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Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Week 1 - the MTC

Hi everyone! First off, thanks to everyone who sent me emails and letters, it means so much to hear from all of you! 

This week has been soo full, I'm almost never not doing something haha. Monday and Tuesday, before I reported, I flew out here to Utah and hung out with the Akagis and Shimps. They were so much fun and so hospitable and nice! 

Wednesday, I reported, went to class almost first thing and met one of my teachers and my district. My teacher is Hermana Casares, she's so nice and she always says "super" instead of "muy." So now, whenever anyone says, "Como estan?", we all reply, "Super bien!" My district is awesome, we have four Hermanas, and six Elderes. I actually just realized I don't have a picture of all of them...woops haha. I'll get one before the week is out. My companion is Elder Flores, he lives in Cash Valley, but his family is from Mexico. He's going to serve in Veracruz (I'm the only one in my branch that's serving in Chalco) and he's so cool! Super patient, really good at soccer, and he's really funny. He's also really willing to try out new things, so when I asked if we could do choir, he was all for it! We're singing a beautiful arrangement of "Nearer My God to Thee" at tonights devo!

Elder Flores and I share a living space with Elders Carrillo (serving in Panama) and Solano (serving in MC North I think). They're really cool too, Elder Carrillo is super good with magic tricks, was on the coast guard, and is a convert as of 2 years! Elder Solano is really into yoga and is really funny. The other two elders, Peterson and Vinces are really great as well, really funny and fun to talk with. It's a great group! 

My Branch President is President Call, I had an interview with him a couple days ago and he's a wonderful man. Definitely called of God. As is the rest of the Presidency, they're all really nice, good men. 

We have two other teachers, Hermanos Cuadra y Antello. They're really awesome, pretty different but both really good teachers. I've kind of become the universal scapegoat for the district, mostly because Elder Vinces always blamed me for things like Hermano Cuadra's keys missing or what have you. The worst was when someone clogged the toilet and everyone blamed me. I promise it wasn't me. 

As far as food goes, there's so much...It's really hard to not just keep eating here haha. I'm doing well though, only gained a couple pounds...probably haha. 

For exercise, I try to find anyone who will play frisbee with me. Sometimes I do, and it's so much fun!! Other times I've played soccer (tried**) and ran around a bit. 

Friday and Saturday, we talked to our first "investigators" (Hermana Casares y Hermano Cuadra). I was surprised at how hard it was. During the lessons, I kept stumbling and had no clue what to say or how to say it. It was really hard and I got really frustrated, but the teachers are so loving and supportive here, and I'm starting to learn more about how to invite the Spirit so I'm no longer the one teaching. We all know how it goes when I try to teach. Malo. 

Monday was one of the most amazing days ever. Me, Elders Flores and Vinces, and 7 other missionaries (6 Elders, One Hermana...poor girl haha) had to take a day trip to Las Vegas! We had to go to the Mexican Consulate there to do visa stuff, so we woke up at 4:00 and went to the airport! Only to wait an hour for our flight. Why did we get up so early haha. 

So we finally got to Vegas, went to a chapel and there was a senior missionary there who had served a recent senior mission in Mexico City! So he gave us all a whole bunch of tips and things to know about Mexico and then we went to the Consulate. Elder Greer (the senior Elder) said it would probably take anywhere from an hour to 4 hours to work everything out. I think we were out of there in under 45 minutes. And then he just drove us back to the airport, so we could wait another 4 hours for the flight back to Salt Lake! Awesome. 

So we sat near our gate and ate food and chatted with the other missionaries, who are all so great. Then this random man comes up to us and says, "Here, have some pizza!" And hands us two huge boxes of freshly bought pizza. We were all pretty speechless for a second, but not too long. We were hungry! So we thank him, eat the pizza, and then had an awesome experience. There was another man, over in the corner reading something I think, and one of the Elders, Elder Trumpet (bless this man) went up to him and said, "Hey, we have a lot of pizza, would you mind eating some for us?" and we handed him a slice. Then Elder Trumpet pops back in, "So this is conditional. We'll give you the pizza if you listen to a message we have." To which, the man accepted (duh, free pizza.) and Elder Trumpet and I started talking to him. We talked about Christ's ministry, His Atonement, the Apostasy, and The Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. And he said he would read it! It was such a cool experience, the Spirit was definitely there. 

Awesome experience number two: Elder Trumpet and I barely make our flight because we were talking to this guy, and then we sit down. I sat next to this other Elder in the group, Elder Romney, and we started chatting. Then this lady sits down next to us and she's visibly very upset. We asked if there was something we could do to help and she declined, so we kinda sat there awkwardly for the first half of the flight. 

After awhile, I pull out my scriptures and pray to know how to help this woman. Elder Romney and I are reading quietly and then all of a sudden Elder Romney just starts talking to her. Now this Elder is pretty shy, but he was so good at it! Turns out, this woman was traveling with her daughter and lost her for a bit and then just barely got in contact with her before they boarded and so they were both on the plane, but they were separated and this lady hated flying, scares her to death, so she was really upset. We get to know her a bit and then she asks who we are and what we're doing. We tell her we're missionaries for the church and ask if she knows much about the Church. She says she knows quite a bit, but she didn't want to talk much (something about it made her nervous on the flight....ok) So we ask if we can share our message, she could just listen and we'd do all the talking, and she said she'd like that. So we basically just taught her the first discussion. It was pretty similar to what Elder Trumpet and I did, but different because we felt prompted in different ways. It was so cool, every time one of us Elders wasn't sure what to say next, the other was right there, boom, Spirit, and kept it going. The Spirit was so strong and by the time we'd finished, she was really calm and peaceful and thankful. We gave her a Book of Mormon as well and she thanked us and said she'd read it. It was seriously such a wonderful trip! 

I almost have to get off, but I love all of you! I can really feel your prayers and know that I pray for you too! This work is really hard, I didn't expect it to be this difficult to be honest. But I love it so much and I'm so glad to be here! I leave on Monday, so I don't think I'll have another P-day for two weeks, but I'll call before I board. Love you all! 

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