Transfer 2. Week 3.

Well, we are already going on week 3 of the transfer. There certainly is no time to get comefortable in the mission field--thats for sure. This week was definitely a learning week and a building week. Just as in sports: some years are bulding years. In the mission, some weeks we have to be building weeks. There's nothing you can do about it. I just gotta take what I get and roll with it! 


I have applied the concept of talking to everyone and so far it has worked. According to the PMG definition, we have 4 new investigators, but I don't feel confident enough to call them that yet. Spanish people are definitely easier to contact. The problem is getting them to follow up with stuff, but it's where the success is in this area so far.  


My comps are good. They like to work hard. We just gotta work on fusing our ideas and what not. It's almost like the difference between Republicans and those daggum Democrats with our different philosophies and what not. But we will work on it! 


SO, the trees are starting to change colors here! Meaning, it's getting COLD! Man its cold! But it's so beautiful. I'm really falling in love with the place. Down town Park City is a really neat place. (Thats where the family tree center is) ;) ha ha. This week I have learned some good stuff about myself and what im turning into. 


I'm still really working on getting letters to everyone in the fam, so just be patient. They will come, I promise! It certainly is interesting to have nothing but greenies in a companionship, but it's happening for a reason, and I know we can do this and that there are people here that we can bring to repentance. 


Sorry we don't have time to write a fatty letter today. Yesterday the library was closed; that's why we are doing emails today.  Dad, good luck at the horse competition. Jake, good work on your eagle project. By the way, you stuill owe me a letter after that fatty one I sent you for your birthday! Everybody, I love you. Mom, thanks for the packages. They are so great and helpful! I love the mangoes! Take care, and I love you all so much and thank you for everything! TTFN!

"Secretly, I was pretty daggum scared!"

Hey! So, here it goes. My first email to home from the field! WoW!

So, I'm hear in the Salt Lake City South Mission. My branch is the Sandy Union Park Stake. I have no idea where that is, but now I have different mountains to look at! There are four of us living in the basement of a retired member's house.  Me and Elder Clark were paired with Elder Hathaway and Elder Mullay. Me and Elder Clark sleep on air mattresses in the familyroom/ kitchen.  It's better than it sounds.  We have been living out of our suitcases because we are probably gonin to  be transfered to a Spanish branch until we get our Visas. I have no idea how long it is going to be untill I get my Visa though, but i dont mind staying here for a while, as long as we can stay busy.  We have a car and bikes, so me and Elder Clark switch off with Elder Hathaway and Elder Murray. We go around contacting members for refferals.  We have gotten a small list of people to teach.  Apperently, in Utah you cant do most tracting stuff because most people are Mormon, or just  because of all sorts of reasons. So pretty much, our work is from member refferals. 

It was really great to get to go to a normal ward again. In fact, we went to three sacrament meetings yesterday. I thought it was really cool! All the people here have been really nice to us.  I never really noticed how much people really appreciate the missionaries and look up to them until I was in church this past Sunday. (Hopefully this next part somehow gets to Hermano Baron at the MTC.  Because I can relate to Hermano Baron's first day in the field! HA.)

So after we were put with our companions, we were given one more bike, then went home, kinda tinkered with the bike a little (The thing was in pretty bad shape, not to mention its the size of Sophia's bike at home!). The pettly shafts are like two inches long, hhahaha. It makes hills interesting!   Anyways, so me and Elder Hathaway were gonna go meet up with some ward members but then the bike tire decided that it wasn't  going to hold air :/

So I was riding around this little bike with super low air and then Elder Hathaway's bike gear thing in the back just randomly falls off, so we were pushing our bikes around for a while till we finally got to Wallmart where I could get stuff to fix my bike. I was messing around with that for like an hour, and we pretty much have spent most of the last four days dealing with the stupid mission bikes, but dont worry I just laughed it off. I think somthing that is sometimes my biggest problem out here as a misisonary and in the MTC is that I just get too tense and un-relaxed about things, so something I'm working on is to just chill about everything and not take everything so seriously so that way I can be more focused and relaxed. 

So on Sunday we tought two lessons: one to a guy named Noe (he just moved here form Nevada and worked with a member in the ward).  He is young 20s and he had some questions about the church, so we were invited to come over and to teach him. We tought him the first lesson (secretly I was pretty daggum scared!) haha, but it seemed like it ended up turning out pretty good! He committed to be baptized on July 24th if he felt like it was true, and he still wanted to by then. The spirtit was so strong during the lesson. It was sooo cool! he seemeed pretty interested so we will see.

