Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Letter: 9-18-13

Family,

So last week I wasn't able to write as much as I wanted to, because it was my first p-day and we were all just figuring everything out, so today I'll give you every nitty gritty detail! And btw, there is handwritten mail coming your way! (Spanish to Dad)
So here's a rundown more or less of my weekly schedule! Mondays are good, nothing too special on Mondays. Instead of going to the gym for exercise though, we stay back and do whatever we want, which is called personal exercise. Me and elder Ellis from my district usually go running 3ish miles, which is keeping me from not getting too fat from all the food! On Mondays we also have something called TRC, but I'll talk a little bit about that a little more later. Not sure if that was happening back when you were in the MTC dad, but it's awesome! Later we have TALL, which I'll talk about more too, and then the rest is classes and preparation time. Every day, we have 16 hour work days, and there are no breaks. It is work for 16 hours. 
Tuesday is pretty neat because we get a general authority to speak to us. We have had 2 from the seventy come so far. Off the top of my head, I can't remember their names, but they are always amazing! I mean one of the seventy talking to us directly....it's pretty cool! Also, our whole district, all 6 of us, have joined the choir! It is super fun! It is also a nice hour break on Sundays and Tuesdays during our long days. We also go the gym, which is awesome, because we play volleyball every day :) Other than that, Tuesday's are too different then any other day.
Wednesdays...now this is our P.day, our break/preparation day! Every P.day, Wednesday, we get to go to the temple early in the morning and do whatever we want. Today and last week we went and did boys sealing to parents! It is SO amazing! I never knew what the marriage inside the temple would be like, but now I have seen it done for the dead. The man there said the living ordinance of marriage is a little bit different, like an extra sentence or two, but it's super cool! I love being in the temple! It just takes all the stress of the week away!!! Also on P.day we have our hour to email anyone, which we do as our laundry is going. There are computers in the laundry room which is really nice! So a rule in the MTC is that you can write to anyone any day, but only email people on P.day, but our Branch President added his own rules, and that includes only writing letters on P.day as well! Sometimes I question, but then I realize he is a man called of God and that it is for our benefit. We don't have gym time on Wednesdays, but can work out if we want with all our extra free time.
Thursdays aren't too special, they're literally just a normal day at the MTC, not bad of course, but busy and the whole time is filled with classes and what not.
Fridays are also normal, but at we have gym at night! Friday night is the best gym time because we get to go the a field between the temple and the MTC grounds and play soccer :) Man are those some good times!!! Soccer with a bunch of missionaries, oh yeah!!!!
Saturdays are also good, but they are the same as Thursdays, nothing in particular that make them stand out.
Sundays are the big different day, because of the fact that we go to sacrament and also to priesthood meeting! Me, another elder, and one more elder in our zone can play the piano, so last Sunday I got to play the hymns for Sacrament meeting, and I get to play the hymns for Priesthood meeting next Sunday! The Branch President's wife is SO nice, and she got me the Spanish version of the hymn book, spiral bound, with my name on it! It is super great, but yeah! So also on Sunday nights we have a speaker, not usually from the seventy though, just other people that are in the MTC program. And that's a normal week!
So I don't know if my visa is fine yet, one elder in our district is going in tomorrow to get his visa, but the rest of us haven't heard anything yet. It should be fine though because we still have like 4 weeks.
The CCM has been super great so far!!! I feel the food is getting to me though, because it is soooo good and unlimited, so I have refrained from eating so much!!! I surprisingly haven't really gained weight though.....I guess my metabolism is just that cool!!! So about the TALL program, it is pretty much like rosetta stone, but better because it teaches us how to teach lessons in spanish!!! It is really great!!
So cool story time........and it's about the TRC I was talking about. So sometimes here at the CCM I feel that the spirit isn't as strong, because whenever our teachers try to use the spirit for stories and such, our minds are just trying to translate the whole thing so the spirit doesn't work as well. So in a TRC, you and your companion go into a small room and, in a way, home teach a member of the church. So me and Elder Beifuss went in to this lady and had prepared our lesson about the Plan De Salvacion. Within 5 minutes of talking I messed up on a sentence, and was about to correct it, when she stopped me and said,"recuerda. La idioma del espiritu santo es mas importante que el Espanol." (remember, the language of the spirit is more important than the Spanish) That touched me so much!!! From then on in the lesson the spirit directed everything. I felt the spirit more then ever before!!! At the end, all of us on the verge of tears, (the sisters name was sister Applegate) sister Applegate told us," Puedo ver la luz en sus ojos! Ustedes seran finaminal misioneros!" (I can see the light in your eyes. You will be phenominal missionaries.) After the lesson me and Elder biefuss looked at eachother and all we could do was smile!!! We know how it's done now!!! Our Spanish is not great, but we have the universal language of the spirit which is most important thing!!! 
So our investigators aren't real...he is just our teacher, hermano rios. We actually got a new investigator named Pedro, and he is living with his girlfriend and they have 3 kids. Sooooo now we have to teach him about the law of chastity, so we've been praying for days our lesson with him tomorrow goes well!! 
This work is great and I continue to love more and more being here!!! I love the MTC!!! It is definitely going to be sad leaving this place, but it will be OK, we still have 4 weeks here!!! It gets hard, but the fact that the lord loves me and helps me through everything is the best feeling ever!!! You all are always in my prayers, and keep all the missionaries in your prayers, cuz now that we've gotten a little more into it, there are a lot of missionaries that just don't care very much. But it's okay!!
Yo se que El Libro de Mormon es verdarero, y es Dios. Yo se que JesuCristo fue crucifico para nosotros. Yo se que las familias son juntos para siempre. Yo se que Jose Smith fue un profeta de Dios. Yo se que JesuCristo es nuestro salvador. Yo se que Presidente Monson es el profeta verdarero en la tierra ahora, y yo se que mediante la fe en JesuCristo y su Expiacion, algo es possible!
Love you all, and there are letters on their way! (thanks for the Spanish email dad, I'm sending a handwritten letter all in Spanish to you)
-Elder Amormenos


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