Elder Jacob Wilcox: You are loved

Hey Mom!

Yeah it's crazy that I've been here for 8 1/2 weeks now. That's a long time. I'm SO excited to get out of here and start serving the people of Thailand! I'm nervous and not exactly sure what the future has in store, but I'm mostly just excited :) I have actually really enjoyed the MTC and the Spirit here, so I don't think I would necessarily call it a prison, but it is gonna be nice to finally get out of here. I'm not gonna lie.

So we got our travel plans and Thai name tags this week! I wrote a letter with lots of details that I guess hasn't gotten there yet (which is unfortunate, sorry it took so long), but here's a quick overview. We leave the MTC at 3:30 AM on October 3rd and then fly out of SLC to Chicago O'Hare at 7. We have a 4 hour lay-over at O'Hare and then we go to Hong Kong at like 3:25 I think. After we arrive in Hong Kong we will connect with another flight an hour later and arrive in Bangkok at 11:15 PM on the 4th. Crossing over the International Date Line makes the whole "time" concept all screwy, so I'm not sure exactly how long it'll take, but I estimate it will be well over 30 hours of travel time. I'm so pumped!! I'm gonna be able to call you guys at the airport and I have a charger that works for Seth's old phone, but I don't have the phone which is kinda important. So if you could send me that, it would be greatly appreciated :) In the letter I asked for some other stuff, but I forgot to ask for you to send that iPod you were talking about with the speakers and a flash drive. And the phone. I love getting all the packages and letters and dear elders, so keep em coming! ;)

So the cost of an overweight suitcase is like $300 so let's not take that route... I'll just leave some stuff/ send it back if I need too. It's cool, there's lots of things that older missionaries leave for younger missionaries and they kinda get passed down from generation to generation. My district has inherited the Canadian Pig of Greed, a fan (which is super helpful cuz our room is stinky...), a donkey pinata, and a bunch of other random things. And TONS of food. But we have plenty of things to pass on too so all is well and right. My carry on bag is too big for our airline so I'm gonna have to send that anyway so I can put stuff in that. If you really want to send something for my b-day then I guess it would be best to send it here. I won't open it until my birthday though. The rest of my requests are in my letter I sent.

For General Conference this year, there will be Elders singing in the Saturday afternoon session. At regular choir they handed out surveys about our singing abilities and I guess I didn't exaggerate enough because they didn't choose me to go sing. It's ok though, my companion, Elder Fjeldsted is super good at singing so he's going and Elder Kekauoha is going to because he said he took four years of audition choir in high school. He's never been in a choir in his life. It's funny because he felt so guilty that he tried to quit but they wouldn't let him because all the spots had already been filled! So now he and Elder Fjeldsted will be going to Conference to sing. I'm super excited for conference because we don't have any classes that day so it's gonna be super sweet! On Sunday afternoons after the devotional we get to choose a conference or MTC talk to go watch by a general authority and that's my favorite part of the week. So I'm psyched for 10 hours of apostles!!

Keep on updating on Dad's alternate universe and let me know what kind of trouble he gets into next. It sounds like the family is doing better than ever and that we're still up to our shananagins. I miss you guys so much! I love the pictures you sent, it's so awesome to see the house and all of you having a blast :) This week is going to be hard to stay focused because we are all so excited to finally get out of here, but our teachers have been really good at pushing us to "sprint to the finish" so I'm gonna be trying my best to stay attentive and productive. We only have tomorrow and Thursday left for classes. After that we have in-field orientation, general conference, and then we leave! It's crazy how fast time has gone and that I'm actually to this point. It feels like I'm entering the MTC for a second time. It's gonna be so foreign but I'm incredibly excited for the experiences I'll have, the people I'll meet, the service I'll do, and the Spirit I'll feel as I dedicate the next 2 years of my life to the Lord. I know that even though my Thai is terrible, I'm only 19, and a lot of people just won't be interested, the Lord can do anything and I'm just grateful for the opportunity to be a tool in His hands!

Thank you so much for your support! Let me know how all of Hayden's and Seth's football and lacrosse games go, I have a feeling they're just wrecking out there. I love you guys and cannot wait to talk to you at the airport! See ya in 2 :)

Love,

Elder Wilcox