry you didnt get any mail last week, i wrote a letter but then i wanted to write more on tuesday and then we had a lesson monday night on being obedient. so i decided to not write until today. sarah should be getting an sd card full of awesome pics. and the laptop microsoft licence is LEGAL!! if it says it isnt you just call microsoft and say you had to format the hard drive. which i did have to do.
pops i hope your talk goes well sunday. ummm the only thing that i remember from mission prep were some cool stories from the recent rm's that got me extremely excited for my mission. and the extra spirit i felt there.

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See ya in two years,
Elder Graham

Then on Thursday we got a good sized letter - two weeks worth:

Dear fam,
Hey mom? Will you send me a puppy?

Also I forgot to tell you something funny. So Elder Tito is from Australia and before he came here, he watched "The Best Two years". In that movie a missionary says "flip", so he says "flip" all the time because "That's how American missionaries talk".

Umm... this is awkward because... Mom...I'm not allowed to call you on Mother's Day. Can't do that at the MTC ...sorry.

I need like a pocket dictionary just like a mini one (Pinyin) that has English to Chinese and visa versa.

And I just found out I have to move upstairs, which is poop (is he allowed to say that?:)) because the whole "national treasure" thing is based on the fact that I was in this room. Now I have to start all over. (OK, the burnt paper and screw driver make a little more sense now!)

Another story about Elder Tito...Apparently in Australia, "hale no" is appropriate to say, even for Mormons...because it's out of the Bible or something. Anyway he asked the Lao shi how to say "hale no" in zhong wen, and it was pretty funny!

I wrote you guys another letter but I can't find it... so I'm sorry this is short. Maybe I can write more later. Oh, I did get to see Josh for a few minutes, it was pretty cool! (Beau's long time friend from California days (Josh) is in the Men's Chorus at BYU and came to sing at the MTC)

You guys didn't get a letter last week and I'm sorry. This is why: last Monday I wrote this letter but I didn't finish, and I thought I would just finish it on Wednesday. But then we had a lesson about obedience, and you're only supposed to write on Mondays. So I decided not to keep writing until today. Sorry.

Tell the people in the ward thank you for their letters. Especially Ryker Bowen, his made me laugh. An tell Grandma and Grandpa thanks for the pie. Yum. Thanks for the little basketball and hoop. Umm... we don't know how to play scripture basketball, so we just play basketball.

So I am sending you guys my daily planner that I have used already. that way you guys can see what I do.

Oh, I taught my first lesson in Chinese last Saturday. And then on Sunday I gave a talk in Chinese. Just so you guys know, it is really hard here and I feel like crying every day because of how stressful it is, but I like it and it's going faster than I thought it would because I'm working hard.

Sarah should be getting a memory card with a lot of pictures on it. I hope you guys like them. (I need to figure out how to put them on this e-mail so you all can see them.)

Pops - how did your trip go?

Mom, the burnt paper is for a treasure map. All I really need now is some tape. (yes, I sent him some the next day. I can't help it!)

My new District Leader Elder Van Noy is cool and I told you guys about him in my e-mail last time. He is about my height and kind of weird/awkward but he is AWESOME!

Well that was it. He didn't sign it - I guess Pday was over!
Until next time,
The Grahams