Wow, is this already my third email? Que Loco! Anyways, some pretty crazy stuff happened this week. Here we go.
First of all, I got to meet my mission president and his wife. The
new mission presidents all got here Saturday for their little Mission
President's seminar, so that night each of them met with their future
missionaries. It was pretty cool. I got to see all the other guys
going to our mission (remember Cameron Rogers from my UC Strikers team?
He's going there too!). Mom, I did see that Elder Morales you asked
about, but I didn't ever talk to him. President Wagner seemed pretty
cool. He's super smart and nice and his wife is really friendly too.
So that was fun.
Because of the mission president seminar, we were inconvenienced
all week. The whole main building was closed, including half the
cafeteria, and so was the gym because it was permanently set up for
devotionals. But it all paid off on Tuesday night. Our devotional
speaker that night was L. Tom Perry, and also in attendance at the
devotional was Russell M. Nelson, Jeffrey R. Holland, M. Russell
Ballard, Dallin H. Oaks, Quentin L. Cook, D. Todd Christofferson, Neil
Anderson, Richard G. Scott, and David A Bednar. That's right, 10 of the
twelve apostles were there! Oh, and I forgot to mention that the entire
first presidency of the seventy was there as well. The feeling in that
room was incredible. Wow.
So the teaching is going well. We started with two new
investigators this week: Nicolas and Wilmer. Nicolas is a little more
difficult than Leonardo. He's super nice and friendly, but kind of
weird. Like, he asked Elder Ringer and I if we were gay. He did it
politely, but still, weird. Then, while I was giving the opening
prayer, he repeated every word I said out loud. And he wouldn't take
our Book of Mormon. But other than that, the lesson went pretty well.
We taught him the right way to pray without offending him during our
second visit, and he seems to be pretty receptive to everything we teach
him, except he doesn't feel any need to read the Book of Mormon, so
hopefully we'll be able to get him to do that next time. We taught
Wilmer for the first time yesterday, and it went really well. We had
him read Joseph Smith's account of the first vision and then look at an
illustration of it, and it really had an effect on him. It was
amazing! He was dead silent just thinking about it and the Spirit was
pretty much tangible. So he seems like he'll be golden.
Elder Ringer and I really teach well together. There's lots of
balance between each of us, we're pretty much always on the same page on
where the lesson needs to go, and our Spanish is improving rapidly. We
even taught Sunday school this week on the Book of Mormon ( in English)
and it went really well.
So to answer some of your questions, Hermana Rood has to go
everywhere either with the other sisters in our zone who live in the
same room as her or with all of us. She doesn't mind it though, because
we take good care of her. One time we even walked in a big circle
formation with her in the middle all accross the CCM, which I should
have taken a picture of. And I don't know what will happen to Elder
Duncan when Elder Bonner leaves. As of right now, Elder Bonner doesn't
have his visa yet and won't be leaving for at least another week or so.
So we'll see. Elder Ringer did have to move into our room. There was
an open bed since there were only three of us in there before.
Thanks for updating me on Sam's mission call (his old roommate from BYU). So excited for that boy! And say hi to Eric Seamons (a friend in the ward who just returned from his mission) for me.
I have been sleeping better. I got really sick Wednesday and
Thursday, so I was really wiped out those nights and slept just fine.
So hopefully that continues.
I have in fact seen Austin (another BYU roommate). Believe it or not, he lives in the
same building as us! We're on the 3rd floor and he's on the first. So
he came and visited us the other night and it was a party. He seems to
be doing just great. We took some pictures that you should be very
excited to see, so yeah, be ready.
Me he dado cuenta de los fuegos. The smoke made it to Provo and was stinking everything up the last two days.
Mom, thanks for all those letters from the other missionaries.
Everyone was amazed that I got 10 letters that day, until they found out
9 of them were from my mom. (ha, ha I knew I'd forget if I didn't send them then!) Next time, can you maybe send them one day
at a time? Because DearElder is actually pretty lame and it totally
freaked out and printed pieces of them on all different pages, so I had
to put them all together like a big puzzle. Also, you don't really need
to send me Scott's. I know what that boy's up to. Thanks.
I am very glad that my scriptures were finally found! I lost those
about a year ago and have been desperately missing them ever since. If
you could just send me the case and whatever paper is inside, that
would be great, and then I'll sort out what I need and don't. Also,
another 1-2 pairs of regular underwear would be nice! Love you!
Things are going really well. Missionary work rocks! Our district
has come really close. Some members of our district went through some
really tough times this week, but through Priesthood blessings, prayer,
and faith, all is well. It's been such a great thing to witness.
Thanks for the packages and the letters! I felt almost overloaded
this week! Those fruit leathers were a great idea. Elder Ringer and I
have tried all the flavors now, I think. They're delicious.
Congratulations Gwen on losing your first tooth. I hope the tooth fairy
brought you something nice! Timo, good job on that talk! Keep up the
good work! Thanks everyone one else for the letters and drawings.
Sounds like you liked Brave and had a fun time at Granny's this week.
Katie and Charl--letter on the way for you! Thanks everyone! I love
you all! Esta iglesia es verdadera! (the church is true) Talk to you next week!
-Elder Pew
