The Letter (the one all parents wait for!)

This is the "THANKS FOR BEING THE BEST PARENTS IN THE WORLD" letter that all parents wait for! And boy it is ever worth the nearly 19 year wait!  This was received 9/27/16. It was 6 pages hand written so it took me a while to sit down and type it out. 

Dear Mom and Dad,

I feel like in my emails I’m not really able to say everything that I want to to you because I don’t have enough time and if I did then there wouldn’t be an email for the family probably.  So I’ll just tell you now! I’m not writing this because I’m really struggling or I need to confess stuff to you or anything, I just think you need more details than you’re getting from the emails. You deserve it. And also, if one week I don’t respond to one of the kids or you or dad, it’s not because I didn’t want to respond, it’s because I didn’t have time! And I’d send pictures with my camera in the middle of the week but I’m not sure if that’s technically allowed or not, so I’m just going to play it safe.

So how is Elder Wilcox doing? The answer: pretty great! I’ll be honest, the last couple days have been hard as far as focus goes because we are all just ready to go, but I think I’m back on track with that so all is well. I’m really excited to get to Thailand but at the same time I know there’s a TON more stuff I need to figure out before I get there. I think spiritually and mentally I’m good to go, but there is so much more room to improve in Thai that I’m kinda nervous. In TRC lessons via Skype, I only understand about 30-40% of what our person says, and that’s with them speaking slowly and patiently, so Thailand is gonna be rough for awhile. My companion is a lot better at understanding Thai than I am which is sort of frustrating, but it’s ok cuz it’s helpful in lessons. My weakest areas are grammar and comprehension so I need to work a lot on those. I’m excited to have a companion who has been there for a while and has a decent grip on the language. I think that will be super helpful. I’m pretty good at the speaking and reading part, which is nice. Now that I know how to read it the script is way cool! And reading is fun. Basically how it works is you first locate a word (since there aren’t actually any spaces). You do this usually by finding the vowel, which will then contain a consonant inside of it. You then pronounce the consonant followed by the vowel sound. Once you learn how to do that, all you have to learn about is silent letters, implied vowels, consonant clusters, vowel clusters, implied punctuations, the four-step-process for determining the tones, and what the heck the word actually means. That’s basically it though. We mostly practice reading with the Book of Mormon, which is nice because you can use the English one to help you out. And speaking of script, we got our Thai name-tags today! I’ll send pictures on P-day, but for now I’ll just show you how it look in Thai… *********** (Elduh Wiwcog). And yeah, that does actually make sense to me.  Getting those made me even more excited as you can imagine. I’m so excited to be fluent; it’s a cool language.

So that’s how the language is coming. Slowly but surely. As far as spirituality goes, I’m please to report that my testimony (especially of prayer and the power of the Holy Ghost) has a least doubled. It’s so amazing how powerful everything is here. The devotionals are always incredible (yesterday we had L. Whitney Clayton from the 70 come and he was awesome), my teachers are amazing, and the spirit is almost tangible. It’s crazy, so many times I’ve just been sitting somewhere or doing something random and I’ll realize that I am feeling the Spirit. Half the time I just get confused because I’m not doing anything particularly spiritual. That’s just the kind of place this is. Basically no matter where you are the spirit is there.

And now, the most important thing you can get out of this letter… yes, I have gained weight! About 15 pounds to be exact. About a week and a half ago I weighed myself and it read 201.6 lbs. I topped 200!!! I was so pumped. Harry just happened to be there so I gave him a big hug and he was very confused.

So, I started this letter on Wednesday night and now it’s Friday, so sorry it takes so long for me to write these things. We get our flight plans later today, so I’ll let you know what exactly will be happening. Last night it started raining SUPER hard, so me and Elder Holland and Elder Brinkerhoff went and played in it. I felt like I was 4 again, but it was way fun. It’s weird to see what kind of things you get excited for as a missionary. I can’t wait to see the rain we will get in Thailand. We just do random stuff like that to stay entertained. I’ve started to name inanimate objects and pretend they’re my kids. So far, I have 2 oranges named Ken and Keith (I don’t like Keith, Ken is definitely the favorite child out of those 2), a yellow bouncy ball with a face on it that I named Clint, a green ball with a face on it that I named Casey, and the rubber band ball I’m working on is named Craig. Other missionaries like to babysit them and I think Clint might nave been kidnapped, but it’s all good. I’ve also gotten pretty good with a paper football.

