Week Two

Hello to my friends and family!!!

This week at the MTC was pretty darn awesome. Remember the gangster Bubba? He got sick so we didn't get to teach him anymore :( but we got our other investigator Aaron to commit to baptism! WOOO!!! That was exciting. Elder Day was struggling in the early part of the week. He didn't seem to have much desire to be awake or to teach at all. So yesterday, Elder Pope and I basically forced him to lead the lesson with our new investigator, Shannon. He was not very happy about it but he did it and he did well. We are going to do that more or else he won't be ready for Tempe. Shannon is super nice and is from Florida, and our other Investigator's name is Rodrigo and he is from Chile, which is super duper cool!! He is a stud and has a huge desire to increase his faith. 

Our district has become very very close to one another. While there are some who do a gret job at teaching me patience, they all are very strong spiritually and It's going to be hard to part ways with them on Tuesday. But we all know that we are out here to serve the people in our missions, not to make good friends.

Let me share with you a few things that I am grateful for here at the MTC. Cold showers and exercise time. I love being able to ball up hardcore for about an hour every day and then cool off in a cold shower afterwards. It really helps me deal with how long the days are here and as long as I'm not thinking about how good it would feel to be asleep, I do really well. The tri-panionship thing has been a pretty big adjustment actually. You'd think it would be easier having two companions, right? Well, not entirely. It's hard to find a good balance in lessons and I always have to be with two people instead of just one now, which is kinda weird. I love Elder Day and Pope though. We keep each other on our feet. 

Elder Pope working hard, Elder Day hardly working! :0

So the spiritual part of the week. The  Sunday devotional was a change of pace and was super cool. The Nashville Tribute Band came and played in celebration of Pioneer Day and sung about Joseph Smith and Christ and it was all through country music. It was kinda weird because i felt the spirit but was listening to country music...hmm...anyways, the major thing that I learned this week is how important it is to put others first. I discovered that if I focus my time and effort on serving others and not learning for the purpose of gaining knowledge but being able to share that knowledge, that I would be blessed hardcore. So I invite all of you to think about how you can put a larger emphasis on Christ in everyday life, by serving others and keeping him in your mind. 

I'll send out another email with some pictures, but I just want you to know that I love you all, I can feel your prayers and I appreciate that very much. Next time you hear from me I will be in Tempe!! So exciting :) Peace out!!

Some random elder asked us to do the Hakka pose before he shipped out to Alaska...it was pretty cool!

Elder Miller and Elder Baccarini, our new zone leaders.

P.S. Couple of things I forgot to mention: 1) I was called as district leader!! In the MTC this isn't a huge deal, but basically I look over the needs of everyone in the district and interview senior companions to see if there is anything the branch president needs to know about. I also conduct meetings, make announcements, etc. Nothing too exciting. Also I am travel leader when we head down to Tempe next week, so that's pretty cool. My job is basically to make sure no one misses the flight. 2) I saw Elder Brower!! He and I won't see each other much because of our different schedules but it was really good to see him. I'm gonna try and get a picture with him before I leave.