Family,
Before I say anything else, I want to say thank you so much for all
of the letters from family, friends, cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandparents.
It means the world to me!!!!! It makes my week and helps me feel like I am not
so far away. I am sorry I can’t always respond because our email time is
limited. Please keep sending me letters, I print them off and read them
throughout the week. I love hearing about your weeks. Congratulations Hannah,
and thank you to all of the uncles and cousins for helping my dad with the yard
prep.
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| Mexico MTC Campus |
This place is so great. It really is the resort MTC. They have
tennis, football, basketball, soccer, ping pong, volleyball, beach volleyball,
pretty much any sport you want. This week during gym I mostly played soccer. I
did put my pulling skills to good use yesterday when we were playing though. I
was dribbling the soccer ball down the sideline and another elder was
coming to try and steal it. It was the softball incident all over again and I
stuck out my forearm and lowered the shoulder. The guy ended up flat on
his back and it didn’t even phase me. It felt good to play a little American
football again. Don’t worry, he was ok. He had taken out one of the sister
missionaries earlier in the game. But I totally trucked him. One day I ran
around the old school gravel track (Claire) in the rain. And this morning I
played a little tennis. Though there is a lot of great recreation, the food is
not so great. Average. The first week we got special treatment because of the
Mexican Independence Day. We had quality, traditional Mexican food like tamales
and several other dishes I had never had. They were great! Now it is back to
the mystery meat cafeteria special. We get a lot of chicken but I have a hard
time eating it because it reminds me too much of the cow heart dissection we
did in sports med last year. For breakfast I have a bowl of all bran with
strawberry yogurt and a banana. Lunch is hit and miss because it depends on
what they are serving. Dinner is usually ok, but there is always cereal and PB
and J as a backup plan. It rains almost every night here. I am so glad I have
all my rain gear. Some of the missionaries rooming with us are going to Antofagasta Chile up by the desert and they
don’t even have a raincoat or umbrella. Classes are going very well. We
literally study from 7:30 am to 9:30 pm. I feel like things are going much
better this week. I understand the language pretty well and can teach a lesson
using the words I know. We have a great district and everyone gets along really
well for the most part. Sundays, Tuesdays and P-days are the best. Sunday we
get a break and enjoy listening to devotionals and get to watch quality church
movies like Joseph Smith, The Restoration, stuff like that. Tuesdays we watch
or receive a devotional after dinner from an Apostle or General Authority. Tuesday
is also pizza night and we get huge pizzas from Costco so I eat all I can. One
thing I forgot to mention about the food is that it seems to have the opposite
effect of the Provo MTC. Instead of gaining weight I have already lost six
pounds. One of my friends told me that he has lost 20 pounds here. I have heard the
same from a couple other elders.
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| Olympus High School Missionaries at the Mexico MTC |
I have made a lot of great friends here. I have met a couple of missionaries
that leave for the Pingree’s mission next week, and they are awesome. They are
in my zone and have been really great to me. One of the kids who used to be in
my district lived in Torreon, while his dad served as the mission president
there. I met Murray’s QB for the last three years. He is a pretty cool guy. I
also am in the same casa as one of the SkyView players. He admitted the pass
they won the game on was incomplete. It is amazing to see the maturity in the
1st week missionaries and the 6-week missionaries. Sooo different.
I have had some really cool experiences this week. I gave one of the sisters in my district a blessing earlier in the week because she was feeling sick and asked. It was a good bonding moment for the district and I had a couple elders tell me how much they appreciated it. One of the elders in our district is really struggling. He is very shy and hasn’t ever taken Spanish. I had the opportunity to testify to him that everything would be ok and that the Lord has called him to succeed and not to fail. The spirit was really strong and we were both on the verge of tears. It was a very strong prompting and I felt like it was exactly what the Lord wanted me to do. My companion and I are doing very well. Rather than struggling with not having enough to say in our lessons, we run out of time. We work well together. Even though things are going much better, there are still a lot of difficult times. I felt a lot of comfort last week when I re-read Meisha’s letter and my Patriarchal blessing. I make sure to do my part as well by working hard and trying to be obedient. I see so many blessings every day and I feel like I learn way beyond my capacity every day. It is very remarkable. This week I blessed the sacrament in Spanish. I had flashbacks to blessing it back home and it was a really fond memory and I enjoyed doing something so familiar.
I have seen miracles this week as well. I sprained my ankle really badly during gym and I thought it was going to be a really long recovery. I woke up in the night a couple times because it was hurting. The next morning, I took some ibuprofen and by lunchtime it was completely better, aside from some bruising around my foot. The swelling had gone down significantly and there was almost no pain. I haven’t had a problem with it since. Those are a few of this weeks highlights, I wish I could share some more but it is impossible to share everything with you guys. A mission is so incredible. The temple was really great last week! I felt so uplifted and the spirit was really strong. We got to go through in English with headsets, next time it will be in Spanish though. We go every other week.
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| Mexico City Temple |
You guys would be surprised how much I miss yard work. I often want
to go work with the landscape crew. They are pruning the trees outside our casa
and I am very jealous. I would love to be dragging branches around the yard. I
also really miss raking leaves surprisingly. I had a couple moments this week where
I just had the urge to go rake. Goofy, I know.
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| Outside Will's Casa, Mowing in the Rain |
Dad, we had a great devotional about involving members in missionary
work and think you should take a look at the new church website on hastening
the work. I am sorry I don’t remember what it is called. But I found it very
motivating and know you will too. It is important for the members to help the
missionaries.
Grandpa Paul’s weekly report cracks me up, love the detail. I love it!
Sorry, these are all just random thoughts that keep popping into my
head.
I am so jealous about the ski passes. I think I deserve a new pair
of skis when I get back because I didn’t get the Deer Valley, Alta, and Park
City passes when I was in high school. Claire take advantage of those!!!!!!!!
for real!!!!!!!! I was crying when I read that. There is some great skiing on the
Jordanelle side of Deer Valley.
I wish I could write for hours and tell you everything. It is too
much to describe. Thank you for always being there for me. I think of all of
you all day!!!!! I pray for each of you each night as well, my heart
reaches out to each of you!!!! Like I said, I wish that I could talk forever, there is so much that I want to tell you. I love you all so much!!!
oh esta todo bien
P.S. They are still launching fireworks here, although I am not sure
which ones are fireworks.
