Feliz Ano Nuevo

So I'll start out with the beginning of my week, with the new year, I decided to try and keep things fresh. It was definitely a quieter new years than I’ve ever had, but a bottle of Martinellis, and someone lighting off fireworks about a block from our fourth floor window, it was still pretty decent. One of my new year’s resolutions was to keep things fresh. So here comes the story of the week. Saturday night I saw one of my church shirts, hung up mom... and the tag said it was a wrinkle free shirt, of course I’ve got to put this to the test. As a missionary not quite accustomed to the six thirty wake up, I’m always scheming of what I can do to make the morning smoother. Saturday night this meant sleeping with my white, wrinkle free shirt on, a tie, and my socks. Don’t worry mom, my pants were hung up, and it worked perfectly. woke up five minutes before I had to leave and I got out on time. slip the pants and suit coat on, it only took a few seconds. Wrinkle free shirts are the best. The second day of my new years was Sunday, we went on a temple walk and to keep it fresh with the spirit of the new year, I had an interest of how cold it was, my tongue stuck to a pole, and after dipping my head in some water, icicles began to form on my hair. Definitely the coldest experience I have had here at the MTC. The week has gone by really fast, and I got to host some of the new missionaries that came in on Wednesday which was pretty cool. Maybe I’ll be there when john comes in too. Today was my first day that I was able to go to the temple, the past few weeks have been closed for cleaning or holiday, and it was super great. Especially the food in the basement cafeteria. It was like Belgium waffle, except like ten dollars cheaper, super worth it. Last Sunday I did my first 24 hour fast, which was surprisingly easy, and we had testimony meeting, it was pretty funny cause I’ve never been in a meeting where, and I’ve heard it compared to girls camp, but the girls start balling, and going into a really high pitch broken Spanish falsetto. Definitely a new experience. We had our first district leave on Tuesday, they were pretty fun and I’m going to miss them for volleyball. But a new district came in on Wednesday and they are pretty sweet. I don’t know if any of you know who he is, but elder Daniel Rasmussen, from Brighton high school, is in my zone now. He’s pretty sweet, we had a few classes together at Brighton. Anyway pretty much a normal week, Thanks for the packages and letters again its super great. Have fun and keep things fresh, and pray for my visa in a few weeks, I heard yesterday of an elder that was called to Tijuana and was in the MTC for 3 months, and has been in SLC for another 3 months so hopefully I can get to Mexico a little more smoothly, or maybe I’ll get a new call to serve in the SLC south mission!

-Elder Rhodes