Week two!

Here's another detailed update from week two (probably in a random order of thoughts so i apologize):

This week has been awesome just like the first! I continue to be humbled every day and learn so much, its crazy. I don't remember what day it was specifically right now, but me and Elder Howe were teaching a lesson to one of our investigators (a teacher) and she basically stopped us mid lesson and told us all these things we were doing wrong and I didn't realize how bad we were until she pointed all these things out and then she made some more comments in class in front of the district and I felt like a total turd. Like all my confidence in teaching went down the drain and I was feeling pretty crappy about myself for a couple hours and feeling super bummed and then when I was talking to some of the Elders about it, I totally realized that the night before I had been praying that I would be humbled... All the sudden I realized that God had answered my prayers exactly the way I had asked and I hadn't even realized it, so after that I realized I needed to be grateful for the opportunity to learn and become better. Every failure in here is immediately followed with more blessings and more capacities as a teacher or even just as a person and I am realizing more and more that I need to pray for adversity and trials so that I can become better. I think that applies to me outside of the mission too, we become better because our trials.. People always say that, but I never really understood the truthfulness of that until I got here. 

This week we have had way more teachers paying attention to us and teaching us awesome lessons so that has been great, all of the teachers here are the most incredible and inspiring people, its awesome. I have been getting sleepy a lot though, waking up at 6:00 every day has started to wear on me, but I think I might be getting used to it now. New missionaries came yesterday which was super exciting for some reason.. I think it was mostly because we were happy to not be the youngest ones anymore, and we are excited to help them adjust to the missionary life, since we're such pros now..

The spanish is continuing to progress at a miraculous rate. Elder Howe and I are trying to learn 60 new words a day which is pretty tough, but we are learning tons of new vocabulary so it's nice. Me and him are learning a lot about teaching and how before we do anything we have to connect with the people we talk to and really make them feel our love for them, otherwise all the stuff we say is meaningless. I have also learned that I need to not be so serious when I am teaching. I forget to be happy and smiley when I start talking about the Gospel, especially cause they think I don't know a butt-load of crap about the gospel, but I DO! Funny story: we were teaching and the person asked us how our missions get paid for and apparently he didnt understand the person so he starts just bearing his testimony about the scriptures or something hahaha and I knew what was going on, but he didn't really give me a chance to speak so I was just trying not to laugh.. I feel bad that all the funny stories are about Elder Howe, but I really haven't said anything too embarassing.. FOr some reason i can understand like way better than most people when it comes to listening to their accents and stuff.. ALso in one of our lessons Elder Howe was talking and he said the word "correctamundo" hahahaha instead of using the word correcto or wahtever the real word is and I was holding it together, but the teacher we were teaching just started cracking up so then I started cracking up and then the lesson was over..

One last story: We were teaching our main teacher Hermano Weist pretending to be our investigator named Raul and we were starting the lesson with a prayer so before we prayed I explained to him how we do it and I had heard that he would say stuff during other peoples prayers like halleluyah and praise Jesus and stuff so I made sure to explain that we are silent during the prayer to listen to the words and feel the Spirit and stuff and he just gives me this sly look like he knew what was going on.. So Elder Howe starts praying and Raul is like whispering these words like repeating the prayer and I just start laughing and by the end of the prayer I am cracking up, so it was kinda awkward and then I just started fake coughing and told him I was sick.. Pretty believable... Hopefully that story made sense. It was funny to me so that's all that matters I guess haha. 

We went to the temple today which was the last time we get to go cause the temple is closing so that's a bummer. But the temple is awesome. 

We had a devotional on tuesday that was super good and theres a scale that everyone goes to to weigh themselves so we went there and I weighed 175, which means I have put on a couple pounds which doesn't make any sense because I have been eating super healthy, but whatever. I'm not bitter about it as you can tell. 

Next week is Thanksgiving which will be interesting.. especially since it's on our p-day and we don't get p-day potentially. I'm not sure yet.. Hopefully we still get to email and stuff, but an apostle will be coming to speak to us which is awesome!

THe oldest district left this past sunday which was sad to see them go, they were awesome guys, but it's also super exciting and I know that time is going to be here before we know it. We have another two districts leaving this weekend so pretty much all of our buddies in the zone will be gone which will be weird, but we'll be like the oldest ones so I guess that will be cool. 

One of the Elder's in my apartment had his birthday last week which SUCKS for him, but we tried to make it a somewhat good birthday. I made him a cute little candle out of paper and crayons and put it in his cake for lunch, so that was sweet of me..

It has been super cold and rainy this week which has been cool I guess.,.. It snowed one morning during our gym time so me Howe, Hansen, and Zapata played beach volleyball for like 30 seconds and then said scr*w this and went inside.. come to find out, we were allowed to stay inside.. Missed that memo. 

Well that's all I got for this week, let me know what you want to hear about. I love getting all the letters and emails. If people write me the letters through mtcdelivery, I can't write them back unless they send me an email address or physical adress to respond to so let them know that. But those are definitely awesome to get during the week.

Just want you and everyone to know that I love this work that I am a part of. I know the message of Jesus Christ that we have to share can and will change people's lives. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, just like the Bible and it is tangible evidence that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. I know that we are given trials and weaknesses to learn and grow and become better for it. Thats the whole point of this life, so embrace life and keep pushing forward. Say hi to everyone, let them know I love them and thanks for all of the letters and packages.