MTC Letter #7

Friday, October 22, 2010

Hola!!

Como estan? Estoy muy bein. Mi semana fue muy interesante!

My companion, Elder Alston, broke his thumb playing soccer on Saturday! So that made for an interesting week. On Monday, we went to the Health Clinic here, and they sent us down a block to Urgent Care for an X-Ray. It was weird just walking out of the MTC and going down the street! The X-Ray showed a fracture that went across the bottom bone of the thumb. So he got a soft brace for it, and set up an appointment with a hand specialist for Thursday. Thursday came around and we hopped on the MTC shuttle and they took us to another Health Plaza where the Hand Specialist was in Provo. There we found out that the bone had fractured where the ligament attached, but not all the ligament was disattatched, so they put it in a cast for it to heal back. He's here for an extra two weeks now!

The TRC last week went well. We "ate at a restaurant" and taught the entire first lesson in Spanish. Tonight we "go shopping" and teach someone without a Christian background, all in Spanish. It's crazy how much I've learned in the past 6 weeks. 2 Weeks from Monday I'll be leaving to Chile! Our Progressive Investigator was awesome this week. Felt the Spirit super strongly guiding our lesson, and afterwards, she got out of character (which you're not really supposed to do) and said she loves getting taught by us and that we're her favorite Elders! Awesome! We've learned all the tenses in Spanish, so now its just review and learning more verbs and vocab, and using the language! Elder Alston has even slept talked in Spanish, it was funny.

We had Elder Russell M. Nelson at our devotional on Tuesday. It was an awesome one! His wife talked about how when a missionary was giving his farewell talk, he said that he's "going to battle for the Lord for 2 years". This hit me, because I really am going to battle (in a Spiritual sense) against the opposition of the world. The countless doors that will be slammed in my face will be nothing when compared to even just teaching one investigator. It got me all pumped up to go!

I see Elder Mace (my first Companion) almost every day, which is a nice reminder of him setting the example of what kind of missionary I want to be. I do miss being his companion, but the things he taught me will last my whole mission. Hopefully I'll be able to see him in Chile!

I'm also becoming good friends with Elder Pilcher (from my district). We are able to talk a lot, and we talked about how it's hard to become true friends with some companions because it doesn't start out as "unconditional love", but more because you have to. But, as this companionship has taught me, as long as you see only the good in others, that unconditional love starts to develop and less things "bug you".

Daphnie- Thanks for the DearElder! You have been crazy busy!! That's awesome how great you've been at cross country. Just keep at it and when we do a triathlon together, you might beat me :P It's crazy to think that you'll be able to drive soon, you're getting too old! When you said "follow in your footsteps and go on a mission", I had just been talking to Elder Pilcher about how I didn't realize how my cousins and sisters looked up to my till I went on my mission. It brought a huge smile when I saw that. It's hard, but it's worth it :)

Bro. Ford- Thank's for the reply! I definitely have realized how huge the blessing of the Spirit is here. And I see why you loved the MTC so much! Puerto Vallarta sounds awesome! I have a pretty big golfer as a companion, who was on scholarship at BYU-H for Golf. We talk about it a lot. I hope the trip was a blast!

Grandpa Jim- Thanks for the update! It seems like life keeps your busy, which is a good thing!

Mom- I like letters from DearElder better than emails. I only have 30 min on here, so DearElder is always better! So send the other missionaries through that. My email is this! :P I think I have enough cash, but I use my card every now and then, so money on that would be for things not specific to my mission so don’t use all of it :P LOVE YOU!!!

Hope everything is well with you all!

Con Amor,
Elder Whittle