Dear readers, This letter is addressed to Kyle because it starts off with a basketball analogy to Kyle. I left it in because it's really good. Kai, that is mentioned is a senior on Kyle's basketball team that is a fantastic player. KYle's team just played in State and that is what is mentioned here... dear kyle, so first off, i want to say congrats on getting in the playoffs. second, thank you for teaching me a life lesson. i know your probably confused but let me explain. so when you said what you said to Kai along the lines of wanting to win for HIM,it made me think about missionary work and life in general. so sometimes missionaries lose the reason of why they are out here. or they never knew why and just came. well let me say, the principle in what you said to Kai is exactly the reason for going on a mission. when you were playing and hustling and working so hard and practicing and just laying your life on the line, you werent doing it for yourself. you were doing it for Kai. see, thats the problem that alot of us have when doing just about anything. if we are doing certain things, such as baskeball, for ourselves, we always lose. yea sure, we might have 81 points or we might have 5 blocks but the team loses. maybe we even win the game but the team didnt win, the player did. does that make senset? so as we look at that and think about missionary work, when we are out here for us and wanting to have the praise of others for what we do, we will get our reward. meaning, we will have the praise of men but...not the praise of Heavenly Father. i am out here for Heavenly Father. not for anyone else. not for any one person or for any one thing other than to glorify God. thats the difference. you were playing so hard so kai could feel like he was a good basketball player and that he did something with his senior year. not for yourself. if you were doing it for yourself you wouldnt have even made it to the playoffs. thats why your so good at basketball kyle. because you just want to win. you dont care if you get 100 points or 0. you dont care if one of your teammates looks cool, you just want to win. it goes to show where your heart is and where your intentions are. so now my question is this, what have you done for somone else today? mom dont answer that because it would take hours to go through. but dad and kyle, bearers of the priesthood, how have you excercised your priesthood today? you dont have to give a blessing to exercise your priesthood, just serve. sorry if i came off too bold but i just know, personally, how much better i feel when i serve others and not myself. well thats my spiell. so this past week had been really good. so we set a date with someone in our singles ward. so when i started my mission in roseville (i might have told you this already) my tariner and i were tracting and ran into a 26 year old guy. we set a return appointment but after the 2nd lesson handed him off to the zone leaders because they covered the singles ward. so a year goes by and i come back to be a zone leader in roseville and i ask if they know joe alonzo (thats his name). they say yea he had a date and he got interviewed and all that good stuff and then he just dissapeared. i was ticked. haha i was like we're going over there the first chance we get and we are setting up a return appointment. i dont care if he wants to take the lessons, just for old times sake. so we go over and in fact, set up a return lesson appointment and nnooowwwwwww.........hes getting baptized on the 22nd. pretty awesome huh? i say thats my one from tracting for my mission haha. hes so solid. he bore his testimony yesterday and he said he was grateful for me for tracting into him and then coming back after all this time. it was so awesome. we have a lot of blessings coming our way and it just makes me grateful to be a missionary and to be a part of those blessings. that was cool to hear about elder eyring talking to sister taylor. thats who set apart our mission president as well. family, i just want to let you know how much i love you all. so many good things have been happening lately and i just cant believe some of them. on both ends. mine and yours. i can just notice all the blessings that are flowing into our lives and its just so wonderful to see and to know that it is because of obedience. i hope you all are having as much fun as i am out here! i hope you all have a wonderful week. oh yea also, do you know where our last name originates from? people keep asking. anyways, im gonna go play some ball. i hope you all have a great monday. Love Elder Levi Bowen Heward