Week 7~Merry Christmas~Traveling to Argentina

December 20, 2013~I got a new flight plan today!  We'll see what happens on this one.  I leave SLC on Sunday December 22 and land in Dallas, then I leave Dallas and get to Buenos Aires at 8:30AM onMonday December 23rd.  So that's the plan!  I will get to talk to you all two days later on Christmas, hopefully!  Elder Howe left this morning which was super sad.  We were planning on not saying goodbye until we got to Argentina, so that was a bummer,  but now me and Elder Hansen are comps for a couple of days which is awesome!  He is a stud.  So yeah, that's the plan, hopefully it doesn't snow again!  I'll be in touch!

December 25, 2013~It turns out that my comp and I had to stay at the Mission home yesterday while everyone else left because our mission is really far away and there were no buses.  So we are getting on a bus for about 7 hours at 11:45 here which is 9:45 in the morning your time.  I don't know if I will get to call you when I get to Feliciano, but I can call you here before I leave.  Merry Christmas!! Love you all!

I have to leave in 30 minutes to go to the bus so we are going to have to do it later.  We will get to La Paz around 6:00 my time, but we have a place to use skype there.  So I should hopefully be able to get on for about an hour around 4-4:30 your time!  So be ready for that.  Love you all! Hope you have an awesome day.  By the way, my companion is a total stud.  He is awesome! 
Sorry I am late! The bus was late!  I am ready now so try and call back as soon as you can because we don't have tons of time.

I love you all!  Sorry the skyping didn't really work out as planned.  It was great to see everyone.  I am doing great so no worries!  Life is good.  Have a great Christmas and I will be in touch soon! 

Let it Snow~Back to MTC

Thursday~ I just wanted to let you guys know that I haven't left yet....We ended up coming back to the4 MtC after about 8 hours in the airport so that was pretty apt!  I have honestly no idea when we will be leaving, could be tomorrow, could be in a week and a half.  Since Christmas time is a very busy flying time and  all of Utah is trying to leave and can't we could be here a while.  Elder howe somehow got a flight for tomorrow morning, but the rest of us are just chilling with pretty much no information.  I will be sure to keep you all updated.  I apologize for not letting you know sooner, but the good news is that if I leave before Christmas I will get to talk to you a bunch!  Talk to you soon!  Friday~I got a new flight plan today! We´ll see what happens on this one.. But I leave Salt Lake on Sunday December 22 and land in Dallas  then I leave Dallas and Get to Buenos Aires . So that's the plan!  Elder Howe left this morning which was super sad. We were planning on not saying goodbye until we got to argentina so that was a bummer, but now me and Elder Hansen are comps for a couple days which is awesome! He's a stud. So yeah that's the plan, hopefully it doesn't snow again! I'll be in touch! 

Saturday~Yep it looks like things might work out, the only bummer is that it has been snowing alllll day today so we will see what happens! Elder Howe and I were best buds, We are going to the same mission! He just got on a flight before Elder Hansen and I so we might see him there when we get down there, but if not I will probably see him at zone conferences or something.  Elder Hansen and I don't really have a classroom or teachers so we basically just join other districts or help the teachers teach their districts ( since we are such experts these days) haha.. Just kidding, we know nothing still. But we spend a lot of time with one of our favorite teachers, Hermano Avila. We also study a good bit and do some emailing since we can. 

Week 6~Last week at the MTC

Not a whole lot has happened since I last wrote home. We are basically just studying and hearing stories from our teachers about the mish and getting really excited to go. Sunday was our last Sunday here so our district sang a sweet little musical number which was awesome. We sang Joseph Smith's First prayer to the tune of Come Thou Fount.. Come Thou Fount is like my favorite song since I have been in the MTC. We listen to it every time we study haha. So yeah singing that was awesome, the Spirit was really strong. We took a bunch of pictures on Sunday also and had our departing devotional with the Branch President (Shallenberger) which was sweet. We talked about what we should do on the day we travel and what we should have and all that stuff and he told us stories about his mission and gave us lots of advice. The more stories we hear from everyone, the more we realize how dang hard the field is going to be. But also we realize how awesome and rewarding it will be.  

 

Two of our buddies Elders Creighton and Orton left on monday though, which was sad. They were in the other district that came in on the same day as us so we were super tight. I had a really cool experience saying goodbye to Elder Creighton, he really thanked me for everything that I did as a leader and told me that I was probably the person that impacted him most here in the MTC. I don't really know what I did to do that, but it was really nice. Hes awesome. 

