Over A Week!

Hey family!!!!

 

Business first. Got the letter sent to you guys just a minute ago with the passport copies. We got a note that said we won't need the visas to get into the country but we do need them soon after that so thank you so much for doing that! We got our travel plans today, we'll leave Monday August 8 for Guatemala City. We fly from SLX to LAX then LAX to GUAC. We're taking red eye flights and arriving in Guate City around 650am. So make sure that anything that needs to get to me has time to get to me well before then. I wouldn't write to me much past friday or saturday. I'll get you all the new address down there as soon as i have it.

 

So for the fun stuff.

 

This week has been the longest shortest week of my life. Literally. We've done so much. Every day in my memory has kind of mushed together because all we do is the same thinga bout every day.

 

Quote from Devotional Tuesday night: a mission is the most wonderful awful thing in the world. I have to agree with that statement right now haha. It's really hard here. Spanish is crazy and its so hard to learn but it's all worth it. I'm tired all the time, they say that's good because that means we're being obedient and working hard. So that's reassuring to know. It's a bit of an emotinal roller coaster here. You'll get super discouraged with spanish and then get all hyped up because of spanish or you'll teach a terrible lesson to an investigator of sorts or you'll teach a good lesson. Emotions go back and forth and up and down but at the end of each day I"m proud of what i've done and I'm glad I"m here.

 

Sunday was one of the best days I've had here. Inspirational sacr4ament meetin g and priesthood meetings. We got plenty of down time for personal study, relaxation of sorts, but we have to be in the classroom. Devotional is on Sunday night and a guy came to talk to us that used to work for the church doing those cute church sponsored commercials about family and such. He'd show us a commercial and then talk about how the tagline applies to missionary work. Way good. Of course as I always do, I cried, haha this one commercial was so cute and this little girl was a swimmer and did her best to swim each race. She never came in first, it showed her finish the race and her parents cheered and lifted her out of the water and put her on her crutches. She can't use her legs but she swam every week and made sure she finished ever race. Like seven years old. True story too. He said the most important thing was that we just made sure we put all of ourselves into this and we can finish. I loved it. WE then watched some movie called LEgacy because it was pioneer day or something. Hilarious, Even though it was supposed to be serious church movies just crack me up. All the Elders cheered when the couple kissed haha. We must be deprived or something :) And come come ye saints is probably my favorite song now. I love it like crazy.

 

Monday was freaking awful hahaha! I got super discouraged with espanol and i wasn't having it. Anyways for some reason I ended up having a good day.

 

Tuesday. Got a bunch load of letters. Probably my favorite part of the day. I work hard all day and then i go home and read some letters and relax before bed! not too bad. We went to the TRC to teach fake investigators today that have real character roles and aren't supposed to help us. We taught Carol, she was like 19, and worked a lot and stuff. WE taught her the restoration and she ate it up and then we commited her to read and I remembered a great chapter that I could direct her to in the BOM. We then asked if she'd offer a prayer to God on our knees. She agreed. Then during the prayer she started crying. Afterwards, out of her character role. She said she felt the Spirit so much when we taught her and that she loved every minute of it. BIG emotional boost! haha I felt good all day after that.

 

Wednesday. Didn't think mail could get better than tuesday but it did! Cupcakes from Mom Dad and Lex. I love you all!!! This whole 630am thing is no fun to get up for but I do it anyways and I"ve figured after I just get out of bed it's not that bad. As long as the showers are warm haha. I got a bunch of spanish tips from some of the elders that have been here longer and that helped me so much. I'm learning a ton now and really loving what I"m doing.

 

There should be some pictures with this if I can get the camera to work here!!

 

Aparently I also talked in my sleep the other night. I sat up and told Elder Reeder, "I will go with you Elder!" a few times and then went back to sleep. Haha pretty funny. I wish this place was a little more intersting. The food is great and I love meal time, mail time, and gym time. but the rest sort of mooshes together into one sort of boring sort of interesting blob of time. I'm so stoked to get down to Guate next week. I'm implementing the words Andrew sent me from down there that are pretty common into my vocabulary.

 

I hope all is well at home!! Keep the letters coming. I love you all. I love You Mom. I love you Dad. I love you Alexis. Thank you so much for the support you give me while I"m here.

 

It was good to hear that Bobby is doing better and the family is doing well. Tell them hi for me, or show them the letter haha.

 

Maybe something more intersting this week will happen then me going to class and sitting there studying :) haha I love it though. This is where I'm supposed to be and I wouldn't trade this for anything.

 

Okay so pictures aren't working. I'll have a ton then for next week!! Love you all soo much.

 

 

Love,

 

Brock

 

So Where To Begin?

