I am leaving for Argentina on Monday, and probably arriving there on Tuesday-ish. The flight is 15 hours or so with a layover in Atlanta, I think. Not totally sure.
Monday was a pretty basic day here. Just classes for 8 hours and other fun activities we usually do around here from 6:30 am to 10:30 pm. So that was cool. Oh actually a few more missionaries left. I don't know if you all know him, but Elder Brian Cox was in my zone this whole time. He is related to Mitchell and Hope and that part of the Gueller Family, so that was pretty cool. He is a really hardworking missionary and a good example. But yeah that was pretty much Monday.
On Tuesday, we went to the doctor pretty much all day. It was awesome to not be in the MTC, but also I was a little worried about Kanan's toe. Turns out he only has turf toe. That was a relief. He got some medicine and stuff. We also had to ride in a van to the foot doctor, but unfortunately for the two of us, my attempts at getting the woman driver to take us to In N' Out were always thwarted by her. So we didn't get In N' Out and took that L. We did get out of most of morning class which was a nice change of pace.
Wednesday we had another video TRC thing where we Skype with native Spanish speakers. It was rough... It is still really difficult to understand native speakers even after 6 weeks here. Argentina will definitely be rough at first, but I know that it will all work out.
Thursday was a very interesting day. We did an activity in class where our whole district wrote questions that we had on the board, just about life in general. Then we all picked someone else's question to study it out and teach it to them. The question I wrote was "What should I do when I don't understand anything being said to me?" and the question I chose to study for was "Will I ever be good enough?" This experience ended up being so cool. I had a whole page of notes and scriptures over 6 words of a question. When I had to teach the missionary that had my question, she told someone after that it was like Heavenly Father was talking directly to her, I believe that He was. The answer to the question ended up being basically that we are always working towards our own salvation. I don't remember the scriptures connected with it because I gave her my sheet of notes. My question got answered too, in a different way than I thought it would. Hermana Tung chose to answer my question, and she shared one scripture in Doctrine and Covenants. D&C 103:36 to be exact. It talks in one or two sentences about prayers of faith, faithfulness, and diligence. The answer I got was that if I work hard, pray in faith, and have faithfulness that I will not have to worry about the language. So I will be doing that and Heavenly Father will be gifting the rest to me.
In Field Orientation was on Friday. It took up nearly the whole day. We got to go to exercise time though and play basketball. I hit my usual few nonsense three point shots and missed a lot more haha. That is ok though because I just like shooting threes. But In-Field Orientation ended up being pretty cool. We learned a lot about working with members and being missionaries. It was cool, except the play was pretty strange, two Elders from my district were in it, which was also interesting. I didn't like the play very much, but it was a good example of how missionaries need to connect more with the ward, so that was a good thing to learn and sort of see in action. Ooh also we had passdown night in our residence, which is when all the missionaries who leave soon give away the stuff they have or have acquired or whatever. We handed down the shoe shine club which was awesome. Kanan started it pretty much by himself because he would shine his shoes every night that he didn't get an email or letter from this girl he likes, which unfortunately was rare. Eventually a few of us joined, and now we have a whole government set up for it, so that it can follow missionary rules and that so no single person has all the power. I wrote the whole thing and laminated the papers. The more I type about it the less cool it sounds, but I still love it haha. Also we gave away our glow in the dark room decorations, but they don't get them until we leave, so winning. I guess it is the little things that keep us all sane around here.
Today was the last Pday here at the MTC, so that means that I probably won't have time after this day to reply to all the individual emails, like I have been doing. It is sad, but it will all be good. I would still love to get emails to keep up on your lives and to hear about all the fun adventures you all are having back home. I'll do my best to keep these emails pretty much the way they have been so far. Also mail will probably take 6 or more weeks to reach me, so maybe just email me, but if you are dead sent on sending a letter then I will still love it, even if it is not really relevant when I read it. Cool, so that is that.
Preparing these last few weeks to be a missionary of our lord and savior Jesus Christ has really made me think about what that means to me. We really don't need a name tag and another country to be witnesses of our faith. We can touch the lives of all the people we come in contact with. It may not always seem like it, but someone is always watching our example, and for those of us who are Mormons, I feel like we got watched a little extra closely because people don't understand exactly what they see, but they often want to understand us. It is not anyone's job to be perfect, that has been done already, but how we live is an outward testimony of our faith in Jesus Christ. How we go about all the things in our daily life is also a testimony. Our actions show people our testimonies. I've thought for many hours about this because I am giving up two years of my youth to serve God, but it does not seem like that big of a sacrifice because of how much I am gaining in knowledge, in strength, and in faith. Yo se que Jesucristo es nuestro salvador. El puede cambiar todos las cosas en nuestros vidas ser mejor. A veces tenemos tiempos dificiles pero el rason por eso es para cambiar y ser mejor personas que no podemos solo. Soy un testigo del poder de Jesucristo y su expiacion. El podria todo el mundo si abrimos nuestros corazones a el salvador. Yo testifico que el poder del sacerdocio es real. Estoy cambiando mucho en mi tiempo aqui. Creo mas en Jesucristo. Mi relacion con Dios es muy importante en mi vida ahora y continuara estar mas cerca de Dios. Creo en Jesucristo y quiero mostrar las personas de argentina que necesitan el expiacion de Jesucristo tener vida eterna con sus familias y con Dios y Jesucristo. Quiero decir uno cosa mas que le doy Dios y Jesucristo gracias por este opurtunidad compartir el evangelio y cambiar mi vida y llegar ser muy mucho mas cerca a Ellos. Les amo y necesitamos arrepentimiento en nuestros vidas estar feliz. En el nombre de Jesucristo amen.
P.S. for all of you who are just going to go and type that into google translate here is a translation:
I know that Jesus Christ is our savior. He can change all the things in our lives to be better. Sometimes we have difficult times but the reason for that is to change and be better people that we can't be alone. I am a witness of the power of Jesus Christ and his atonement. He will change all the world if we open our hearts to the savior. I testify that the power of the priesthood is real. I am changing much in my time here. I believe more in Jesus Christ. My relationship with God is very important in my life now and will continue to be closer to God. I believe in Jesus Christ and I want to show the people of Argentina that they need the atonement of Jesus to have eternal lives with their families and with God and Jesus. I want to say one thing more that I give God and Jesus Christ thanks for this opportunity to share the gospel and to change my life and to be very much more close to Them. I love you all and we need to repent in our lives to be happy. In the name of Jesus Christ amen
Also a little run down of the pictures but not sure what order they are in, but i think this is right:
Picture of me with Elder Misseldine(Black hair and tall)
Picture of me with cartero (Elder McInnes in the coat, also cartero is spanish for mailman and he is District Leader so he basically just has the power to pick up mail and lead meetings and say rules sometimes, so just about as much power here as me, but with the power of delivering mail)
Picture of my handsome comp at the laundry place when we were bored
Picture of me with Elder Sager(Brown hair my height)
Picture of Elder Meiser taking a picture of me(He's the cute one with the camera and smug little grin)
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