llamado a servir (week 5)

¡¿Que pasa Americaños?!

Tengo un pregunta para ustedes... How does time fly so fast? It really feels like I´ve only been here for like 2 or 3 weeks but I only have like 12 days left in the MTC. I have mixed emotions about leaving the MTC. First of all, It´ll probably be hard leaving some friends behind that I´ve developed good friendships with. Especially some of the missionaries in my disctict. It´ll also be hard to leave the security of the MTC. I mean, I hear gunshots on a regular basis. Bienvenidos a Mexico. Bu honestly I cannot wait to get out there! I´ve heard from my MTC president, President Pratt, that he has lived in Ecuador himself for years and absolutly loved it. It´s a beautiful country and city. Plus I know I will have life-long friendships with the missionaries and other people I meet in Ecuador. This tuesday it was raining hard so we didn´t have any TRC voulenteers. I was kinda sad, that´s like my favorite part of the MTC. Other than eating; That´ll always be my favorite part. I bought this awesome tie at la tienda a couple of days ago. I reminds me of like, a Mexican neon dance party or something. As of Monday I am the solo representative of the Cedar City missionaries at the Mexico MTC. But I will represent with power! This is the last 100% free MTC P-day for me(Not going to the temple today) So I´ll probably workout and play volleyball, basketball, and ultimate frisbee with the Zone today after I write Emails and do laundry.

My branch presidnet is awesome! He is short but big at the same time. Like strong big! He has the best smile ever. Gym time i typically either workout with my companion either on the track or weightroom, or I play basketball or volleyball with the district. I love Gym time. I used my card once at the ATM just so I can get some pesos. They give us another card that I usually use to buy cheap stuff at the store like chips, candy, a hymno libro, and my new favorite drink COCO-PINA! I´ll send a picture of it. The stuff there is really cheap. They just have American money in Ecuador so I needed a souvenir from Mexico. I have $100, $50, and $20 dollar bills, and then a $10 and two $1 coin pesos. The guy on the $50 dollar bill has an intimidating face with like a beard and an evil smirk. It´s kinda cool. We celebrated Mexico´s independance almost 2 weeks ago and I was crazy. The locals would shout ¡VIVA MEXICO! (Which means "Long Live Mexico!") throughout most of the night. They also had a small slideshow at the beginning showing important people, that I don´t know, that helped Mexico gain their independance from Spain. Everytime a different name was mentioned, they´d shout, "¡VIVA!" We held it in the gym and we had a lot of dancers and singers. I noticed that all of the guy dancers, dance with their hands behind their backs. I guess that´s just the culture. It was a really fun night though.

I´m really used to my routine now. The first 2 weeks I always had to look at the daily schedule but now it´s just natural to me. A typical day: I wake up at 6:30, then I have personal estudio tiempo at 7:00, Desayuno at 8:00. Then I have my morning teacher, Hermano Wolfe from 8:30 to 11:30. Then I have gymnasio tiempo from 11:30 to 1:00. Then almuerzo. Next I have TALL time from 1:45 to 2:45, TALL is a language learning program on the computer. Next I have Companion study from 2:45 to 3:30. Then I have my afternoon teacher, Hermana Williams from 3:30 to 6:30. Then Cena, Then from 7:15 to 8:15 I have more Idioma estudio tiempo, Then I have extra study time and plan for the next day with my companion from 8:15 to 9:30. Finally I prepare for bed and have casa oracion until lights out at 10:30. Other events are Tuesday Devotionals after dinner, TRC lessons at 5:00 on Tuesdays, My P-day throughout all of Thursday, and a service project on Saturdays. Sundays are just completley different from other days.

I did get my package from you guys. I love beef jerky, clothes, pictures, and letters. So you guys know me too well. I think it´s hilarious that Kassidy has contacts now. Not only is dad and Kass left-handed, but they´re blind too! Haha. And that´s really awesome that Mitch and Kolten are working on their papers. Let me know where they go! And Makayla going to the Philipines! That´s crazy. Tell her to get advice from D-Money. And to practice eating raw eggs before she leaves (Because their eggs are MUCH worse than raw). But I am really happy for them! I hope Ryan is doing well in Argentina too! That´s gotta be the coolest place. And speaking of other missionaries, what is Mike´s missionary Email? I want to see what´s up with him. And with other missionaries from my ward too. By the way, nice pictures you sent me! I always love pooch pictures! I actully just made that picture of pooch and me the desktop background on this computer. Dirty looks as happy as ever in that picture! Tell him he´s dirty for me if you see him. And that´s really cool that Jessica wore Kaylor´s number. I dig the other homecoming pictures as well. I just remember I helped decorate the halls one time and it took forever so I never helped again. Haha I really enjoy sleep more. I sucks that BYU lost though. I knew if they did, your desk would start to bleed, mamas. But it´s alright, I mean, they beat Texas! And nice TV snag! Why couldn´t that have happened like a year ago so I could appreciate it!

