Week 2

Hi everyone!! Week two is down and it has been so so busy. Every single day we wake up at 6:30, we get ready for the day, and then it’s constant learning and language for the rest of the day until 9:15. My companion (Elder Brown) and I have really been working on using our time more effectively because we don’t have a lot of free time. In the very little free time we do have, we have been having so much fun though! We have pulled off some pretty amazing pranks this week like putting spoons all over the other elders stuff, writing a note from security telling them to keep the noise down, and put big walnuts in all of their shoes and pillowcases. They have no Idea that we are the ones that did it and it is not a stretch to say that we are going to be in the next Oceans Movie haha! We have so much fun together, and when we are not messing around we are working extremely hard.

Our classes have mostly consisted of Language learning, and Spanish has been a huge part of our day every single day. They start as early as 8:00 and go until 9:15, and it is hard to focus so seriosly for so long and so late every day. We just hit our district goal yesterday by getting above an 80% on our SYL (Speak Your Language) scale! Our district has grown so close together and every day we get to learn more about each other and about our pasts. We pray together as a district almost every night, and we all can say a prayer in Spanish! Elder Brown and I do flashcards while we walk to classes, we use verbal and body language memorization techniques, and pray constantly to have the gift of tongues as we are trying to learn this language. He loves to play the piano and during his personal study time he likes to learn songs. He can play a song just by listening to it and I love to read my scriptures and listen to him try to learn new songs! Just like the atonement, it takes work, and we aren’t going to be perfect, but if we continue to try, and repent for our mistakes, we can be clean and perfect. By the end of a few minutes Elder Brown can play an entire song and I am still in awe to see his talent.

The Missionaries at the Provo MTC were blessed to hear from Elder D. Todd Christofferson, one of the Twelve Apostles! He gave an amazing talk about conversion and how we can help others to grow closer to Christ. I took 4 and a half pages of notes and review them often! I am loving my experience here and I am enduring through the hard times. My hard times are not very often, but I have been experiencing extreme stomach and chest pains that I am going to check out today lol. My companion has also been getting bug bites/rashes and even after we changed his sheets he is still seeing them appear.. It must be the air in our room making us sick or something haha!

I am so excited to continue increasing my language skills, and to grow closer to the lord. I see his hand in my life every day. I know that the harder I work, the more blessings I will receive, and I am honestly trying my best to use my time for the best things! I feel all of your prayers and support and I am so thankful for you all. I pray for you all to be blessed for supporting me, and I hope you see those blessings coming. Thank you all for your emails throughout the week, and thank you for the packages you’ve sent! I really do get a huge morale boost knowing I have so so much support!

I am so sorry, I totally forgot to include pictures in my email last week, so I will send another email with the photos I’ve taken!