Placentero nos es trabajar!

Hola Familia! como esta? yo espero que ustedes estén bien. Mi semana fue interesante. Yo he aprendido mucho, sobre el evangelio y español y estoy progresando. No puedo entender a nadie! Todas las personas hablan demasiado rapido! Pero, esta bien. Por lo general, yo puedo entender mucho. El problema es yo necesito aprender escuchar mejor. En ingles y español tambien. Tambien, no me gusta cantar en español. Las personas en iglesia cantan muy mal. Pero, me gusta la himno 88, porque no tenemos este himno en ingles. yo escribire en ingles ahora.

Hola Familia!

I hope everything is going well at home! Everything is going pretty well here. I feel like Russell. Missions are hard. But I know this is definitely what i'm supposed to be doing, I really am learning a lot here, and i've had a few hard times but really overall it's pretty good. President Baker is awesome. He's pretty strict with the rules, we follow the handbook pretty closely. But he's really funny, and he definitely understands how to have fun but also work hard. Which is definitely something I need. I have a tendency to work hard and not have fun, but I've been realizing that it won't work. you can't testify of the gospel very convincingly, that the gospel is a gospel of joy, when you're not joyful yourself. I've been improving on that. I had a good talk with President Baker this week, and we talked a little bit about that. I'm getting better. I'm starting to enjoy a lot of the people here, even if I can't always understand them. But they're very nice, and they sure love to feed us. Speaking of having fun, Elder Watkins is so goofy. He's from Vernal, UT, and he's great. He works hard, and really tries to help his investigators, but we have a lot of fun too. He has 5 months left, so he's not trunky yet. But his spanish is good, which is a very good thing. And our living situation is interesting actually. We live next door to members, and there's like these two apartments things right next to their house. We live in one, and the english elders live in the other. I'm going to send some pictures today, so you'll be able to see soon for yourselves! But it's nice. It's a little small, and a little dirty, and we don't have beds, our mattresses are just on the floor, but it's just fine. We really don't need anything else. It's an interesting neighborhood. I often go to sleep to the song of the sirens (them sireens!). It's interesting. You almost always here fire trucks and ambulances going all over the place. And the other day, there was a helicopter flying all over looking for somebody. My whole area is pretty much central americans and black people. It makes tracting interesting. you never know which language to speak when people answer the door, especially because everyone has these thick metal doors with metal mesh over them, so you can talk but you can't see them. I'm still terrified of tracting. I don't know what to say in English or spanish. but I'm slowly improving. We give out pass-a-long cards like there's no tomorrow. Also, remember how last week I told you about the lady I started speaking english to? Very good news on that front. We got to come back and start teaching her, and she seems very interested. She even came to church yesterday with her kids! That was really exciting. Also side note, her husband is a black man from honduras. So her kids are black but speak spanish. They didn't seem super comfortable in the latino ward, but she seems really interested. We taught her the first lesson on saturday, and that was scary. I still can't understand everything they are saying, so I'm a little scared to teach, because I don't want to misunderstand their concern or anything. But it's coming. There's a lot of potential with her. We also had a really awesome lesson on friday. I think I mentioned her in my last letter, but she actually talked to us first, and later said that she didn't know why she talked to us. We went and taught her, and she's a single mom with two kids, and her cousin lives with her and helps her take care of her kids. She has it pretty tough, she lives in a rough part of town in a rough part of town. But we taught her and her cousin, in english, and it went really well. you could definitely tel they were feeling the Spirit, and you could tell what a difference the gospel could make to them. she said a couple different times, she's often scared to be in her house. but she said she felt good, she felt peace when she was with us. I definitely think the Spirit has been and is working with her, I have very high hopes for them. The only problem is she works every sunday. So i'm not really sure what to do about that yet. But hopefully that'll work out. We actually had a lot of investigators at church yesterday. I think we had 6. We have about 3 investigators that are pretty much members but haven't been able to be baptized yet. One is on probation, one is waiting to divorce a lost man in guatemala so that she can marry the man she's living with her, and the other is waiting for a birth certificate from Guatemala so she can get married. It's interesting. It's a very interesting ward. There are some really great, really strong members but also a lot of not so strong members. We have lots of less actives. It's really a pretty weak ward to be honest. But that's why we're here. I also learned this week that it is very hard to teach somebody who is stoned. they're not very receptive. We have a less active who is trying to overcome an addiction to crack, and the way he's doing that is by using a lot of marijuana. It's an interesting ward. And I'm realizing more and more, it really is the small things that determine that. When you talk to less actives, they are never reading and praying regularly. Because if you are reading and praying regularly, you will know you need to go to church and keep the commandments and everything else comes with it. The ensign this month is all about the Book of Mormon. I would definitely recommend you all read it. I read it the other day, and it's awesome. The more I learn and think about it, the more I realize what an incredible gift it is. It's what God wants us to know right now, and it's what he's given us. moral of the story is read the scriptures. You can't go wrong when you're reading and praying daily. church is super interesting her. first of all, they sing terrible. Amy and Brent might have torn their ears off. It's pretty bad. But it was good. Second, I can't understand them. Church is even harder to pay attention in when you can't understand what they're saying. Third, latinos in priesthood like to tell long stories even more than the other wards i've been in. and fourth, church is super stressful as a missionary. You spend all your time hoping and praying that your investigators will come, and then the rest of the time hoping nobody in the ward will offend them/hoping they will be nice to them. They had a baptism after for another companionship, that was cool. but it made me realize how baptism really is the gate. There's so many people who are baptized here, who have never made it farther. There's a lot of families who have never been to the temple, and that's really hard to see.