Love you guys a lot! Keep updating me about stuff from home! ¡PAZ AFUELA!

Photos (week 5)

¿¡Como le va!?

Hola mi amoroso familia! Que pasa!?

 

Today, I went to del casa de señor for the second time. I understood much more spanish this time. I´m okay at understanding spanish, but for some reason speaking it is the bigger obsticle. But it´s still muy deficil. Paro, Espiritu was still there. I´ve now passed the halfway point as far as my time in the CCM. The whole experience has really gone by fast! The progressing investigator lessons are going by a lot more smoothly now. The first lesson I knew like maybe 30 spanish words at most. Now I can carry on a pretty decent lesson with my companion. There´s this Elder in my district that recieved a fruit basket in the mail. Except here, fruit is by far the last thing you need. The fruit they serve you for desayuno, almuerso, y cena is amazingly bueno! I haven´t got the care package yet but I´ve met sister Allese Meanea who has all of the stuff you sent from Cedar. I met her on the first day and she actully found me first. But I didn´t want to bother her on her first day. I´ll get it today though. It was her birthday yesterday so our district sang happy birthday to her in Spanish. But I was a pest and sang it in German. For Deutchland! I´m sure I´ll pick up the Español spirit soon. ¡Viva Mexico!

 

The whole MTC experience has been awesome. For some reason my afternoon teacher, hermana Williams, felt inspired that my companion and I, and us only, should give her a lesson in English on whatever we want for an hour. It was just us three in a small room. We decided to give it on the Atonement because you can expound on that para siempre. We got in really deep conversation and shared our testimonies. I really felt like a missionary then because i could express la parablas de mi corazon. I cannot wait to be able to do that in Spanish soon. I love this place but I just wanna get out there! I have a long term goal: To be able to speak fluent(Or at least fluent enough to get by) Spanish before 2014. Pray for me haha. I´ve heard once you get into the field it sounds like a totally different language. By the way, I´ve been called to be the Zone Executive Secratary by the branch president. And the zone leader is leaving today so there´s a chance I´ll be the new zone leader. Wow, right? I´m glad he´s confident in my Spanglish.

I wish I could have seen Mike and Jason´s farewells! How mant times did Mike squeek? That´s one thing that stinks about leaving earlier than some of your friends. Also, tell Jacob his football tackles and catches are sick! I just saw them barely watched them. Tell Kaylie I´m writing a hand-written letter today. But it will take about 2 & 1/2 weeks to get there. I just got hers today. And I dig the way she was asked to homecoming. I have a soft spot for puns. Tell Grandpa Bolton to get rid of his red hat, and tell Gary I´m sure his barbie is pretty.

 

I love you guys! Keep sending the E-mails I love reading them. ¡Paz affuela! (I´m guessing that how you say "peace out")

MTC (week 3)

So first of all, this week my companion and I taught our first TRC(Which are real people with real problems rather than role play investigators) in Spanish and they took us down to the building where they all are and we had absolutly no time to prepare any lesson. At first we got to know her and started with a prayer and stuff. Then my companion started talking about the power and the gift of the holy ghost and she said she doesn´t really know if the power of the holy ghost is true. But then all of a sudden words just filled my mouth and i totally just went off on how to search the scriptures and how to pray to feel the power of the holy ghost and then showed her Moroni 10:3-5 and she got a little emotional and then my companion asked her, "What are you feeling right now?" and she said, "Paz, gozo, y felizidad" (peace, joy, and happiness) and then we explained to her that that was the power of the holy ghost. And she just thanked us and then we closed with a pray that we asked her to say. The gift of tounges is so real.

