Thursday, December 15, 2011

Week 4 in the MTC 15 December 201

Another week and another letter from our Elder Powell. I got a hand-written letter from him earlier, last week, and in it he talked a lot about the struggles that he is having with his companion—as he mentions here in this letter.  Let’s let that be our cue—let’s rally around him, send him letters and love and let him know how much support he has from home.  Let’s keep his spirits up, especially during these holidays, and for the final push before he heads to Mexico. He’s doing great things so let’s all take a second and send him some written love—yeah? On to the letter…

Hola Once again everybody! How are you all doing?? I'm doing very well and I am about halfway through the whole MTC experience! I'm so excited to get out to the mission field and start the work!
It has been a pretty wild couple of weeks with me already changing companions like 4 times! A lot of change, a lot of new adapting but it's a great learning experience and I learn to just deal with people with different personalities. I switched my first companion, Elder Buhler because I switched into a more advanced Spanish class which meant I switched districts. And then my 2nd companion, Elder Shafer, left to the Peru MTC a week ago and that meant I switched rooms once again! :/ And then I was stuck with a trio, Elder Fitzgerald and Elder Thompson. Elder Fitzgerald and I became really good friends and we worked well together, but then he got his Visa to go to the Peru MTC on Tuesday evening and we had to rush and pack for the rest of the evening. He left at 4 in the morning, so I was up on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning for 2 consecutive weeks helping my companions pack, and my current companion is most likely leaving next week too. So a lot of changes, but it's alright. My current companion is pretty difficult to work with. He just wants to party and doesn't work, which I really don't mind if he doesn't work because I've always just rather work or teach so that I know it was done the right way. So that is the positive side of having this kind of companion, it's just when the investigator asks him to bear his testimony, he sounds really dumb but oh well. I've tried my hardest to convince him, I've tried my hardest to pray that he would become better, but he's choosing not too and he will have to learn someday. I just hope it doesn't hit him very hard when he does learn to actually take this mission experience serious and use the time wisely. I have no problem with having fun and being yourself, but it's when no work is being produced. That's where I get frustrated.
On a brighter note, we had the privilege in hearing Elaine Dalton (General President of the Young Women) on Tuesday night and she was spectacular! She had so many great tips and advice to give! She talked about how we have faith and how we must obey, and even though we don't understand everything, just obey and we will be happy. I don't think we would be led on a path that only brings a bad ending. This can be applied to my mission, what I see right now is 23 more months of some of the hardest work I would probably be doing. Most of the times I just see the glass half empty, but what missionaries need to think is the ending and the time when we get off the plane thinking about our mission. I know that I will be very grateful for the mission and how it helped me a ton, I probably can't see that now and I'm pretty nervous, but I am going to give it my all and serve to the fullest. Because I want to be able to look back on this whole experience proud and pleased with myself with the work I've done.
And we also listened to a talk given by Elder Bednar given at the MTC like in the 1990's, and he was so animated and serious about us missionaries not going home. Because he knows that this missionary experience will help anyone who serves a mission and he really wants us to be a part of it. And he said that we need to teach people and not lessons. That we need to teach about Christ and not just aim for personal gain. That we need to teach because we want them to be happier and etc. There was a lot of messages that I heard and I wish I could share them all, but I have like no time.
I hope everyone is doing well and I will see you all soon. Keep in touch! :) Love you all! Ask any question you want and I will answer, just send a letter!

-Elder Powell

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