Well this time I brought my journal with me so I can actually remember what happened this week haha, all the days tend to mesh together at the MTC. BUT this week I got to hear from some awesome people! So I’ll start off from Saturday. Saturday: Nothing really happened Saturdays, but we were teaching one of my teachers and I had a really spiritual connection and talked for a while with him about things and it was just an awesome experience cause I was talking about things I hadn’t prepared at all to talk about in Spanish. Sunday: Sundays are always peaceful here. During sacrament meeting though they pick 2-3 of us in the Branch to stand up and give a talk...so it’s always nerve-wracking during the meeting because we don’t know who'll be talking haha. But it was also a district's last Sunday here which always bites to see districts leave but it’s also good to know that they’re all going to their respective fields. They all went to the Mexico Saltio Mission except for one elder who went to Chicago, Spanish speaking. This week another district will be leaving too, which means it’ll only be my little district here for about a day and a half cause next Wednesday we get 2 new districts!!!! So excited! were still the newest district in my zone because no one new has come in. (One of the cool things about being a Zone Leader too, is that we get to welcome them their first night here and get to know them and give them a tour!). Monday: Taught another of our teachers about how she can be forgiven and become closer to God. Then we taught our last TRC with Alan! Imma miss him, I took a picture with him and my companion that ill either send on here, or have it posted on the blog. Tuesday: We taught one of our teachers about the Apostasy & restoration of the gospel by Joseph Smith. For our Tuesday night Devotional We had Elder Dallin H. Oaks (Quorum of the 12 Apostles) come and speak with us along with his wife. They gave us advice on how to be better missionaries and the importance of focusing on others. After the devotional my companion and I took the Sister Training leader with us to a training meeting to get ready for our Thanksgiving activities on Thursday! But it was so cool to hear from an apostle and to be about 20 feet from him! Wednesday: Us zone leaders had more training meetings to prepare for Thanksgiving Day! Funny story there though. So our project for Thanksgiving was we were making these soup kits for those in need here in Utah. And they were teaching us how to man a team to prepare the packets. Each team had 12 people all with vital parts. So the instructor was explaining all the roles of the different positions and I kinda zoned out, and she asked me to explain all the different positions in front of everyone, and the MTC Presidency's first counselor’s wife was right behind me, I kinda messed up the positions at first but then I smooth sailed the rest! I guess I can’t zone out anywhere here haha. I also got another nice package from home!! In it were my camera batteries so guess what?? I can take pictures now!! So be prepared! I also got my Race For Lace T-shirt!! Woohooo! I repped it today around campus since its pday and everyone was asking about it, so there’s a ton of people here that know about Race for Lace and its Cause (Thanks Jeri!) and lots of letters from the Fam! Thursday: THANKSGIVINGGG= NO CLASSSS woot woot. Started the day off with a Devotional and guess who was the guest speaker... Elder David Bednar, also of the quorum of the 12! (and one of my personal favorites). He came with a lot of cell phones which he passed around and had us text questions to his iPad and it was pretty much a Q&A session which was really neat and fun! my questions didn’t get answered by him however but he said those whose questions didn’t get answered that we need to pray about it and search the Book of Mormon (I agree with him cause that’s where all answers are I believe) a key note I took from him was this " We have 2 years to serve the Lord, and the rest of our lives to ponder on how we served" also " We will go from being full time missionaries, to being lifelong missionaries after. Then we had an unusual devotional and after that an awesome Thanksgiving lunch (dinner stunk because it was a brown bag meal with not so good sandwiches) and then our service project!! My table boxed up 17 .5 boxes! With 48 bags of meals in each! And then after that we watched Meet the Mormons!!! AWESOME movie!! Go see it! I can’t wait to talk to yall next week! Don’t forget to email/ write me! I’ve got just over a week left in the US!! Also I got my travel itinerary!! I leave Provo at 6am, Fly from Salt Lake City to ATL, From ATL to Managua Nicaragua and arrive at 9pm!!! The journey will begin December 9th!!! I love yalll!! Talk to you in a week!! Oh and check out my blog!