So, our flight plans are as follows: we leave the MTC at 3:30 A.M. on the 3^rd of October and then fly out of SLC at 7:00am. We should arrive in Chicago at O’Hare at about 11:10 A.M. and we have a 4 hour lay-over there until 3:35 pm when we will leave to Hong Kong. At about 8:25 P.M. on the 4^th we will land in Hong Kong (crossing over the International Date-Line makes the time thing weird). After a 1 hour layover in Hong Kong we will fly out at 9:25 pm and land in Bangkok at 11:15pm! So, we leave early on the 3^rd and arrive almost on the 5^th. Lots of travel time, about 30 hours I think. The flight to Hong Kong is gonna take forever. If I meet someone on the plane who’s interested in the gospel, there’s a good chance I could have them baptized by the time we land. Just kidding, but that would be way cool. It’s crazy, I’ve been preparing to teach people for 2 months in Thai, so I don’t even really know what I would do if the person spoke English. And also, just the whole concept of talking to a REAL person, even in English, is scaring the heck out of me. I’m still going to pray to be able to help someone I meet, so we’ll see how that goes, I guess. Oh, and I’m flying Cathay Pacific for all flights which means I get 2 checked bags for free up to 50 lbs which is nice, but my carry-on can only be 15 lbs and with dimensions of 22”x14”x9”. So that means I’ll be sending my small suitcase back, I guess. I’m bummed about that, but I’m still way psyched for Thailand! It’ll be awesome.

