Apostles and Prophet at the MTC

This week was crazy for me! First of all, the Apostles and the Prophet were here, so the entire campus changed. We pretty much were supposed to wear suit coats all the time, the lunchroom was cut in half, so the lines got really long, and we could not go anywhere in 1M, the main building. Also the gym was closed so everyone had to play on the field which made soccer a pain to play because of the crowd. The younger district challenged us to a game of soccer, and we beat them. I think we beat them a total of 3 times before they got mad and gave up at that, but we don't keep score here in the CCM so it's all good.

So the food wasn't very good because they were worried about serving the Prophet, but we did get a devotional with them in it though, we had 10 of the 12 apostles (Elder Perry, Elder Nelson, Elder Oaks, Elder Ballard, Elder Scott, Elder Holland, Elder Bednar, Elder Cook, Elder Christofferson, and Elder Anderson), none of the first presidency, and we heard from L Tom Perry. It was such an amazing talk, but now they are gone and things are back to normal.

So yesterday was our speak only Spanish day, and we failed miserably, so our district decided that we are only going to try and speak in as much Spanish as we can all the time. Ya I don't know how well that is going to go over, but I guess we'll see.  I made a promise though that I would try my best no matter what the rest of the people in my district are doing.  The lord has called me to this mission, to speak this language, and if I don't try my hardest then how can the Lord bless me.

Things between my companions and I are getting a little interesting.   One I am still getting along fine with, but the other one, not so much.  The best way to describe how he acts is like Hugo; when you ask him to do something he ignores you and continues to mess around and when you ask him to come sit down and study he just looks at you like he doesn't care. It's getting on both mine and my other companions nerves a lot. Then when we are teaching he will sit there and not say anything, but afterward he will come out and tell us all the things we should have done and how we did stuff wrong, and he would have said it this way. ITS SO ANNOYING!!! He always has to be right about everything, when in fact he is always wrong, so that makes it even more annoying. I came here to be a missionary, not a babysitter. It's ok, I am praying for love and patience, so we'll see what happens.

Well I think that's it for now, ya continue to tell people to write me, and ask Karoline if she got my letter, because I have yet to hear back from her.   Well I love you and I miss you all.  Keep being good and stuff.  Pray for me to learn the language, and to be able to conjugate the words properly, that's what I'm struggling with the most.

Same Old Thing

So about the choir... in order to be considered for it you had to know how to brag, and we know how good at that I am, so no I'm not in the choir, which really sucks, because when I listen to them I know I could have made it. But oh well, life moves on.

Yes, I am studying hard! I really don't have a choice in the matter.  The lessons have been going good. Teaching in Spanish is still really hard, but it's going good. My Spanish is coming along. 

This week has been pretty much the same as last week. The days seem to run together mainly because we do the same thing every day, just at different times during the day.  Ya, pretty much everything is going good. My companions and I are getting along great and we had two missionaries from my district leave this week to go down to the Guatamala MTC so it's been weird not having them around, but other than that nothing interesting happened this week.  

This next week is going to be the interesting week, it's the new MTC president training week, so the place is going on lock down because there are going to be a lot of high up people here, we get to have a special devotional on Tuesday, so if we are lucky it will be President Monson, but we'll see.   If it's any of them it will be amazing so no worries.

Tough Day

Well, the big thing that happened this week was...let's just say this week I had a tough day.

It was Tuesday and for some reason my companions and I were very distracted and upset.  We ended up teaching a lesson that was beyond horrible, and we all just snapped.  We all were practically bawling, and we were done for the day.  Too bad we still had 4 more hours of stuff left along with the branch president being there.  We managed to make it through the day, and we got back to our room.  Here's the important part.  Instead of bottling it all up, and fussing about how horrible and stressed out we were, we sat down together and said a prayer.  We turned to the Lord in our time of need.  We thanked him for all of our blessings, we said we were sorry for disappointing him and for not studying as hard as we could have.  Then we asked for help to make the next day better, and to let us grow from the bad day.  That's not all we did, after we prayed we discussed how we were going to do our part to make the next day better.  That was the key to growing from that experience.  We asked for help, and then did everything we could do to make it better and to be able to have the Lord help us.  Since then we have been on fire, and I know we will continue to work hard and to be obedient.   