Well this week has been yet another interesting week! But like always, lots of spanish and little sleep. Im starting to get used to not much sleep now haha. But my spanish is getting pretty awesome now and gets better every day! Miracles happen here at the MTC. On Tuesday we were teaching in TRC and i felt prompted to invite Alan to be baptized and he said YES! But like i said a few weeks ago, im pretty sure hes an actual member. And so later in the seek we talked to him about obedience and all of that good stuff and next lesson were going to talk about a commandment or 2 with him. Other than that we've been teaching more lessons and learning mas espanol. I got my 1st package this past saturday too! talk about a bittersweet moment. the little ones all made special letters and christian made a little "envelope" for his letter and i also got little goodies from the family. Wednesday was a tough day for everyone here and after class i just went to the room, went through all the letters and felt a little homesick, but extremely comforted at the same time. This week weve focused alot on "How does Christ help me & see me?" & "How can I speak, think and act more like the savior?"  Christ has done more for us than we can imagine. Because of Christ, I can return to live with my Father in Heaven, You can live to return with our Father in Heaven, We ALL have the opportunity to return to live with our father in Heaven. As a missionary, we stand right beside Jesus Christ, and we stand here proudly and honorably. I love this opportunity i have to stand beside my Savior. To help ease his burdens. I cant wait to get out in the field in Nicaragua and find that person who God has been preparing to hear this message of the Gospel from me. I heard someone say to us this week say that we were called to speak spanish for our mission because thats the language we teach the gospel best in. Its hard to believe that now, but maybe ill look back soon and realize what he said was right. My district has made considerable progress in our langauge here. With faith in Heavenly Father, he will help us have the Gift of tongues by the Holy Ghost. I love it here, minus some issues with the food... Wednesday i got to be a Host for new missionaries and it was an amazing experience! to be that first person to welcome someone to the MTC after they leave out from under Mommas wings lol. I hosted 4 Elders and gave them individually a little tour and then dropped them off at class. Neat Experience! Well time to go! keep up the letters! i love them and all of you all! I cant think of much to say else, I got a really nice journal though that ive been using but i forgot it in my room, ill bring it next week so this email will be more detailed haha. Also on thanksgiving its a day of service here and a higher General Authority in the church will be here! this past week we had Sister Burton ( General Relief Society President) and someone else come for our devotionals! Love you guys! cant wait for next week! also no pics this week :/ Amanda will update my blog with some pictures she got from me this week so check it out!

Well this week has been alot like the rest. Tired, mind blown by all the Spanish, and always spiritual. Nothing really happened Saturday cause i was in class for 10 hours. Sunday was bittersweet, It was one of the Zones last sunday because they were leaving to start their missions in Mexico! But my companion and i took the new assignment of becoming Zone Leaders. Lots more responsibilities but we also have a cell phone now! Even though it can only call security and the front desk and our Branch Presidents home/cell, but i have technology again!!!! Every Sunday we take a walk to temple as a zone and its so peaceful. We also had a Devotional where Bishop Davies spoke at ( 2nd Counselor in Presiding Bishopric) But i forgot my notes in my room about his talk. Lo siento. Monday we were supposed to teach one of our Teacher (she role plays as a lady named Areli) but right after we were about to, she got a call saying her grandfather had passed so we didnt end up teaching her. But later in the afternoon we taught our TRC investigator Alan another lesson. I always love teaching Alan ( weve heard hes an actual member of the Church) He now offers prayers in our lessons which is awesome! Also monday there was a Hermana in our District, Hermana O'Neill that finally got her Visa and headed out to the Spain MTC and so her companion, Hermana Sagapulo. Its very different being in a trio. Tuesday we had service at 6:15 again and later that day we had something called Member TRC where we pretty much teach a mini lesson/ spiritual though with a member and leave them with a commitment and we did that twice. The first guy reminded me of my granpa so it was really awesome, Love you Grandpa! and the 2nd guy seemed a little more hardcore though. but after our lesson we had a converstaion with us and