Letter Dated February 22, 2010

Howdy! So this week in the Mtc has gone well and guess what!? i only have 8 days left here then i am headed to the guatemala mtc on march 2nd! so if sean and kellye youd send out an email saying that if people were gonna send me a letter or have started they MUST send it tomorrow or i will not be getting it before i head down to guatemala. ALSO TELL THEM ABOUT DEAR ELDER CAUSE I CAN ONLY USE THAT TILL NEXT MONDAY THEN I AM GONE!! HAHA thanks for doing that for me... i got our itenerary or however you spell it like last thursday night. We heard that they would cancel on us but now there is more room in the guatemalan mtc. so we fly out at 8 on march 2nd from salt lake get to DALLAS TEXAS!!!! at 12 then fly outta there at 5 to guatemala city and will get there about 8 or so!!! its pretty exciting and i know it will be good to get adjusted to the culture and more immersed in the language before i am actually out in the field. I am a little nervous just cause i am but my companion and another elder in my district are going too and we are gonna still see eachother a lot cause it will be a lot smaller. It will be good though for many reasons so when i do hit the field i will have a head start. I dont know about my mailing info once i get down there but i will figure it out. I am gonna try to send yall some pictures soon. Its funny my companion says yall all the time now and so do some of the other members in my district. our district is awesome.. we all get along really well and we work pretty hard most of the time and still have some fun. We do service after the sunday and tuesday night devotionals of putting up a ton of chairs, these big mats that cover the gym floor, and the podium stuff... honestly its one of the most fun things we do. we make it fun and joked around and its fun working together. Also the devotionals before hand are really good. This last sunday the people incharge of welfare missions and humanitarian ones spoke to us. they showed us some videos of people in poverty and some people that our church has helped out and honestly we shouldnt ever complain about food or any of the living conditions we have. We are soooooo blessed to live in the united states and we take a lot of things for granted here. I know i will come to realize this more once i am in guatemala and see what its like there. Umm also we watched an Elder Holland devotional on dvd that he gave here in 2000. That was amazing and all of us just sat in our class room for like 20 min without saying anything after it was done. The spirit was so strong and it really hit me that when i say somos representantes del senor JesuCristo that i am really representing Jesus Christ. That is a big responsibility and i need to do everything i can to represent him well and bring people unto him. My testimony is growing a lot and has been strengthened in a lot of areas. Just a few though is that Heavenly Father really does know us individually and helps us out when we are doing whats right, and in my case trying to live the law of exact obedience. Another thing is obviously the gift of tongues, but i have learned you have to really apply yourself if your gonna be able to recieve that gift. another thing is that the Spirit does bring things into your remembrance when your teaching a lesson. Also the Joseph Smith story and teaching about the first vision has been really powerful. So in all i am doing really well, i have ten minutes left. THe mtc is a good mix of learning about the gospel and learning a language and having fun just hanging out with my district and eating food which i like the cafeteria and playing ball. I actually kind of jumped over this kid this week and i beat somebodys stuff off the backboard for the first time ever. It was pretty awesome.. and no i am not a beast. i am starting to realize that everything we have was given to us from Heavenly Father so we just need to be thankful and humble. I still have a lot to work on though in that area but i am sure itll come. Anyway I dont know what else to say, i feel the spirit multiple times a day and am having a ton of fun! I am so exciting to do what our purpose is invitar a las personas a venir a cristo al fin de que reciban el evangelio restaurado mediante la fe in jesucristo y su expicacion, el arreprimiento, el bautismo, la recepcion del don del espiritu santo, y el perservar hasta el fin! or something close to that. anyway i hope jennifer got my letter and read it to everybody last week. I also got the package from sherrie today and the emails youve sent to me on here. i dont have time to reply individually on here but i also got seans dear elder and shaynes stuff and jennifers stuff and mom and dads letter. Umm i think thats everything ive got :/ anyway keep sending stuff but just write me through dear elder this week so i can read it the same day. Thanks for all the support and prayers, I pray for yall everyday too and love you a lot. Keep doing what your doing and try and look for opportunites to share the gospel where ever you are. I will write again next week. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is amazing. I love yall a ton and hope everybody is doing good! I didnt get everyones email in so pass it along!!!