D&C 46:32

About My District

This week has been good for the most part, its getting really easy to lose track of what day it is, and how long we have been here because everyday is almost the same.  My Spanish is coming along, I understand more than what I can say, so it's frustrating to not know how to reply to people.  The view from my room is terrible because we get to look out over the city, and I get to see the lake and it makes me want to go boating BAD!!! There are 3 bunk beds in our room, and there are only 3 of us in it, so we all have a bottom bunk, and that is very nice. My room gets a lot of packages because we are so close to home, so I share a lot, and everbody loves us!

My companion was late the day we arrived because it was his sister's graduation, so he decided to go to that and just be late. So I guess it's kind of acceptable. While he wasn't here I just stayed with the people in my district until he showed up. My departure date as far as I know is July 30, but I won't get any flight plans or anything until like a week before I leave.

In my district there are 5 elders going to my mission, so there are me, Elder Wilson, Elder Fernandez, Elder Newey (he's the one that goes to choir with me, and we are trying to be part of a special choir for the upcoming mission president training week, where there will be very high up people in the church here, so pretty much the MTC will be going on lock down that week, but it will be good, we find out if we might get in on Sunday, so I'll let you know.) and Elder Florence.  There are 4 elders going to Chile Conception South, (I have no clue how to spell that) and 2 are going to Guatamala this coming Wednesday.  It's going to be so sad when they leave. As a district we are very close, probably the closest district in the MTC to be honest, so we are very open to each other about everything, the good and the bad. There are no sisters in my district and I don't like that so I go and talk to the sisters in the other district in my zone, just so I can get a little civilized conversation, they think I'm hilarious, and I'm known as the kid who sings the loudest, and the highest, but esta bien. It makes people laugh, and that's all that matters.

Joined the Choir

So here's all the stuff I didn't have time to say in my e-mail. 

The food here tastes good, but it destroys everyone's stomach, either that or the new stress of learning a language, but esta bien (it's all good).

I'm singing in the choir here with another missionary from my district.  His name is Elder Newey.  He is awesome!  I love singing with him, especially since other music isn't allowed.  I'm going crazy!

Tell everyone that getting letters and packages from people are the best!

First Week

My schedule is pretty much the same every day, I have gym in the mornings on mon-wed-fri, and the other times it is in the afternoon. Gym is way fun, me and my companions all like to play outside on the field so we don't ever fight over that. We play soccer, and sand volleyball mainly. It's so much fun, even though it might be cold some days.

An update on the first morning gym funness, we were playing soccer, and everything was going great, but the grass was wet and people were slipping everywhere. I was the lucky one that slipped backwards, and hit my head. Yes it hurt, but no I did not throw up, and I still remember everything that happened, so I didn't get a concussion, just had a headache the rest of the day.

My P-days are on Friday.  We get to go to the temple today, and I'm very excited for that.

My first companion is from Orem, (Vineyard) so we know a lot of the same people, he is actually friends with Dakoda too, so it was interesting meeting each other. He was 5 hours late on the first day so it was interesting those first couple hours. His name is Elder Fernandez, he went to UVU and we have a ton in common, so we get along great.

My second companion, now that's a fun story. Short version, he and his companion were in our room, his companion was really good at spanish, so he got moved up, and we got Elder Wilson. He is from Hurricane, (Lavercan or something like that) and he is so much fun! He is such a crazy elder, but in a good way. he does get distracted very easily, so we have to keep him on track, but esta bien. (its all good)

Ya other than that everything is going wonderfully! I love it here so much! The spirit and the love that is felt here is amazing! I loved the pictures, and honestly the only reason I'm not homesick is because I have such an awesome district! They are practically family so they make it easier.

We have plenty of study time, so I am learning to study effectively and trying not to waste time, but after 6 hours of spanish class it gets pretty hard to concentrate on studying more spanish. I´m suprised at how much spanish I already know! Th gift of tongues is real, and the MTC doesn't waste anytime putting it to use. We have already taught our first investigator in spanish, and it was crazy difficult, but he already accepted baptism, so we are just going to keep on teaching him. (he's not a real investigator, but they do not break character for anything).

 Tell people to write me! I love getting letters from them! I know I'm doing the right thing being here, and I wouldn't leave if they made me.  Pray for me to continue to learn the language