 

My spanish is coming along but I still have a lot of work to do. By the way mom, the suitcase idea worked perfectly and I already have a spanish hymn book that I bought at the store a week ago. My investigator Raquel ended up being my teacher the week after and now my companion and I teach both our morning and afternoon teachers as the pretend to be people they met on their missions. Raquel´s name is really sister Williams. She served her mission somewhere in California. LA i think. And I cant remember where brother wolfe served. But he never speaks English to us ever. He´s trying to learn Chinese and he bore his testimony to us in Chinese this week. It was sweet. I usually give 2 discussions a week now. All in Spanish of coarse. We usually commit our practice investigators to read and pray about the truthfulness of the book of mormon every first lesson. And if we are feeling it, we ask if they will be baptized by proper authority. (¿Suguira el elhemplo de jesucristo al ser bautizado, por alugien que posea la autoridad del saucerdicio de dios?)

 

I´m really growing spiritually here and it´s the coolest experience. I´ve learned to love this place and look forward to every discussion. Especially the TRC´s! I´ve only given one so far but it was amazing. It´s a little harder to understand native spanish. My two teachers speak fluent spanigh but they speak slower and dont have a strong spanish accent. I think I have given like about 10-12 discussions by now. I´m going to try to send actual letters soon but it´s so hard to make time here. I think they take like 2 weeks to get there from here. I love all of you guys and thanks for writing! see ya in dos.

MTC BABY!!! (Week Two)

           How goes it everybody! Adjusting to the Mexico MTC is quite a funny thing. The first day I got there i thought i felt a vibrate from my phone in my pocket multiple times but then I realized I no longer have a phone. Haha what? This place is awesome though, el Espiritu Santos here is so strong. Everything here is done in spanish, which at first, was the absolutle worst because ive never taken any sort of Spanish class ever so i couldnt understand anything except for, "Si" and "Jesucristo". The first day was honestly the longest day of my life. But since Sunday Ive really got much better at Spanish and the days are already going by fast. My companions name is Elder Gulid. Hes a Navajo warrior from Star Valley, Wyoming. Hes also a state champion wrestler. Which i clamied thats nothing much since like 5 people live in Wyoming. The rest of my district is awesome! None of the Elders in my district come from Utah but they all come from the United States. Other than the hermanas, we all live in the same casa. My zone is awesome too. My zone leader, to whom is full of the spirit, is Tanner Mangum, BYUs next big quarterback, I believe. His pure manlyness makes me feel like a little boy.

 

         Today I had the oppertunity to attend the temple in spanish. I still felt the spirit just as strong as I did in English. Its weird, ive only been gone for a week and the spirit is so strong here that i get kinda emotional pretty easily. I never was emotion before this... What wrong with me? The second day i was here my companion and I taught an investigator named Raquel, in spanish by the way. I dont know any Spanish so it was kinda rough the first time. But since then we have given here a couple other lessons and she actully understood stuff i said! I was awesome! The spirit was so strong, I could almost see the holy ghost! My P-days are on Thursday by the way, so thats the only time i can write. The food here is awesome too! The first day i hated it though. I wasnt any mammas food or Taco Bell. They serve weird but delicious fruits and meats mostly. The first couple of days my digestive system was on a "Missionary pace".

 

        The MTC is easily the most beautiful place in Mexico city (other than the temple). Everything else here is really trashy though haha. Its a pretty common thing to hear gunshots while im laying in my bed after 10:00. And the drivers here are insane. Everyone cuts everyone off and the roads are narrow so the cars are like a couple of inches away. I guess thats what you get in the most populated city in the world. When I first got off the airport and on the bus I was terrified. Sundays here are amazing too we had a lot of spiritual meetings and an awesome devotional by a member of the 70. I get to bless the sacrament next week. One of my teachers names is hermano Wolfe, but we call him hermano Lobo, of coarse. Hes the goofiest guy you will ever meet. Hes only been off his mission for 8 months and hes already teaching spanish here... Now that ive gotten used to everything, I love this place.

 

        Ive met some Cedar friends here too. Like Alaniey Carter and Maddie Groves. I was really happy to see a familiar face. To anyone who is going to go to this MTC in the near future(Kyle), just like my bro Ryan said, if you can make it to Sunday, you will be perfectly fine. And you will soon begin to love it! Thats hilarious to me that when you guys went to Dennys you asked for 7 instead of 6. I miss all of you guys a ton but just know that i am doing awesome and Im in the lords hands. Do not worry about me at all. Theres no turning back now. The work must go forward.