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