Letter #2 9/26/12 Goodbye MTC!!

Hey Family!!! Things are going great!! I got the packages from everyone! Thanks so much!!! It's pretty funny, my district loves me and hates me at the same time because I've had 11 packages out of the 13 days I've been here so far. Sooo they hate me for that. But I share EVERYTHING with them. And there's so much, that sometimes I just give them an entire package. (sorry...) Really though, I can't keep up with all the food haha the MTC keeps us well fed. It's the worst food for you, greasy school food stuff, but it's all you can eat which can be nice. I've tried to limit how much I eat, and I don't think I've been too bad about it. Package of the week goes to.... DAD!! Haha!! The Jones package was amazing!!! Seriously!!! I've had to drink like one a day to keep up. Luckily, I gave one to each of the guys in my district and we're going to celebrate with them the night we leave :D It's pretty fun. It's crazy how quickly things have gone by!! At the same time days last forever!! The tennis shoes I brought ripped, so I've been dealing with it, but I think that I'm just going to toss them out rather than bring them. Are you OK with me purchasing a new pair when I get to N.C.? Just let me know. Also, I didn't realize I would need gym socks, so I'll probably purchase some of those while I'm at it. If that's ok with you. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO PARKER!!! No I didn't forget :) I'll try to send something home when I get to N.C. for you, that ok? If you have any requests just send them in with mom in her letter this week ^^. Also, a pre-emptive HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Ryan and Mom!!! It's weird that I'm missing your birthdays, not going to lie. Well, different, maybe not weird. Hope that they were, and will be, great :) I'll be thinking of you, and if I find anything worth sending to you, i will :) If you want any MTC merchandise as well, just let me know and I'll try to send it to you. Just let me know if you want anything!!

On to Mom's questions--

Monday I have to get up at like 3AM so I can be at the travel office at 4AM. at which point we will be taken to SLC airport. Our flight leaves at 7:15 and flies to Georgia. I think we get into Georgia around 1:15? But i'm not positive. I'll send the actual times in my letter home. If you'd like, i can probably get a call in at SLC, but that'll be pretty early. Then I have about an hour layover in Georgia where i'll also be able to call home. Let me know what works best :) 

I've been feeling pretty good!! A lot of people have gotten sick, and the past 3 days I had a runny nose and a bit of a cold, but Today I woke up without being stuffy so I think i'll be good for now. UC has been fine, no irritation, but my bowels just don't really like the MTC food much. It's so bad for you!! And I don't think my body is used to breakfast and 3 meals a day, so It's had some adjusting to do. Companions are great! I'll send home a letter with more about them, and pictures of everyone in the district, and their names. I can't remember what I said last time but they're both from Arizona, they're a little quirky, but they tolerate me so we get along just fine ;). 

Yes still working with Investigators. We teach Hannah for the last time tonight. still don't really know what we're teaching her though. Last time we taught her things got a little frustrated on both ends. We were trying to explain the holy ghost, and try to find situations where she might have felt it in her life. But every time we asked a question, she wouldn't really give an answer, and eventually she just told us that we were fishing for answers and she didn't know what to tell us. Elder wagner closed with a testimony, as did I, but I'm not really sure how things went. I think things with Mark are going pretty well. He has a drinking and smoking problem and we taught him the word of wisdom last time, but he responding positively to everything we teach. He came to church on sunday with his son, and met the bishop and had a very positive experience so I think things are going well there too :) everyone else we already taught for the last time since we leave monday, and tomorrow is "In-Field Orientation", but I don't know what that is. I can't wait to get out in the field though. I don't know how Landon and Matt suffered through 8-9 weeks here. I've only been here 2 and I can't wait to get out, even if I'm not ready. I feel like I can progress more if I'm thrown into the fire. BUT!! I'll be in N.C. for General Conference!!! It makes me sad that I won't be up at the Cabin with you guys. That was seriously the best experience last year when Lexi, Mckell and I all went down to glendale and just went four wheeling and saw the trees and aw man it was just awesome. Best time of the year :) and I remember the conference talks were great. Gah. Just a great experience :) but I'm sure N.C. will be amazing as well and I can't wait to tell you about it!!! There are 11 elders in our district, our district leader is Elder Campbell. I'll send pictures, but their names are -- Colorado springs people are  Elder Campbell and Elder Lee; Elder Gruwell and Elder Clark; then the North Carolina people are Elder Wagner, Elder Snell, and myself; Elder Gillespie and Elder Moses; and Elder Baird and Elder Steele. So just over half of our district is going to N.C. so I'll probably see them pretty frequently!!

I'm glad parker is doing well with School, I'm glad you guys are redoing kaitis room! That sounds fun!! I'm sorry to hear that Kaiti is having some pain... I'll be sure to keep her in mind :) and that sounds like she had a perfect homecoming date!! Rockclimbing and the temple? I hope she showed them all how to do it!! I have been to the temple, and I'll be going again in about 5 hours. Church is all over the place, but I enjoy it!! Lots of study time here, so It's a bit of a break from all the teaching and working. The Temple dedication was awesome!!! i got to listen to the 3:00 dedication, and Elder Packer is hilarious!! Most of the devotionals have been very inspiring, but I can see now how lucky Matt was to have an apostle!! We only have one more devotional, on Sunday, and general authorities usually come on tuesdays for MTC specific addresses, so i missed my chance :/ But we had two people who were from the 70, the first one was dry, but the guy this tuesday was awesome so I enjoyed it! P-days we do laundry, write letters, plan for teaching, go to the temple, and eat. Not a whole lot to do here at the MTC haha but for exercise everyday I play 50 minutes of basketball which is way fun!!!

