May 18, 2010

Like last week and pretty much every week since I’ve been here it went UBER fast. However, I took your advice and carried a little notebook around with me and every time something happened that I wanted to share, I wrote it down; which has actually given me a lot to talk about in a very short amount of time. So here it goes.

First, it was nice to hear moms letter about her watching music and the spoken word. Every Sunday our district goes and watches it in the cultural hall. It is pretty much the highlight of our week. It is amazing how before my mission I barely ever watched a minute of one, and now I don't want to miss a week.

Next, every Tuesday night we get a general authority that comes and talks to us during a fireside. It is usually a seventy but last week we got ELDER HOLLAND!!!!! It was the most amazing thing I have ever heard in my life. When the general authorities come here it is totally different than when they speak in general conference. They are even more direct here... Can you imagine Elder Holland being more direct then he already was. I will tell you my two favorite quotes of the night.

Elder Holland- "I and 14 of my best friends have not been running around for the better part of our lives, leaving our homes and families for a fairytale!"

and "You as missionaries, don't have the right to be any less than a little child would expect you to be!"

When you think about that it is totally true. Little kids always have the highest expectations for missionaries. Elder Holland’s testimony is just incredible, being in the same room with him was just amazing.

Another thing that happens in the MTC are the LGM's. That stands for large group meetings. Everybody from your area of the world meets together and has a discussion on something usually out of preach my gospel. This week it was recognizing the spirit. I wish I were one of those people who thought out of the box, I obviously am not. The kinds of things people understand just by reading a few sentences are incredible. If you ever have free time you should pull out your preach my gospels and read for a minute. They aren't just for missionaries and you can learn some incredible things.

Alright, this week my district had a bit of a fight. A BIG ONE! Big enough that people weren't even talking to each other for a couple days! During our planning session, we have one once a week as a district. We plan things like what we want to learn and what not. Half the class decided they wanted to learn one thing and the other half another. so a Huge argument broke out. Of coarse the district leader leads these meetings because he is our leader. But one of the kids in our district (Elder Iverson) Decided that he was sick of how the district leader was running things and stood up and replaced him. You know those stories about how people in the ward tell the bishop how things should be done. Yeah... it was a lot like that. I felt so out of place and uncomfortable. It got to the point where my companion and I had to get up and walk out. I can tell you one thing; the spirit was definitely not there during that plan. Wish us luck for next week.

Alright the sunglasses are awesome. We play sand volleyball everyday, so they have been coming in really handy. Not to mention I look like a stud! jk And the bubble gun was pretty awesome. I was confused at first but then I got it working and it made my whole week we had some bubble gun wars. We have already used three of the tubes of bubbles.

Hosting was terrible. We had to miss class, and you know how important class is when you only have 3 months to learn Thai. I was bored the whole time. None of the missionaries even looked like they wanted to come in. I hope I wasn't like that!

Ok, I want to be kept updated on mom's knees! Let me know how all the stuff goes. It is pretty cool that you get that much time off work though. I'm sure dad won't mind staying home and taking care of you either.

Alright so everyone in our room has been sick the last week. Things spread like wildfire in here. But any who, I have exhausted my supply of Nyquil/Dayquil. They sell it here in the book store but it is only in liquid. I was wondering, if sometime before I leave, you could send me some more. and elder McDonald loves my lava lava's so much that he wants one but the three I have I don't want to give away because they are the two Tahiti ones and the one from Hawaii so if you could send the green one I have at home so I can give him one that'd be great. There is no rush though. I don't know what else I will need I will let you know next week.

We should get our flight plans on Thursday. So in the next email I will be able to tell you when I can call. We have less then three weeks now. This is the home stretch!!

I love you all Have a great week.