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 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.

First letter~FINALLY!

Hi Mom,

Me and Elder Howe!

This is my big letter so im probably just going to send you my main letter each week and then you can share it with the family and post the parts that you choose to share with everyone else!

First  day was crazy. I was immediately being sent from room to room getting books and my name tag and then being sent to the bus to ride over to the west campus of the MTC.. I don't actually live in the normal MTC which is weird because all of the spanish speaking missionaries have their own campus over in the wyview apartment complex. but its awesome because everyone speaks spanish. So first day I dropped my stuff off at my apartment which is super nice and its two rooms so we have all four of the Elders in our district in our apartment, were all good buddies so its fun..

After i dropped my stuff off, we had class and met one of our teachers and then had a devotional or two and we did a practice teaching with investigators which was super cool and spiritual. 

My companion is Elder Howe (Hunter), he's from Huntington Beach, California, he loves soccer as much as I do and he's definitely a good player. He just graduated high school so he's 18 but he's a total stud. He is a falcons fan which is really random, but honestly were like exactly alike, which for us has worked out super well. we are already best friends and I can tell we will be friends for a long time. He has an awesome spirit about him and we push each other to be better.

Elder Howe, me, Hansen, Zapata~The district

The other elders in our district are elder Zapata and elder hansen. They are both 18 as well and are both really cool guys and fun to be around. They can be a little immature sometimes to be honest, but they also bring a fun youngness to the district that can help make things more fun. They're companionship has seen a lot more frustration and pride and struggle than mine and elder howes. The Hermanas in our district.. that means sisters... said that me and elder howe are like the newly weds in the honeymoon phase and the other elders are the old married couple hahaha, its pretty true. We have a trio of sisters in our district and they are super awesome. We all do a pretty good job of uplifting each other and being open about our thoughts and have fun together. I was called as the district leader last thursday which has been an awesome experience for me. Its been a trial for me to be able to encourage the district to work hard and stay focused without sounding condescending or being a dictator, but I really do love all the members in the district and I really want to just work as hard as we can and encourage an atmosphere where we can love each other and have the spirit. I think they all recognize that i am trying to do my best.

Lets see.. the food is actually really good here. I{ve pretty much enjoyed every meal, which is frightening because i don't want to get fat, but honestly I think i have lost weight here. I wish I knew how much i weighed before i came in, but i really just try to eat healthy and not eat to much.

I started getting sick two days ago so thats been a little annoying, but last night elder howe gave me some health fruit and vegetable  powder stuff that you put in water so I drank that but it was super nasty and when i was downing the last gulp, i threw up. so that was awkward.

It turns out that I am in the intermediate spanish classes which i wasn't expecting, but its nice because were like the only ones that are intermediate in our zone, so we really are miles ahead of everyone else spanish wise which gives us a little bit of confidence or cockiness.. But we know that its all about the Spirit and the strength of our testimony..

The first three days really weren't hard for me.. I think maybe because it was all so new and exciting.. but the next two days were kinda tough because the lack of sleep started to wear me down, but other than that, it really hasn't been too bad for me. I really do love it here..

We taught an investigator in spanish on our second day in the MTC which is crazy but me an Elder howe honestly have no problem talking to our investigators for an hour all in spanish, which is amazing to me.. We have learned so freakin much here and it is amazing how much we are able to learn and remember when we have the gifts of the Spirit helping us out. I{ve been able to memorize a bunch of scripture references and I have memorized a shortened version of the first vision in spanish as well as our purpose in spanish and my vocabulary has just shot up like crazy.. Spanish is so fun to learn, I love it.

Elder Howe and i really haven't had any super embarrassing experiences, but during one of our lessons Elder howe was bearing his testimony to them and He goes.. Soy un profeta. hahaha he said I am a prophet.. which technically is true because we have the spirit of prophecy but you don't necesarily want to say that to an investigator. I Was sitting there trying not to bust up laughing because i knew the lesson would've been schruted so I just powered through it like a champ. 

On tuesday we got to go to a devotional by Elder Tom Perry which was super awesome and inspirational. His abilty to bring the spirit to a meeting was amazing.

I have honestly had so many powerful rock solid spiritual experiences while i have been in here and i am writing them all in my journal and there are so many little miracles that happen every day, but one in particular i will share,.. I was studying on sunday I believe.. and I was so sleepy and couldn't focus at all so I got up and went to the bathroom and said a little prayer in there asking that the Lord would give me energy so that I could focus on my study and be able to really learn and prepare for our investigators and pretty much Immediately I felt this like surge of energy in my body and from then at around 2 p.m. until bedtime I didn't get tired once.. It sounds silly but it was really real to me and to not be tired in the mtc is a very rare thing. I know the Lord will bless me when I align my will with his will. The trick is being willing to submit to his will sincerely and give it your all..

Hopefully that covers most of the details of the first week that you want to know.

Thank you so much for my letter and package. Getting mail is seriously the best thing in the world here, I think I would take a letter from anyone over a lofty sum of gold.. 

Please encourage people to write me using Mtcdelivery.com or dealelder.com because then I get letters that day which is super nice.

I have learned a lot about the Character of Christ in here and something that he did that is so amazing to me is that even in his hardest trials, he turned Outward and looked to serve others. Such a hard thing to do, but i am striving to be better.

Love you lots and lots! Don't worry about me, I am doing amazing. Send my love to the Family and let them know that I miss them.

Also I'll try to send some pictures

This is Elder Creighton. He's in our zone. Reincarnation of Chris Farley. Funniest kid on earth!