Then, when we were riding our bikes around we randomly decided to visit an investigator's house. It turns out they just found out their married daughter is pregnant and they wanted to give her a blessing of comfort, so me and Elder Hathaway helped them out with that. 

Ohh and another cool thing, i finally had a real stake! Ohh man it was soo good! Wow it was such a good dinner. For the record, I finally got to go to Carls Jr. again! Woo hoo! haha.

So after the blessing we went and taught an 11-year-old brother and sister who have very inactive parents. We taught them lesson 1, but this time I wasn't scared. I like teaching kids alot more, hahah! They also committed to being baptized on July 24th, so hopefully their mom will let that happen! But it's cool to teach for reals. I still have sooo much to learn, and there is just soo much I need to improve on! Man, I thought I was ready for a lot of things in the MTC, but daggum, there is always room for growth. I'm a little bummed that I dont get to practice my Spanish, but it probably would have been overwhelming anyway.

So the money they gave us equals out to four bucks a day, so I'm prett much living off of beans and pasta, haha! But I really do like it here, and it's soo great to finally get to listen to music, which brings up a new subject: I need more music. I need up beat stuff though. Everything I have is sooo slow and downbeat it gets really annoying, and it just is hard to be upbeat with slow, downbeat music, so i really want/ need upbeat music so i can be an upbeat missionary. 

So another funny thing that happened this week was last night Elder Hathaway and Elder Clark decided to to the Habinero pepper challenge, which is to eat a habinero and wait 5 mins to do whatever you can to get rid of the burn. It was so funny. I will work on sending a video of it home! But that's about all for this week! My Pdays are on Mondays form now on.

Umm, i have no idea how the mail system works here, so it would probaly be best to just have people email me for now. We get an hour to email.  So im guessing I probably wont hear form you till next week, but hopefully I will, ha, I'm probably gonna be in the Spanish branch, so I'll let you know how that goes.  I love you all. Thanks you so much for everything! Good luch to you with whateer you do. 

Ps. Jake, Ukrain looks beautifull! Good luck and keep up the good work!

Hasta Luego!

Have I told anyone that my goal is to eat a mango a day, or at least teach and eat a mango at the same time?

Jacob, Happy Birthday! I’m working on a hand-written letter for ya! (Meaning, I’m hoping to start it today!) I hope your 17th b-day is great. I know it’s gonna be a great year! Mom tells me you started a lawn mowing business. That’s great! Just make sure you work hard and have good quality work so that you can have customers that want more! I’ll work on getting that letter to ya!

Angel, I’m working on a response for ya, too! I’m glad graduation was great! And if you got any more than 36 minutes of sleep on graduation night, then you are doing it all wrong! Hahaha. Ohh good times!

 

Jake, your mission sounds crazy! I’m jealous that you get to meet mofia members! Daggum! I guess I’ll get over it when I’m eating a mango and teaching. Have I told anyone that my goal is to eat a mango a day hahah, or teach and eat a mango at the same time?Don’t worry, Ill send pictures of it, hahah!

So guess what? I leaned how to fold socks for the fist time today when I was in the temple helping out. Man, I feel so cool now that I finally know how to fold socks! Blessings of service at the temple haha!

Michelle, thanks for the Health package. I’m working on a response for you to. I have like, 3 epistles to write today. Daggum! There isn’t enough time fore anything anymore. I thought daylight savings time was supposed to make it so there was more daylight and time in the day, but I swear, all I do on p-days is wakeup, shower, play basketball, eat, and say nightly prayers. It feels like I was just emailing and doing laundry yesterday. Where does the time go?!

I can’t believe I’m closing in on the end of my MTC time!

So, I’m not a district leader anymore because it switches at the halfway point. I liked being district leader, but daggum, it feels good to only have to work on studying. There is so much studying to do here.

So, me and Elder Ricks have officially started teaching in 100% Spanish. Let me tell ya'll, the gift of tougngeus is as real as the voice you are using to read this email out loud to yourself! But I agree with Jake: speaking and understanding another language is crazy. But it’s not as crazy as understanding and reading the Book of Mormon in another language. I love it. I decided that my homecoming talk is going to be in Spanish because I have worked way to hard on Spanish to just speak English when I get home! I love Spanish; it’s such a cool language! And don’t worry, I’ll help anyone with Spanish when I get home.

