im alive

[First email from the small island of Lae. I left it just the way he sent it to me! MOM]

mom!!!
im alive here on lae atoll!! took me forever to get to email!!
i will probably be able to email to you every other
week or so.. just like a paragraph or soo.. sorry i dont really have
that much time to email. i am writing you a lettter every week psaying
all the stuff that i have done. idk when i will be able to send it to
you but youll have a good idea of what i have ben doing here...

so yeah lae atoll is the coolest place in world. it remind me alot of
manypoint camp to be honest!! we live right on the beach. we fish for
our food everyday. the money dad give me really helps i bought alot of
canned meat and such with it. its hard life out here. my companion is
a kiribati elder so he knows how to live like this and really helps me
out. he doesnt know english so i speak with him marshallese only...
its crazy i really havent spoken english at all out here.. if im here
my whole rest of the mission... my english is going to be so bad....
seriously... i spek maybe 95% marshallese all day... and the only
english i hear is some music a member has!! haha

everything is apwesome out here. sorry i am in a huge rush because idk
when the internet is gonna stop working!! haha it took me like 20
minutes to just get to this page!! i hope it sends.

on my way here i flew to kwajalein, then wotho, then ujae and saw the
elders there!! then flew to lae!! it has been legit!! learning alot.
its hard being completely surounded by marshallese people 24/7 but its
good. i have learning alot. im glad to be an eagle scout and use a
little bit of what i learned with that here... i never thought the
knots, of the sailing, or the stuff like that would ever come in handy
but it has.

im happy to be a missionary. i love it here. i have so much time to
read and chat with people. my marshallese is getting preptty good!!
some people here say they want me to translate for conference beause i
sound pretty good with my accent... haha so i guess that is a
copmpliment

i hope everyone is doing alright at home!!! not talking to you guys
sucks... it was a pain having to email every week but now that i
cant... boy do i miss you guys... okay i gotta go. i love you a ton.
you take are and be sure to email back!!! talk to you when i can!!

love your son elder ingalls

I wanna be like you if I ever grow up. 7-25-2014

[This is Dad's handwritten letter sent with mine! MOM]

Richard!!!!

What’s Gucci?  I thought I would write you a smaller letter and say Yokwe!  I’m going to Lae!  I told Mom everything so read hers!  I hope life is going well as you are happy and looking good as ever!  Are you ready for Hawaii?!  Hope you are ready for the program I’m gonna put you on!  I’m jealous I can’t go with you guys, but I will be there soon as I’m coming home.  According to the transfer it looks like I will be going home before Christmas!  That will be a good present for Mom!  I think the whole fam will be together for the first time.  That will be awesome.  I think that will be a sweet time!

I can’t tell you how excited I am about missionary work right now.  I don’t want it to end.  I wish I had this effect my whole mission.  I took time to get to where I am now.  I wanna share a little about faith with you that President Hamula (Area President) talked with us about.  I enjoyed it and thought that you would like to hear about it.  So first we need to hear a truth from some sort of person who has heard or seen and that gives us a hope for those things and if we have that hope we can act and as/if that thing is true, we will receive that confirming witness.  It’s kind of like a light switch.  We were taught that it will turn on a light.  And we have had cycles and cycles of hope, action, and the confirming witness of that light turning on.  As we continue in that cycle, hope turns to assurance, and that assurance turns in to certainty.  We all are at certainty with the light switches (assuming you’re in a place with electricity!)  It’s so cool that we can do this test for anything.  Insert something false and we will never get that confirming witness, especially with disobedience.  I absolutely loved that training!  Hopefully, you understood and that all made sense.  Hamula said the difference between us and the prophets is that they have had that confirming witness so much to create certainty.  They’ve just cycled around that chart more than us.

I love working hard.  I like getting people to work hard and see their potential.  I wish I could have had such a confirming witness earlier in my mission.  I love being a missionary.  I wish I could do this stuff forever, but may not all the rules! J  I wouldn’t mind swimming and sleeping in!  But, yeah, I have an unusual drive for obedience and hard work right now.  I know that this spark will be what Lae needs for right now. (Sorry for my bad handwriting.)  I’m just pumped and wanna write my thoughts all out before I forget them.  Life is going!  I’m amped for that last five months.  Pulli jerbal then celly Christmas.  Such a blessing that we can all be together.  This Gospel is power and strength.  Keep being awesome.  I’m going to absolutely miss the talks and emails we have shared.  I have loved that experience with you and can’t wait to have those discussions all the time.  Especially the fact that I know some stuff now!  Especially after my outer island, I’m gonna be a wiz at the scriptures.  That’s what all elders say and definitely what President said!  A LOT of reading!  Gonna get all those manuals down!  I love being smart and just knowing a lot of facts.  It’ll be fun studying together and learning together.  I’m really excited to read the scriptures with you guys and actually care about it!  Hope you guys are still going hard.