I think my time is running out and i gotta get my laundry, but write me about what you guys might want from N.C. for your birthdays and I'll make it happen!! If you want to know anything else, just write me and I'll make sure to write back thursday or monday, I dont' know when my P-Days in the field are. I'll call on monday, we can talk then!!! I'll keep you in my prayers, hopefully kaiti gets better!! Keep the packages and letters coming, I love you all!!! Call you on monday, and write when I can!!! TRY to enjoy conference at the cabin, even though I won't be there ;) tell matt Hello when he gets back from Mexico!! Bye!!!!

Just saw dad's letter, sorry, Sorry Mom, Parker is right... The Red is my favorite :) Strawberry Lime!!! Dad, love that scripture!! We read it just yesterday. Very cool :) there's so much to learn in the scriptures!! Something cool I connected with this week was 3 Nephi 27 and 2 Nephi. 2 Nephi is awesome, minus the isaiah scripture. and 3 nephi is just amazing all around. Who doesn't love jesus? And I forgot my signoff phrase!! Just throw it in, HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!! (and stay classy ;))

Letter #1 9/21/12 Doing Great in the MTC!!

I love you too mom :) My first few days have been pretty great!! I sent a letter explaining a lot of it, but I'll write here again because that could take a couple days :) My companionS (yes plural, I have 2) are Elder Wagner and Elder Snell. They're both pretty cool guys, and they can tolerate my humor so we get along. Wagner is from mesa Arizona, and Snell is from Yuma Arizona. Our days consist of classroom where we learn a little bit how to teach and what to teach, we do little exercises, but mostly we role play with our teacher. So we have 4 "investigators" (I didn't put this one in your letter) our teacher Sister de Boer is Hannah, who we struggle to connect with but last time we taught her we found a way in through school and got her to read the BOM. Our teacher Brother Cowan is Mark, who is a little depressed because his wife left him. He's been pretty downhearted, but his son Chris joined the church and so we're having pretty good success with him. That's for our classroom studies. We also have Zone teaching, but my time role playing a missionary in Zone teaching is over. Zone teaching is with our whole zone, which is probably like 50 people. I teacher an "investigator" named Jacob who is an Atheist. I've had a surprising amount of success with him, and I don't think it was because he was being nice. Our last teaching sort of thing is TRC (I think that's teaching resource center) where we teach Daniel (pronounced Danielle since it's spanish) Limon ( same rules) who is a major catholic living in Texas. We've heard from other companionships that often they cant even get through the door with him until their 3rd visit. We happened to get in on our first :D We havent taught him anything yet, he isn't quite open to religion, but we're going to try next time. We got Mark to commit to baptism, so I think things are going pretty well. Its crazy that it's only been 8 days though. On one hand it feels like forever since I said goodbye, but on the otherhand it seems so short!! I've been getting up at 6:30AM everyday, today was the first time I didn't because its P-Day (thursdays are P-Days for me so i'll only have one more while i'm here) but I Should have. Instead i woke up around 7:10. Lights out is at 10:30PM, but because it's the first week we've been staying up talking, getting to know each other. Food is tolerable, Parker would like it because it's all you can eat, but I'm still paranoid about getting chubby so I only get one plate. I've seen basically everyone I could! I Saw most of my friends within the first 24 hours, namely Elder Robinson and Elder Lichtenberg, but I also saw ALL my Spring roommates as well so it's been fun to catch up with them!! It's a crazy place. There've been inspiring moments, spiritual moments, but also depressing, disheartening, and stupid moments. It's all part of the schedule I guess. Mess up here while Salvation isnt on the line I suppose. But that's been the gist!! I have LOVED all the packages and letters!! You are all so awesome!!! My whole district is pretty jealous because I've been like 5/7 for packes per day, while they've all received maybe 1 or 2. So i've enjoyed that :) by the way this letter is generally to everyone, so if anyone else has similar questions you can show them this. But I love you mom, I really appreciate what both you and Dad have done for me. I forgot to mention it, but take a look at D&C 68, the first 10 scriptures talk about the blessings of missionaries, but I think that it applies to missionary families too. I hope you take comfort in that :) Also, i was looking for a signoff phrase, like "stay classy San Diego" and I think I like Hurrah for Israel, like said in "The Other Side of Heaven". So thats my sign off phrase to everyone, because it means something different in every situation :) Hurrah For Israel!!

OH!! also, my leave date is scheduled between october first and the third. So I'll officially be in North Carolina for Conference weekend. Pretty neat, right? It's neat ;) just thought I'd tell you. and I've got about 3 minutes left, so I'll read the other letters, but hopefully you've received my pictures!! and get my letters in the mail!! I look forward to more letters and packages this week :) annnd, if it isnt too hard, Jones is like the best thing in here. Really. So if you have the opportunity, that was the best thing about the package :) I loved everything in the package, but the Jones was especially good. Have a great week Mom!! Take care of Parker and Kaiti. Dad too :) strangely he really really likes attention from you. So throw him a bone and give him some attention to him to :) ) LOVE YOU!!!!