Elder Maxwell Gueller : June 2017

In the words of Ice Cube, "Today was a Good Day"

Hola! Elder Gueller checking in again already. Good times. And not good times. The MTC moved the cafeteria into a building because they have some show they have to set up and they needed lots of room. I never thought I would miss the cafeteria, but I do. Anyways this week has been busy and has been good. We finished all our lessons with our "first investigator" and it went pretty well. For the first few lessons, we were not great teachers, but by the end we got it to be simple and more spiritual. We spoke them all in Spanish too. I kind of hijack the lessons sometimes since I understand and speak Spanish a lot better than my companion, but we have been working on it so it is more of a ping pong effect between me, my companion (Elder Kanan), and the investigators. This way the spirit is definitely there and it is really cool because even if I miss a word or he misses a lot of words or if either of us says something really incorrectly, everyone in the room is still on the same page. What else, what else, oh we play basketball almost every day. Elder Cross is in our district and gets really frustrated by how many ridiculous three point shots I make. My companion is an even better shooter than me, so when we are on the same team, nothing but threes. I don't even know what the paint is. Never been in there. Basketball is good, we aren't really supposed to keep score, but we do sometimes, so that is a thing that happens, shhhh. We only did once. Our district has gotten a lot closer. The guys in our zone are usually pretty cool. I like Elder Scott and Elder Meiser. Elder Scott wants to be a lawyer, so I always tell him not to be a lawyer. Elder Meiser is funny. The other day some people were talking about girls and he said he saw a teacher he'd kiss on the lips in front of the first presidency. It was pretty funny. Some people here are too serious all the time. Following rules is great and important, don't get me wrong. But fun can be ok too.

On Thursday, I think(the days really blend together here), the coolest thing happened. We met at the end of the day for district study time and the hermanas in our district wanted blessings so Elder Mcinnes was chosen to say them and everyone got to stand in. That was one of the most powerful experiences I've had so far. Also that day, Elder Booth punched a bleacher during basketball and hurt himself and got a blessing that night too. He had Elder Cross anoint and Elder Jenson, his companion, give the sealing with all the elders in our district standing in. That blessing was amazing. I had a few tears even, which is big because I don't usually cry unless something is or was amazing or important. God is real. He really knows us. What a blessing this knowledge is.

We try to talk in Spanish a lot. The Elders in my room have some trouble with the masculine vs feminine concept, so it gets interesting. Some days we even do little English fasts, where we don't speak any English until a later time of day. Those are fun, except most people do not understand what I am saying since Spanish is super new, and it takes even longer for most people to respond. It gets pretty fun though. For the most part, I really like it here. There's a lot of things i don't like, but there is just so much good that is happening. It is amazing to be surrounded by so many people who want exactly what you want. I've never really experienced it before. Having really great guys in my room is an amazing blessing. I love these guys.

So I am learning lots of Spanish, lots of teaching, lots of love, and my last personal goal is to try to finish the Book of Mormon before I get into the field. The Book of Mormon is amazing. The feeling and the knowledge and the concepts that it teaches me are incredible. I know I still have a lot to learn, but I honestly think that if I had to go to Argentina tomorrow that I'd be just fine.

Everything is just like D&C 64:33 "Wherefore, be ye not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." The little things make the big things possible. Praying, reading, repenting, all of these things that are so little on their own are how we can truly find joy through our Savior, Jesus Christ. I know He lives. I know that He hears and answers prayers. I know that I am doing what He would want me to be doing. Yo se que soy un hijo de Dios. Yo se que tengo su amor. Dios vive. Yo tesifico que mediante la fe en Jesucristo y su evangelio restaurado y mediante arrepentimiento, podemos tener eterno vida. Yo hablo eses cosas en el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

Boom Spanish.

Also send me lots of emails and pictures please, those emails make my day and I can read them all the time since they gave us ipads for the duration of our MTC stay, which is weird because we won't have them in the field. But yeah send emails, even if you think they're dumb. Alright, love you all. Have a celestial week!

Your missionary, Elder Gueller

Hey everybody, I guess it has been 4 days and not 2 years which is a little disappointing, these days are long. Lots of stuff going on. Literally no free time. Sometimes we get like five minutes before bed. Good times.

So I got here and since then there is a large part of my day where everyone teaching only speaks Spanish. It is crazy. I am starting to understand a lot of the Spanish that is spoken at me though. We taught our first lesson in Spanish on Friday to a woman named Yamila. I think she is a real investigator, but I also kind of hope she is not because our lessons were not the best. It is hard to teach when you only know about 100 words in Spanish. We are working on that. We teach her again tonight which is exciting, but also going to be pretty hard. I did not know that we'd be teaching all in Spanish so fast. It is good though, I like the challenge.

My companion is Elder Kanan, he is from Kentucky and has mad 3 point shooting skills. He's pretty cool, he graduated like two weeks ago. Crazy that they let all these kids be in the same place. The other companionship in my room consists of Elder Booth and Elder Jensen. Elder Booth is pretty loud and very open about his life, he is a good guy though. Elder Jensen is pretty cool.

The MTC food is not that great. Have everyone keep emailing me during my stay here because I can always read emails on the ipad they gave me, I just can't reply until Pday, which is today obviously. Umm things are good. 5 weeks here won't be my favorite thing, but I'll make it. Oh and we went to the temple today and the temple is super cool. It is really pretty here and I did not fall asleep in the endowment session, which I thought I would but I made it through. Good times all around.

I love you guys, and keep doing what makes you happy. I might try the voice recorder soon too just to see what happens. Maybe. No prometo nada.