Hola todos! So I've only got two and a half weeks left. You'd think I'd be pretty antsy to go by now, but I'm actually not yet. I'm going to miss this place and these people.
The temple is open again! We got to go this morning, and as we were walking up to the door, who should we see walking in but President Tyler (his MTC Branch President)! Oh, the fountains of knowledge that were poured out upon us today! That guy blows my mind when he's not in the temple. So he was in the same session with us, taught us some awesome stuff in there and ate breakfast with us and told us more awesome stuff. The only thing keeping that man out of the Quorum of the Twelve is that we need him so badly here.
Also, it was just nice being back in there, remembering what heaven feels like and how badly I want to live there forever (heaven, not the temple). So visit the temple soon if you haven't recently.
Wilmer got baptized last Saturday. We invited Nicolas to his baptism and this was a good move. He feels much better about baptism now and is completely committed to being baptized next Saturday. We've been teaching him the commandments and so far so good. We started teaching the Vasquez family this week, which consists of Gabriela and her twin 17-year-old sons, Mario and Luis. We've taught them twice, and it was kind of weird getting used to teaching more than one person at a time, but our second lesson went really well. We taught them about the restoration, recited the first vision from memory (in Spanish!), and gave them a Book of Mormon. They're a lot of fun to teach.
Some bad news: my camera broke. It was pretty lame. It happened while we were chillin' at the temple on Sunday. I handed it to someone to take a picture of our district and let go before they actually had control of it. The stupid thing is, I was sitting down at the time, so it only fell about 1 1/2 feet down and landed in the grass. So I'll send that home to you today and let you decide what to do about it.
Good news: Elder Rice went to Salt Lake yesterday to the Mexican Consolate to sign his visa! So he'll be leaving on time. Elder Duncan is going today for his. I don't really know how this all works or anything, so I can only keep praying mine and Elder Ringer's will come on time. But to me this seems like a good sign.
Believe it or not, there's not actually air conditioning in the MTC. It has been mucho calor lately, but luckily, we've had a fan in our classroom that we took from a district who just left. Wednesday, some teacher came in and asked if he could borrow it for his classroom, so we let him. But they didn't return it the next day. We were dying, so we decided to take it back. Luckily, the district who stole it from us was dumb enough to plug it into the wall in the hallway and leave it in the door way blowing into their classroom, so Hermano Lee devised a plan to get it back. We were all going to go into their classroom, crown around the front of the fan, and sing "Jesus es mi Luz" (The Lord is My Light), another one of those hymns that is way better in Spanish, while Elder Duncan stole their fan. Yes, we have the best teachers in the MTC. But our plan worked out way better than we ever could have imagined. When we went over there, the other district was singing their opening hymn, so we decided to just steal it during their opening prayer. Before the prayer, one of the members of their district moved the fan completely into the hallway and then shut the door. Way too easy. So we have our fan back.
Speaking of Hermano Lee, we met his fiance this week through the gate around the MTC. She's pretty awesome.
Thank you very much for the bread with the honey butter. Everyone loved it. It got here on Elder Bonner's last day, so that was kind of a fun little goodbye party for hime. Also, thanks for the pictures. Pictures are great, because they remind me that you're actually real people, and that my life before the MTC isn't just some strange dream that didn't actually happen. What a weird life I live...
So you're probably wondering if I've seen Breton and Andrew (close friends from high school who went into the MTC this week). The answer is yes, and no. I saw Breton at dinner on Wednesday and talked to him for a while. He seems like he's doing great, and his companion seems cool too. I haven't seen Andrew yet, but I've been looking. I really hope he's doing ok and that he actually made it here and that I see him soon.
Everything's going well. The Spanish is really coming. I feel like everything's really natural now and I don't have to think quite as hard to say what I want to say. Thanks Granny, Erick and Liz (uncle & aunt), Teresa (aunt), and anyone else who's written me since I got here that I haven't thanked yet. Thanks for your prayers and support--I can really feel them. I couldn't be doing this if this wasn't the true church, but it is. This is the Church of Jesus Christ. He lives, and through him, we can live together forever. Love you all! See you soon!
Elder Pew