And now for the real reason I am writing this letter. I just wanted to take some time to thank you two for everything you did to help me get to this point. I know I wasn’t the best kid in the world, but thank you so much for always being there for me and being such good examples of how to be Christ-like and to show me what it really means to love someone and love the Lord. Your examples are a huge reason I wasn’t ever a terrible person and the reason I’m where I am today. You helped me to know right from wrong. Not just in the eyes of the world and what most people would consider correct, but you helped me understand what is truly right and what is truly wrong, in the eyes of Heavenly Father. It’s crazy being here at the MTC because I had just assumed most Mormon homes were like ours, but I’ve been shocked to see how many missionaries think I’m so weird that I never watched R-rated movies or French kissed or grabbed a girl’s butt or that I don’t know how I would go about getting drugs or that I dated girls, not just “hooked up”. They make fun of me and say “Wow, that’s so Mormon” and things like that. They make fun of me for living in Utah and being “uncultured” and “naïve” and I don’t get it at all. Don’t worry, I’m not telling you this because I’m super depressed or I feel like I’m getting picked on. That’s not it at all. It doesn’t faze me at all, it just makes me confused and really sad for them that they think those things are all cool and normal. More than anything though, it makes me SO grateful for everything you two do for me. Thank you so much for all the small things you do for me and the other kids, for all of the times you said “no”, restrictions on our phones, and annoying little rules that we absolutely hate, but that you know will protect us and shelter us from evil. I sincerely thank you. Don’t let yourselves cave in to us kids. I know we are annoying. I know we are disobedient, and I know we are wrong 99% of the time. So don’t be afraid to tell us “no” or to be the bad guys. I’m so grateful that you weren’t pushovers. I know that I have been blessed and that I will continue to be blessed because of your faith and obedience. If I can end up being ½ as good of a parent as you guys have been to me, I’ll be lucky. Thank you for doing laundry, cleaning the house, going to work everyday, cooking meals, paying for gas, teaching me to work, helping me with homework, finishing projects I forgot about for 6 weeks and then remembered the night before, cleaning up Charlie’s poop when I was too lazy to, taking me for walks around the pond to see Azul, teaching me to love football, providing me with a car to drive which I didn’t deserve, teaching me to work, taking me to Mexico and New York and Wisconsin and California and Oregon and Ecuador and south Dakota and Nauvoo and Canada and DC and Philadelphia and Colorado and Utah and Idaho and Arizona and Washington and New Mexico, staying up way too late for me and making sure I am home and safe, all of the Christmases and Halloweens and Easters and 4^th of July’s and Thanksgivings you put together for us, the 3 “I love you’s” at night, driving 10 hours to Utah through Wyoming with 6 sick or hungry or angry or annoying kids in the back, building me a sandbox, buying me countless lego sets and Lincoln logs, waking up at 3 am to watch the Super Bowl, letting me sleep in bed with you guys when I pretended to be sick, singing songs with me in the car, being so easy to scare, having funny dreams and getting mad about them in real life, letting me go run up every walk-way and sit down on every front step, staying strong in the gospel even when friends and family falter, being patient and pretending to care when I came and told you about the cool things I did at recess, not getting too mad when I lost those 20 hoodies, taking me camping and helping me learn to appreciate nature, taking me to watch the hot-air balloons take off when it was -30 degrees (jk, but it felt like it), putting on birthday parties, driving me to friends’ houses and to football practices and to school when I woke up too late, helping me find good friends that influenced me for good, taking us to the library, teaching me to read and love books, showing me what it means to be a great spouse and parent, teaching me to ride a bike, sharing stories about your mission that helped me get excited for my own, whipping our the stiff-arms and spin moves when we tickled you, thinking you’re hilarious and laughing for hours at your own jokes about cannibalistic clowns, coming to save me from the most embarrassing moment of my life, changing my diapers and letting me throw up on you, forcing me to take piano lessons, patiently teaching me to drive a stick-shift, supporting me and not getting mad during my darkest times, bouncing me on your knee and holding me in the air like super-man, understanding my sign language for “paleontologist”, taking us to walk through the Sacred Grove and roll down the Hill Cumorah each fast Sunday, drawing “conference Bingo” boards, supporting me in football when I didn’t get playing time, writing last second church talks with me, loving me unconditionally, being patient, and the other 10 million things I don’t have time to write about. Thank you. I wouldn’t be on my mission right now if it weren’t for you guys. I love you so much!

It’s now Sunday, which means you might not actually get this before Tuesday. I’ll re-type some of this stuff just in case. I wrote this letter for you two specifically, but please feel free to share it with the kids too so they don’t feel left out.  Anything I can do to help them feel excited for their missions, I will do. This is the best decision I’ve ever made and I know a mission will bless the lives of each of them immensely. Let me know what kinds of things you want to hear about in my letters/emails or what picture you want too. Do you want me to teach you some Thai? Send pictures for the kids? Whatever it is, I’ll try my best, but we only have so much free time here so I might be limited a bit.

Send me TONS of pictures of you guys and the family, it’s the highlight of my week every time. Sorry I don’t send more pictures, I don’t really know what to take pictures of because things seems so repetitious here. So let me know what you want. Some things I need before I leave fore Thailand are a neck pillow, probably a bigger shoulder bag after all (mine doesn’t really have room for anything, even just normal notebooks, I’ll send a picture of the kind I’d need) , airplane snacks, a wall-plug air freshener (we are… stinky, because of our recreation clothes (whip sound)), more Utah and family stuff to remember you, and pictures. I’ll send my carry-on bag back home since it’s too big, with all the stuff I don’t need. Oh! And I’ve ha d “Lost in the Moment” by NF stuck in my head literally the whole time I’ve been here and there’s a line that’s actually really good but I don’t remember it, so can you email me the lyrics for that song. Please? Thank you for all you do and have done for me. I don’t know what I did to deserve the best parents in the world. I love you guys and can’t wait to see you again~ see ya in 22 months!

Love, (signed in Thai script)

PS I guess you could also send that iPod if you really wanted to. Put lots of different kinds of church music on it like piano guys, Mo Tab, youth/ EFY stuff, etc.