So where to begin?

 

First day was pretty wild. That guy that picked me up, the host or whatever. He had only been speaking english for a few weeks so our trip back to my dorm room was pretty hilarious. Turns out it is only my companion and I in the room so we have a 4 person room to the two of us. Its way less crowded than the others and way more space for the both of us. My companions name is Elder Reeder, he's from Kansas City and everywhere else in the US. If he talked more I'd tell you more about him. He doesn't hardly talk at all, actually quite boring, sorry to say, but we get along so thats pretty good.

 

There is another Elder in my district from Idaho Falls. Elder Smith, no relation to Bridge man apparently I checked. There's also an elder who plays college baseball, or played I shold say, for the U of Kentucky. We;re gonna do a slowpitch home run derby this week sometime haha.

 

oh, before I forget, I'll have pictures for you guys on thursday along with another email so check your email again then, thats my P Day until I leave Provo.

 

Maddy has been writing me and so did Alexis so those are always fun to get, send me a package please! a big one full of candy and stuff. We eat three times a day and thats about it so i need snacking food please :)

 

And speaking of Maddy and Alexis, their letters are in the mail today so they should get there in a day or two.

 

Thursday was our first real day, the 630 waking up wasn't too bad. There is so much food. I'd rate it at like a 7 on the food rating scale so its not amazing, but there is a ton of it and I can eat as much as I waant. I noticed now that the fruit is sliced for me without me having to do it I really enjoy eating it. I hope I don't gain too much weight haha.

 

The Spanish is so so hard!!! I regret not taking it in every year of high school. I sound, accent wise, way better than every single elder here, even ones that have been here for a while. The problem is, I have no idea how to talk in spanish. There are 2 more out of the 9 of us in my district that have as little experience as me so its nice to know i'm not the only one getting copmletely rocked by the language. We're learning to say prayers and give our testimonies in spanish. I almost ahve the prayers down and the testimony oddly enough I can do and vary the things I say each time. My nametag is in espanol, I'll send a picture of it next week. I feel pretty legit when I look in the mirror and put it on every morning.

 

Tell people to write to me!! Letters are the best part of the day so get the family in on this haha

 

Friday was way awesome! I learned a lot from sort of fake teaching experiences. Our teachers pretend to be people they know or taught on their missions who are or were investigators and we get to practice teacing on them. Its fairly realistic and I'd like to think I"m doing quite well in english if I could only get the spanish part down. We finally got gym time on friday!! thank heavens, i've needed to shoot a basketball and relax for an hour or so for a long time. I'll get that every day while I"m here. I was teaching Hermana Ellsworth by myself on friday and she said when I invited her to read the Book of Mormon and that if she prayed sincerely about it she'd get an answer and I made some promises and told her that as a representative of Jesus Christ I could promise her that she would feel the truth of the Book. She agreed to get baptized. Nailed it!!

 

Saturday-today. I'm so freaking tired!!!!!!!!! haha! Our days are pretty busy so its not ever too boring but I am tired. I'm looking forward to a little basketball tonight. Spanish literally kicked my little white gringo butt this morning. I have never felt so stupid in my entire life. After eating lunch and writing a few letters I"m ready to get abck into the ring again and give it a go. That gift of tongues promise better work because I"m having as much faith in it as I can and I"m doing my best to learn the language I"m supposed to go teach God's children in!

 

So Mom and Dad don't worry, its pretty good here!

 

Next week is going to be pretty wild. I have to prepare my first talk in spanish for sunday in sacrament meeting. It only has to be like 3-5 minutes but I know about zero spanish haha. that doesn't mean i'll give a talk but we don't find who is speaking until they are up so you ahve to be ready. Tuesday we'll be doing TRC, not sure what it stands for but we'll be contacting fake investigators in this building that is used for that purpose only.

 

After today my schedule becomes pretty monotanous. Our Zone Leader said it's like the movie Groundhogs Day where the guy has the same day over and over and over again. Except we go to sleep instead of dying or whatever happens in teh movie.

 

Our district of 9 elders all meets in teh same classroom every single day to do just about everything we do all day long. My companion and I are the only ones gonig to Guatemala our of our entire district and the rest of the Zone. We're officially known as the Guatemalanas now haha.

 

Well, I love it here. I realized the first night, and every night since that this is the best decision I have made in my life so far. It truly is and I'll tell anybody that. i'm having a good time and loving what I'm doing, I'm pretty anxious to get to the CCM in Guatemala and I"m sure time will fly until then.

 

I love you all, Mom, Dad, Lex, and anyone else reading this!

 

I'll talk to you all next week :)

 

Love,

 

Elder Brock Andersen