Anyways, I hope work is well with you and you’re happy.  I hope your trip is absolutely everything you want it to be.  Do every righteous thing us kids want you to and you’ll find so much happiness as we continue to follow you.  You are my absolute role model and I still wanna be like you if I ever grow up. J  You are the man, Richard!  Love that you are my father and that you are so strong.  Strong enough for us kids, especially me, to lean on you.  I love how you pump me up to work and to be better.  I enjoyed writing this letter and I loved my experience writing with you.  You are a great man, Richard!  Your giving me answers and advice has been great!  Thanks!  Love you!

Love, Elder Ingalls 4.0

P.S.  Five months to ping pong!

You’re welcome for the letter! 7-25-2014

[We received a handwritten letter in the mail and were so excited! It's been months since we've received any of those! Also, in the same day he was able to email us! Yippee! Here is the snail mail! MOM]

Mommy!
So yeah I don’t write letters, but I guess I promised you.  Words are nothing if you don’t mean them.  Ok, new pen because mine’s garbage.  Sorry my handwriting is pretty junky now.  It would be awesome if I keep up with the letter writing!  So yeah, I’m going to Lae Atoll!  That’s going to be one of the most exciting adventures of my life.  I know these next couple of months are going to absolutely change me and how I view a lot of things.  I’m excited to "die" on an outer island!

I will be the maximum amount of weird when I go home!  At about 18 months out I’ve learned a lot and have enjoyed my mission.  I talked to President before I left and because of the transfers I think my release date will be before Christmas.  I think the 17^th or the 22^nd.  President brought it all up and said that’s what he’s thinking.  You guys will probably get a letter or email about it before I officially know.  That would be such a great present to go home and be with you guys and everyone for Christmas before we all go out to school.  Still five or six months away!  These last weeks I’ve had absolute desire to study really hard and work really hard.  Life has been busy but I feel pretty accomplished.  Missionary work is hard, but it gets easier as I continue to learn the language and accept the rules.

My investigators in Ebeye were awesome and I know that they will all one day receive the Gospel.  I can’t tell you about my investigators in Lae because I’m not there yet!  I actually flew back to Majuro last week and have been working with the ZLs in Uliga!  I should be flying to Lae tomorrow if the plane flies!  So no boat… for now…  I could still take one, and coming back from Lae I still could take one!  I’m so scared to take the tiny little plane and land on a field of grass.  I’ve seen a video of it landing.  I’ll be sure you get a ton of pictures about it!

I’ve taken a lot of pictures!  And I’m doing my journal pretty well.  I wanna write a separate memories journal/book out there.  I’m not sure what I will do but something to keep me sane!  Lae Atoll is one of the smallest atolls in the Marshall Islands, only being about one and a half miles across!  And there are about 300 people there!  There is a branch there, too!  It’s one of the strongest outer islands where the Church is at!  I really wanna build it so it can eventually be a ward in the future Ebeye/Kwajalein Stake!  I know what I’m doing matters and I know that I’m not out here to waste time!  I’m the most lethal and effective as a missionary right now!  I wish I would have got to this point sooner!  It all comes down to preparation.  It’s difficult to mold to missionary work and the schedule.  But it’s good.  It’s cool being one of the oldest elders in the mission, and having people look up to me for whatever reason.

I want to be a good example to them and I want to be a good role model.  I don’t want you guys to worry about me in Lae.  I’m going to work hard and be obedient.  This place is like any other area; full of people who need this Gospel and need to see me being obedient to it.  It’s a lot more fellowshipping and just living and strengthening people.   I’ll be doing a lot of service and being of whatever assistance I can be to these people.  I’m so lost in what I’m doing.  I really just love it.  I went to a grocery store here and stuck my head in a freezer and literally couldn’t breathe…  Checked the temp and it was at 20 degrees!  I’m so in trouble!  I’m going to freeze when I go home!  Hope you guys are ready to take care of me and put up with my complaints about being on the verge of death!  FYI, 72 degrees is wayyy too cold to live in… So turn up the house to like 84 degrees before you guys get to the airport) so then I will be used to it!  PLEASE!            So yeah, that’s basically it.

I wouldn’t buy too many clothes or anything, because I have no idea what size I’m gonna be when I get home.  And hold off on the Challenger until I can come pick what one I want! J  On a serious note, I can’t wait to see you guys and I can’t wait to share my experiences with you.  You guys take care and be strong.  Five-ish months more and the boss will return!  Keep being strong in your prayers and studies.  I love you, Mommy!  Sorry I’m so sucky at writing and my handwriting is bad.  You’re welcome for the letter!  This was hard for me to do!  Okay, babe, I will see you guys in a couple months!

I’LL BE RIGHT BACK!  - Elder Ingalls 4.0