Hola Familia y amigos!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Hola Familia y amigos!

Things are great here at the MTC. I have been so busy doing so many different things that it would be impossible to share everything, but i'll try my best to talk about some events and feeling about them.

Mi companero es Elder Miner. He worked with my cousin Joseph before the mission so it was cool to be with someone I know. He ALWAYS has a great attitude which in contagious, has a deep desire to be early to everything (which is hard for me because I have been lazy in past, but its been good for me), and is very hard working with everything. We get along pretty well, and have be teaching well together.

Also Elder Colligan is in my district and lives next door, so we do practically everything together. His companero is Elder Fuentes.

On Wednesday, when I got here and dropped my stuff off at the room. Then we went to our classroom to meet our district and teacher Hermana Whitlock, she is a great teacher. We had a small devotional with all the new elders, and participated in a fake lesson with an investigator. I can't remember everything because I was so busy, next time I'll come to the computer prepared with my Missionary Schedule Book.

Thursday and Friday were the hardest days so far, I have never been so tired. It was really busy learning, teaching, orientation, etc. It was a great opportunity for me to pray more than I ever have before, which helped more than I can put into words. The spanish is review for me so far, but I'm not getting cocky yet because I know I will be humbled very very soon. We are in the new Spanish Pilot Program at the MTC where they throw the missionaries into discussions with investigators that only speak spanish, so we barely understand anything and are supposed to communicate our best with what we know. It has been described as "being put into the middle of a lake, and being asked to drive the boat back to shore that you don't have" which made me laugh and was very accurate.

Sundays in the MTC are just fantastic, best sunday of my life so far. We had priesthood session with our zone which I loved. All the elders and hermanas in the zone had to prepare a talk on the weekly Christlike attribute assigned that week, in spanish, and the president of our branch calls 2 elders and hermanas out of the audience to speak. He didn't call on me but I felt like I was prepared and would have done fine. Then we had a fireside with the whole MTC where I saw Elder Wertz, it was great. I run into so many people I know down here it's crazy.

The food is great, it's really cold and snowy here and I am under prepared for the weather haha but it's ok.

Monday is P-day, so that's when I can email the family.

There is a website called Dear Elder, which I guess is easiest for the missionaries because you email from that website, and the emails are converted to letters, so then we don't have to take time to read the emails here and can read them at the room and write you back. I'm sure Mom can figure it out haha- so try that out mom and everyone else reading.

I appreciate all the messages from everyone! Please keep writing me and I'll do my very best to respond to everything, I promise. If you could put your address at the bottom of your first couple emails, then I can write you back in a hand written letter, because I can only email my family.

I wanted to end with my testimony of Christ's example, and the love that God has for all of his children. But specifically on missionary work. I have only been in the MTC for 5 days, I think, but I already know with a perfect knowledge that missionary work is real, and that God loves His missionaries. It's a great comfort for me. If you are unsure about serving a mission, or have any doubts about missionary work, I want you to know that it is real, and vital for finding all of God's children, so they can hear the doctrine of Christ.

Sorry I gotta hurry- but I love you guys so much. Pray for me and the people of Paraguay.

- Elder Babcock