Dear President Hughes,

I am so excited to be a missionary in the England Birmingham Mission.  Opening my call was a dream come true, and I know that this is where I am supposed to serve.  The majority of my ancestors are from England and Wales.  It is going to be amazing to serve where my family is from.  I loved hearting about you and your family.  Meeting you and the rest of the missionaries is going to be a great experience.

I was born and raised in the State of Idaho, in the United States of America.  I live in a small farming community with a population of about 4,500 people.  I love where I am from.  It is a very close-knit community where everybody knows everybody.  The people here are very friendly and hard-working.  Growing up I have loved to play sports, especially football.  I played quarterback for my high school football team, and it was one of the best experiences of my life.  I was able to learn and grow so much from it.  Our football team had a very intense weight-training coach as well, so I have learned to love lifting weights.  It has also been something that has taught me how to set goals and work hard to achieve them.  I also played basketball and I ran track.

My mother and father are divorced.  My mother is remarried.  I have an older sister named Allysa who is 20-years old, a stepbrother who is the same age as me, a younger brother named Luke who is 13-years old, and a younger half-brother who is 8-years old.  I am going to be baptizing Kellen this weekend.  My family and I love watching sporting events and movies together.  I love to go fishing with my stepdad, brothers, and grandpa.  The past couple of summers we have been fortunate enough to go fishing in Alaska with my grandpa and uncle, which was spectacular.  My dad and I love to ride dirt bikes in the mountains together.  Basically, my family and I love to do anything outdoors.  My family is very excited about my mission call.  Some members of my family are not active in the church, but they are still very supportive of my decision to serve a mission. I am hoping to inspire them in some way.  I cannot wait to be able to share my experiences with my family members.

I am fortunate enough to go to a high school where seminary is available to take as a class.  I have loved it immensely.  It is truly where my testimony of the gospel was gained.  Before high school, I knew that I wanted to serve a mission, but I was not sure if I had enough faith to do it.  But during my first year of seminary, I came to know the truthfulness of the gospel and that I was surely going on a mission.  I am so grateful for my experiences in seminary.  I know that it has prepared me so much for my mission.  One of our seminary teachers also taught a mission prep class before school.  I am very glad that he did because I was able to learn so much about missionary work from him.

I am very grateful for this opportunity to serve.  I hope and pray that I can be a good and worth servant to the Lord.  I want you to know that I am going to work as hard as I possibly can with the Lord's help.  I understand how important this work is.  I do not want to waste any time that has been given to me.  I cannot wait to get to England and join the work!  Thank you for everything.

Sincerely,

Elder Jake Wray