First Letter from the MTC - 9-21-09

Hola Familia!!

How is everybody? I hope everyone is doing great without me. I know its probably not as fun, but I hope its all going good.

So this is my first email!! pretty exciting! I hope it works, im not sure if I set up my account correctly. Anyways, the MTC is going good! the first 2 days here seemed like they lasted for weeks. no joke, the first 2 days [were tough]. I was pretty homesick and exhausted and overwhelmed from all the new things going on. But I got past those days and the third day was faster and better and the 4th was even faster and now it just seems to fly on by. Its actually pretty fun!

My companion's name is Elder Jackson. he is 6 foot 6, so he makes me look lame. he's from Bountiful, Utah and plays lacrosse. he played for BYU last year, so i guess he's good or something... i dunno. He is really nice and we get along well. He's not like super funny or anything but I like him. Our whole district is going to Honduras. There are 7 Elders and 4 sisters. 3 of the elders and 1 sister are going to Tegulcigalpa, and the rest to San Pedro. I have become really good friends with another Elder in my district, Elder Anderson. He's going to Teguci. He's a really good kid and hes alot like me. So me and my comp and him and his comp, Elder Rawson, are basically a 4-some. Its workin out great.

Elder Rawson says the funniest things and we laugh a lot. the sisters in our district are cool too, 2 of them are weird but the other 2 are way cool. so we seem to get along great so far and i think the 4 of us will become really good freinds. Elder Rawson is really struggling with the language and everything so far. he has a really strong testimony and a desire to serve, but he doesn't think he can learn spanish. he already asked the mission pres if he could switch to an English speaking mission...the pres said NO. and yesterday he got really frusterated and wanted to leave and go home. me and Elder Anderson talked him out of it. We are doing everything we can to keep him here, but he doesnt think he can last.

A cool experience: last night at our fireside I was praying for help with Elder Rawson. I prayed that I could find a scripture to help him, and I looked down at what the Book of Mormon literally fell open too, and it was D&C 121: 7-8. Its the one about Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail and how the his afflictions will be but a small moment. So I shared this with Elder Rawson and Anderson. Elder Anderson is a super good talker and motivater, he is perfect for Elder Rawson. I know the Lord put those 2 together for a reason.

Well we only have 30 minutes to email so I have to go fast, I dunno if I can attach some pictures but I'll try. I might just have to send the camara card home by mail.

So the second night we were here we had to do alot of mixing up because one kid's companion in our district is like a perfect Spanish speaker so he isn't in our class, so he got put into a 3-some and had to take our room the second night. So me and Elder Jackson had to pack everything back up and move down the hall with some elders who are going to Argentina and have been here for 6 weeks I think. so that ticked me off but its good now, I like our roomates better now than before.

Some good news: all of the elders in our district got a note today that said we dont need a Visa to go to Honduras anymore [tjhis turned out to have been a mistake]. all we need is our passports!!! its awesome! I dont know why or how so don't ask me haha. All I know is that I'm for sure goin to Honduras and I wont be stuck in the MTC for a long time.

Anyways I love you all and i hope everything is going well. All is great here so don't worry about me, the Lord will take care of me.