So I’m really looking forward to the day when I’m this blonde-haired, blue- eyed guy in mesa that has a Mexican accent! Man, that’s going to be a funny day. And I give anyone permission to make fun of me for that, hahah. Especially if I accidently start talking in Spanish, because once I get to Mexico, the only time I think, speak or use English will be in my email home! But I’m so Excited for the challenge of the language. My mission pres said we get Mexican comps, so we have to learn the language, and I’m stoked for that!

Umm, things here are great. It has been great work. I’ve been studying a lot, and my allergies have slightly been buggin’ me—but there is nothing I can do now that I’m taking my the allergy pills (thanks for those, by the way, mom) Despite the allergies, I just keep workin’.

Last night at the devotional we had some guy from the 70 talk to us, and he talked about space and about how man really is nothing and how God really does care for each of us, and how we all have purpose and just all sorts off good stuff. I decided that it’s the best talk I have ever heard! But ya, great week and I cant believe its already p-day, daggum! If I think of anything else to say ill let y’all know when I get back on around 1 for laundry time. I love you all so much and I’m so grateful for your love and support. I want you to know it is all felt and it makes a world of difference!

I’m a daggum workhorse, and I want to go to work in Mexico!

Hey! My companion has a hurt knee, so we aren’t going to the temple today. It’s kind of a bummer, but oh well! What can ya do about it?

It was nice because we got to go off campus yesterday to visit the doctor. It was some place at University Hospital, which was right across the street from Macey’s—you know that store we were at before you dropped me off. Ha, it was kind of weird to think that Katie is a 2-second walk away, but it felt soooo good to see something new. Don’t get me wrong, I love the MTC. But I’m not built for a classroom and studying all day. I’m a daggum workhorse, and I want to go to work in Mexico!

So one of the lunch register people is from Veracruz, Mexico! Me and my comp talk to her all the time. She is pretty cool, but I just love hearing about Veracruz: it makes me sooo excited. I really hope we get our visas on time. We have guys in our zone who are going on their 13th or 14th week in the MTC. I would be bummed if I end up spending an 8th of my mission in the MTC.

So I’m getting ready to start teaching the first lesson completely in Spanish. I have about 100 words I need to learn by next week, so I'll let you know how that goes! I can’t believe I have been here for a month. It feels like I have been here only a week, yet an eternity at the same time! We get so much done here: the days seem like weeks, hahah.

It’s definitely important to stay busy here. But it’s all fun and games. I’ve got the routine down, which helps a lot. My favorite days are Sundays, and then Wednesdays. I like Sundays because they are chill. I’m always in and out of meetings all day because I’m a district leader. The schedule is nice, and it gives my eyes a break from reading and studying all the time! But yea, I’m loving it here.

I decided that the new theme song to my life is “There is Sunshine in My Soul.” I just love that song. I make it a goal to sing it every morning when I wake up. I also like “Have I done Any Good in the World Today.” When I’m singing, I just imagine my self in Veracruz walking down the street teaching it up, haha.

Ohh my goodness I’m sooooo exited for Mexico. I love the MTC, but I wanna be in MEXICO! I wanna work! Something cool about this week:me and Elder ricks decided to study on the 5th floor of our building (18m). We were fascinated to see the great view it had. Pretty much all we see here are white walls, tan brick walls, and mountains—so it’s nice to get a glimpse of something new.

It’s crazy how it snowed! What the heck is up with that?! I thought it was almost June, not daggum January! This Utah weather is crazy.

So something else I have realized is just how proud of Arizona I really am haha. I get so exited to tell anyone about Arizona. Whenever there are missionaries going to Mesa or Arizona, I go and talk to them for so long about it, haha. I guess I just never realized how much I love Arizona!

So me and my comp decided that we are going to make a book and call it "How to survive the MTC Spanish Speaking” haha. And we are gonna hide it somewhere in our room when we leave so that when someone finds it in 20 years they will know all the good stuff and advise that would take them a month to figure out.

I’m sure there is so much more to say but I just can’t remember what has happened in the last week or when—just because time is all smooshed together in my mind, haha. But I’m feeling healthy this week and studying hard to learn Spanish. I’m always doing some activity on Spanish.

Thanks for everything! I love you all, and it’s always nice to hear how things are going back in the good ‘ole Mesa, AZ!