1/16/08 Letter Excerpts

"Hey Everyone, how is everyone doing? Mom your suppose to write once a week. Oh well next time right? Mom, you so got caught! You are going to have to send another huge care package to make up for all the missed letters! Another week has gone by faster than the last one. Really good week."

"I went on comp exchanges on Wednesday with Elder Wright, he is really cool , I like him. We went tracting, and got into a few peoples houses, one who just wanted to know what the Mormons believed, and another who wants to learn. Then we had a Zone Conference, and they are fun, it's just I know nobody, and all the people I do know go hang out with other missionaries, but that's OK, because I could definitely use a break with the people I live with, especially my comp. We have been getting along, but then again we have our differences. Besides that it was really good. There was a lot of good talks, and it was just really good. The spirit was definitely there."

"After that we had an appointment with one of our investigators Dominic, and we taught him lesson 4 with the Sabbath day, he said he will come to church, so we will see where that goes. Then we had another appointment with a man that the previous missionaries had, and they had to drop him because he was interested in getting money. But he called us and wanted to meet us, so we went to meet him, and basically he is a big...dude who tried to put us on a guilt trip about how poor he was. Then we told him how poor we were. We asked him to explain a little bit about himself, and he told us he went to prison for slaughtering a man who molested his child, and has been out for ten years, but he was proud that he did it, so most likely he won't be allowed to be baptized. So we hurried out of there as soon as we could."

"On Friday we got to go to the Manhattan Temple in New York City, bishop took us. It was really fun, we basically did the same thing when we were in Seattle, run to catch buses and ferries. (He is referring to a Campbell Family reunion that was held in Seattle. They had to travel on several different ferries and buses to get to where they were going! It was quite the excursion.) The temple is really pretty, and it was good to go back."

The Manhattan Temple is one of the most unique temples in the world. The temple was first publicly announced by the First Presidency on 7 August 2002. At first many wondered where the Church would find the space necessary to build a temple. In fact, the temple is found at 125 Columbus in a newly renovated but already existing building.
The actual temple comprises the first, second, fifth, and sixth floors of the building. The second and third floors also have a meetinghouse and some offices for regular Sunday meetings and worship.
Ground breaking officially began in September of 2002 and lasted 16 months. There was an open house from May to June of 2004 and the official dedication was on 13 June, 2004, broadcast to 16 other locations via satellite.
A visit to the Manhattan temple is an amazing experience. One enters on the main floor, leaving behind one of the largest, busiest cities in the world, entering into the House of the Lord. You can immediately feel the change from busy to serene; from feeling rushed and worried to calm and comforted. Any visit to the great city of New York would be incomplete without a visit to the Manhattan Temple!

"Saturday we went tracting and seemed to get a few people interested, one was a baptist lady, who thought baptism wasn't really important, then we showed her some passages in the bible and she was blown away, she just asked for our e-mail though and didn't really want us to contact her, only would she contact us. Sunday was good, Church was good also. A less active family came, one we've been working on, and also two of our investigators. We got only one new investigator this week, his name is Chris, and I hope he will open up, because he's not sure about a lot of things, but he was willing for us to stop by. A lot of our appointments were cancelled this week, which lead to more tracting. It snowed Monday and Tuesday, and it was really cold. No success with that. Yet."

"I heard Alisa is Pregnant, (Our cousin Alisa Talbot Noel who is on her second baby! She already has a beautiful little girl named Shaylee.) tell her congratulations...I hope everyone is doing good. How is Granite Masters? Granite Masters is a business owned and operated on the Campbell side of the family. It was where Tyler worked during high school and before his mission. They make head stones! I'm praying for everyone, so don't worry...Love You All!!!!!!!"

-Elder Brox