FIRST AREA

These are the two emails we received from Randy today. I'm glad that he made it there safely. I googled Bathurst and it looks like a really pretty little town that is right on the water.

Hey i made it to canada. i wish i could have talked to u guys longer but i just didnt have time. well today we went through the halifax temple it was pretty cool. i'll probably email u a little later to tell u where i'm going. my mission president and his wife are really nice and fun to be around. well talk to you later. love ya

Elder Topham

Hey my first place is Bathurst New Brunswick. It will be cool i leave tomorrow morning to their. i'll have to email u next week the address.

HALIFAX HERE HE COMES!!!!

This has been a crazy morning. We all got up and got all ready because we knew that Randy would be calling us from the airport today. Trevor went to school to take a test and then came home. Brooklynn and Kelsie just went to school. They were funny. THey said they didn't know what to say to Randy because they both just sent him letters and they didn't have anything new to say. Randy's flight was at 11:00 so we thought he would get there around 9:00 and then call us. We waited and waited and were starting to wonder if he was going to call. Finally at 10:15 he called. Trevor answered and I got on the other phone. We just heard Randy say Hi how are you guys and then the phone went dead. He called back and the same thing happened again. I was starting to panic and wanted to try calling back the pay phone. Then he changed phones and called back and we were finally able to talk to him. He sounded really good and excited to get to Halifax. He said that he is really excited to go tracting because they just practiced that at the MTC and he thought it was great. He said that the last three weeks have flown by, but that he is ready to get back out into the real world. Jamie asked him if he missed her and he said Kinda but that he mostly misses Duke. We only talked for a few minutes and then they started boarding his plane. He said that he had to go but that he would call us back when he gets to Detroit. He has a two hour layover in Detroit and then flies to Halifax. He should get there at 9:30 tonight their time. Halifax is three hours ahead of us. He said that he is nervous, but not half as nervous as the day he went into the MTC. He also said that once we dropped him off he felt so much better and wasn't nervous anymore. I was glad to hear that because I could tell he was having a hard time. I'll update this after we talk to him this afternoon. Hopefully we can talk a little longer.

WEEK 2 LETTER

Here is Randy's latest letter. Enjoy.

hey hope its goin good at home. Its going by really fast now i can't beleive i only have six days left in the mtc but i'm way excited. yeah we have a fireside every tuesday but no general authotities have came. Elder holland came a couple weeks before i came in so i'm bummed about that. on pdays we go to the temple then we have all afternoon to do laundry and then to email. It's weird because i eat so much food and i think ive lost weight. everyone is getting sick of being in the mtc. we all want to get back out into the world instead of bein stuck in this square mile. the teaching is getting alot better.

Dad, have a safe trip. The activities that we have are soccer,frisby, 4 square, softball, and volleyball. my distict usually plays volleyball. the gym is closed so we won't be able to play basketball everyone was bummed about that. Keep me updated on the football. who won out of boise st and virginia tech. who did byu lose to and did they beat washington. today when i was comin back from the temple i saw grandpa and grandmas neighbors dropping their son off. Elder meinhardt is the one from oak city.

Mom, hope your doin all right thanks for the packages. ive seen a couple people that i went to school with. send me more shockers and some wild cherry pepsi. i fly out on the 21 at 11 am and we have a layover in detriot. do u want me to write some letters or just do the email. i was gonna send some pices but the machine wasn't workin.

Trevor, hope you guys will win one this year. i miss hanging out with all u guys. i miss video games alot. yeah just kepp workin hard and u guys will win one soon. hah it was funny how u said jamie comes and annoys u every night. this is a good experience u will have a blast when u come out.

Jamie, hows school goin. the mtc is pretty fun but kind of hard. hows dance going.

Brooklynn, hows harrypotter, have u finished yet. hope that school is going good.

Kelsie, hope your having fun at school and with your friends.

kyle, hope your beating all the wii games we have for me.

i will right more soon i only have 30 mins to read and type the emails i will probably just write u guys a letter.

i miss all of you and love u all. From Elder Topham.

ELDER TOPHAM SIGHTING

Yesterday after stake conference my new backyard neighbor took her kids to the Provo Temple to take some pictures of them.. She said there were tons of missionaries wandering around and some even had her take their pictures. She has never officially met Randy, but her kids have and her and I have become friends. Her kids recognized Randy with a group of missionaries. They said Hi to him and Randy said hi back. As they walked away she heard one of the elders with Randy ask who they were and Randy said that they were in his ward. The other missionaries were freaking out that that's all Randy said to them. They didn't know that Randy didn't really know them plus we all know how talkative Randy is. Then Tammy (my neighbor) said she realized that she had her camera so she asked Randy if she could take a picture for his mom. I am so glad that she did. When they came over and showed us Jamie was ready to take off and go hang out on the temple grounds in hope of seeing Randy again. She thinks we should go next Sunday. Part of me wants to do it to, but I know that we won't because it is against the rules. I want Randy to follow all the rules so I'd better do the same. I wonder if it is against the rules for me to park across from the MTC with my binoculars. Just kidding. I was wishing that I could go pick up him and his companion and bring them home for Sunday dinner. I read the email that Trevor sent to Randy and it made me glad that I made them share a room all these years. Trevor said that he mostly misses Randy at night when he is going to bed because he misses talking to him then. Sorry if these pictures are bad. My neighb or took them in "raw" whatever that is and the files were too big to copy in here. Becka had the idea to take a picture of my computer.

week 1

Here is Randy's email that we received after one week. When I mailed him his first package I couldn't believe that someone was sending their missionary a 12 pack of Mountain Dew and now that is what Randy is requesting. I feel like a criminal sending caffiene into the MTC like it's illegal contraband or something. Maybe I will send him one can.

Hey hows it going its going good here. My companion is elder freeman from reno he"s pretty cool. You can email me but tell everyone else to use dearelder. thanks for the package next time sent me some mountain dew and brownies. well the first four days seemed like each day was a week but, after sunday it has gone by pretty fast. The foods pretty good except that everyone has gas all day long. The first couple days it was harder to focus because on thursday i got a cold which sucked. its been fun though even though we have something planned every second which i don't like to much. today we went to the temple which was great i even memorized parts of it. My district is awsome everyone one is cool. One of the elders is from oak city and had kurt as a teacher. Well the only thing that i'm not very good at is teaching the first couple times didn't go so well but i'm getting the hang of it. I think i've even got skinnier while i've been here i tightend my belt the other day. Well in our district Theirs five people going to new hampshire and six of us going to halifax we all can't wait to get out their. Waking up at 6:30 is actually not to bad but we wake up around 6 so that we can shower before everyone. I think i get to call u guys when i fly out so that will be good. The classes are good but really long which i dont like i almost fall asleep in every single one. Well one week down 2 left. everyone says they fly by which will be good. Brooklynn thats sweet that your that far the book will just kepp getting better and better. Well i miss u guys and i love ya.

Love, Elder Topham

The drop

Farewell