We also had in-field orientation last friday for the whole day. Which was basically a giant review of everything we have learned in the MTC. It might have been the longest day ever but it was good. The sweet part was that it was on Main campus and I knew one of my best buddies from my BYU hall had gotten there last week so I was looking for him in the cafeteria and I found him! Chris Pratt, he is going to Brazil. We talked for a couple minutes and then out of nowhere another one of our buddies from our freshman hall showed up too! Mac Wright is going to Dallas, and I had no idea he was there. So we had a sweet little BYU reunion right there in the MTC. I don't know why but it made me super happy. I think just seeing familiar faces is really nice. So that was a highlight. 

Today our main teacher, Hermano Wiest, brought all of his pictures from argentina and showed us those and told us a bunch of stories so that made me even more excited and a little nervous. I have never really tried to picture what Argentina was like until these past couple of days and it's more third-world than I realized I think. My teacher told me there's jungle in my mission? I had no idea haha. So i'm kind of nervous just because I have no idea what to expect, but I am also super excited.

Tomorrow is our last day here, most of it will be packing and getting ready. Probably a couple hours of crying as well.. Just kidding. 

Elder Filikitonga! Yes he's from Tonga

 

Week 5~Visa arrived!

Well I don't think I really have a ton to talk about this week, there's only so much that can happen in the MTC when all you do is study and eat and sleep haha. But it has been another great week! It has been kind of crazy because my original date to leave was November 14th or this saturday, but up until yesterday I hadn't received any word on if or when I would actually leave for Argentina and I was convinced that I would be going stateside for a while because I only submitted my visa stuff like a week before coming in. So yeah pretty much everyone else had their paperwork and travel plans already except for Elder Hansen and I.. So everyone made guesses of where we were going to get reassigned to in the states and we had a little chart on the board with our guesses, but then yesterday morning we got a message saying we needed to go to the travel office and they gave us OUR FLIGHT PLANS. I was so dang excited. Possibly more excited than when I got my mission call.. maybe. I don't know.. Because now it's actually real. I'm pretty sure I did like five really aggressive fist pumps. So yeah.. you know I was excited. That was definitely the highlight of the week. 

We got to hear from another Apostle this past tuesday (Quentin L. Cook) which is always such a special opportunity because their testimonies are so powerful and you just know that they truly know Jesus Christ. I love how they always close their testimony by saying, " I bear solemn witness of Jesus Christ" or something along those lines. It's a lot different to me from saying I know Jesus Christ lives or I have a testimony of Jesus Christ. They are saying that they know him. They lead this church under the direction of our Savior and it's so clear when you listen to them speak and you feel the Spirit that they bring. I love how happy they are. They are not caught up in the problems and concerns of the world because they have an eternal perspective and they know that this life is so small in the grand scheme of things.. Not to belittle the importance of this life. I am going on too long, but I think that is something that has really changed in me as I have been here in the MTC. The more I have gained this understanding, the more I desire to do good and serve others.

I know I have a long way to go and a lot to learn. I also know that I need to be humbled. But better than being compelled to be humble is to humble ourselves, so I am striving to do that. In return I know that Heavenly Father will guide and direct me in all things. 

Sorry I got super preachy, but I guess that's my fall back when I don't have any funny stories. It has been like zero degrees all week here and the weather in argentina is getting as high as 100 degrees so in one day we could be potentially changing 100 degrees in weather, so that will be interesting. I am so excited to go! Life is super good. I am happier than I have ever been.

Elder Herzog

Please tell the Marzarella family thank you so much for the sweet Christmas package they sent me. That was super unexpected and very kind of them. I plan on sending them a letter to say thanks, but just wanted them to know about that. 

Kenna has also sent me some awesome stuff in the mail! She sent me these cute little turkey cookies for thanksgiving and then for Christmas she sent me a super awesome blanket and some cookies! She made little like elder name tag cookies,they're sweet. She has been awesome. 

So yes I am definitely feeling the love and am receiving way more than I deserve or ever expected. So thank you.

They were called "los chicos perdidos" 

The lost boys haha 

Week Four~

Snow Day!
















Elder Orton & Elder Gonzalez

Elder Brazil