the said " You guys got here 2 weeks ago, and you just held a 30 minute conversation with me in Spanish, Im so proud of you guys" So that was a really uplifting lesson. The we had a Devotional Where President Condie spoke at. Wednesday and thursday were basically Class, Class, and more class. I can Teach in spanish now without notes and its an amazing feeling.And it SNOWED YESTERDAY  Today we went to the temple, came back and did laundry... and someone stole my laundry bag which really irritated me because now i have no place to put clothes and also i had to walk all the way from the laudry room to the bedroom with a heaping pile of dirty clothes and people looking weird at me. and here i am writing this letter on the computer! I love you guys and miss you all so much! Things can be tough sometimes but i know ill always have Heavenly Fathers support and yalls support! I know that the Holy ghost and Faith can work miricales in life, especially here at the MTC. I came here a little over 2 weeks ago and was struggling with spanish. Now im able to teach a 30 minute lesson, without notes, a lesson that actually makes sense, and a lesson guided by the spirit in Spanish. The gift of tongues is real, but you have to work for it and put forth faith. At times its frustrating here, But i always get a reminder that im preparing myself for that 1 person or multiple persons waiting for me in Nicaragua to hear about this Gospel and to help them come unto Christ.  I love you all and im loving the Dear Elders & also the letters taht you guys are sending! it makes every day easier! LOve Y'all :)

 Fri, Nov 7, 2014

So this week has been alot more studying and lessons as usual. Ive probably taught at least 1 lesson a day minus sunday to investigators but im not complaining because its very beneficial and it teaches us to connnect with others and follow the spirit. Sunday night we had a nice devotional by a member of the 1st seventy which was pretty cool, Elder Goldan. Hes south african and pretty cool, he had an important message also! Sorry again for all the typos/grammer problems but in 2 years ill have spell check again :P. Monday was basically a normal day (8-10 hours in the class room) But my spanish understanding is ALOT better. El Don de Lenguas es reál. Teaching is still a little difficult, still using a smnall script but making myself and my companion rely on the spirit more. Tuesday morning we walked to the Marriot center and joined some BYU students for a special devotional by another member of the 1st quorum of the 70 David F. Evans, which was pretty sweet! then after that we went back to the  normal 3-4 hour long sessions in class.. which isnt as bad as it seems because alot of learning is done. Tuesday Night Sister Nelson ( wife of Elder Nelson of quorum of the 12) talked to us and it was really neat. Everyone tends to hit on the importance of missionaries and our purpose and it just reiterates our importance of inviting others to come unto Christ. Food is great here. People are great here. Just about everything is great here. Alot of opportunities to be selfless. My Branch Presidency is pretty much our adopted parents, they all give us elders hugs when they see us and their wives give the sisters hugs whenever they see them too! And I learned ill be having more responsibilities which ill tell yall about next friday!Tuesday we also had to wake up early and be in service clothes at one of the buildings on campus at 6:15 to clean it for 75 minutes. Wednesday we had 11 hours in class and taught our "investigator"(our new 2nd teacher). Missionaries Eat, Sleep, Study in spanish, Teach in Spanish, and somewhere in between there we have 50 minutes to workout( I usually go out to play volleyball with poeple)  Yesterday my companion and i taught our TRC investigator ( 60% chance theyre an actual investigator). His name is Alan and hes awesome! hes a student at BYU studying IT. But we read him the last 2 paragraphs in the introduction for the book of mormon and briefly talked about it and the restoration. we also had early morning service also! Today is the day that everyone in my zone looks forward to because its PDAYYYYYY. Started off my day by going to the temple and after that was able to grab some food in the basement caferteria. TEMPLE FOOD IS AMAZING fyi.. then we did laundry. I had to teach all the elders how to do laundry. Man if only they had a mom like mine that taught/made me do laundry haha. then we went to the outdoor sand volleyball field and played some volleyball, and HERE I AM! I love and miss you all! But i just wanted to bear my testimony before i leave! Yo se que la iglesia esmuy veredaro, yo se que el evangelio de jesucristo bencides nuestro vivas. The spirit is very strong here at the MTC. Every day i learn more and i feel more of the spirit. This church is true. This is Christs Church. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.