But anyway, i'm running out of time so I'll talk to every next week! I love you all! have a great week, and thanks so much for the letters and emails! they make it easier to shoulder the load. I love you all!

Borsh-I'll forgive you this week, but i'm expecting a longer letter next week Josh! you need to tell me all about your puppy! You spent all this time trying to get one, you better tell me more about her! And make sure you're helping take care of her too! how's school going? you need to tell me all about it! I know you've got lots of exciting things you can tell me, you're way too cool. good luck with everything. Love you bud!

B-no forgiveness. You kissed a girl, and I had to find out from someone else? no letter? disgraceful

Amy-I love your letters! They're so awesome. I LQTM'ed while I was reading it. and Katies. My sisters are so dang funny! And if you wanted to send me a package, I always like food, especially of the candy/chip/snack variety. I hope Care-Bear does better with pilot training, I'm praying for him! I can only imagine how frustrating and how stressful that must be. But Heavenly Father will take care of you guys. He always does. I realize more and more every day how Heavenly Father has guided my life without me even realizing it. It'll all work out. I love you!

Matt- I would say i'm jealous you're going to Mexico, but I'm pretty much already there. The only thing missing is the daquiris. I hope you and Lauren have a great time, I got a letter from you this week, and I'm guessing there are more funny pictures in there, and I can't wait to open it later! Stay safe and I'll hear from you soon! If you can't write me next week, I will understand. I already love you more than Brent anyway. Just jking. Love you!

KT-Oh man. hearing your stories about Clarence and Lola and Lily made me LOL in the mission office and the other missionaries looked at me. Thanks a lot. It sounds like everything is going very well with you guys, and I can't believe in less than two months I'll be an uncle! I love you guys!

Mops and pops-sorry you guys always get the short end of the stick. But I sure love you guys, and thanks for your constant support and everything. And for the 19 years of life and everything. Love you two!

Translations furnished by Matt:

Placentero Nos Es Trabajar = It Is Pleasing To Us to Work, hymn #88

Hi family! How are you? I hope you are all well. My week was very interesting. I have learned a lot about the Gospel and Spanish and I am progressing. I can't understand anybody! All the people talk too fast. But, it's OK. In general, I can understand a lot. The problem is I need to learn to listen better. In English and Spanish, too. Also, I don't like to sing in Spanish. The people in the church sing very bad. Also, I like hymn number 88 because we don't have that hymn in English. I will write in English now.

Sidenote I: When I first heard this hymn, I was like, "Well, no wonder they left it out of the English hymnal, it's terrible." But then it made me cry when they sang it on my last Sunday in Mexico.

Sidenote II: Ryan's Spanish is really coming along Hola Familia! como esta? yo espero que ustedes estén bien. Mi semana fue interesante. Yo he aprendido mucho, sobre el evangelio y español y estoy progresando. No puedo entender a nadie! Todas las personas hablan demasiado rapido! Pero, esta bien. Por lo general, yo puedo entender mucho. El problema es yo necesito aprender escuchar mejor. En ingles y español tambien. Tambien, no me gusta cantar en español. Las personas en iglesia cantan muy mal. Pero, me gusta la himno 88, porque no tenemos este himno en ingles. yo escribire en ingles ahora.

From Ry's mommy ( :

So, now that Ryan is in LA, you must use the mission address to send him mail. If you want to see pictures of the newly arrived Ryan and his trainer, you can look at the CLAM (CA - LA mission) blog that the mission president's wife keeps up. The address is: calamission.blogspot.com

He sounds good. Now if he can stay safe! Thank you for your prayers on his behalf, always.

Bienvenidos a la Los Angeles!

Bienvenidos a la Los Angeles!

Hola Familia! Primero, voy a engordarme. Yo tuve dos cenas manana! Yo he comido la mejor comida aqui. Los miembros son my sympatico y tenemos mucho comer. Yo necesito no almorazar mas. Yo tuve sopes y carne asada y mucho bueno alimento. tambien, yo he contactado muchas personas esta semana! Yo tuve mucho miedo antes mi primera vez pero no mucho ahora. yo quiero escribir en ingles ahora.

Hi Family!

I am now writing to you from the beautiful land of Los Angeles! Oh man. The weather is just as nice as you think it is. It's so perfect. It's a beautiful place, palm trees swaying, the sun is always shining, theres no white people, it's great. There are seriously no people with the same skin color as me. Except Elder Watkins. And that's a little unusual. And I'm very glad I'm on the Lord's errand, or I might be scared to live here.

So, I dont want to talk any more about the MTC. so I'll just suffice and say that I spent the days before I left alternating between being super excited to go and terrified. We spent all day tuesday packing, and we got lucky enough to have a power outage in our building the whole day, which really spiced up our packing experience. And the only thing I really want to say is that tuesday night, Elder Ballard came and spoke to us! It was so awesome. It really got us all pumped to go. I was feeling pretty nervous, but after his talk I mostly just felt excited. It was really cool when he came in, because when there are apostles coming, you can tell. Somehow everybody knows. But another Elder showed me a verse in 1st Nephi that said "behold, the twelve apostles of the Lamb" And about when he showed me that, Elder Ballard walked in. and it was incredible. The atmosphere completely changed. He brought such an incredible Spirit with him, we were singing, and I just got all choked up right when he came in. And I know that he is an apostle. I felt it like I've really never felt it before. And it made me super excited for general conference next month. We are so incredibly lucky to have living apostles and prophets speaking to us today, I've been rereading the Ensign from last conference, and I've been regretting that I didn't pay more attention to some talks. Because I've found some stuff that might have helped me with some things if I'd been looking for it. I'm really excited for this conference, because I know that it will be exactly what Heavenly Father wants us to know to help us in our lives right now.

Anyway, we went to the airport wednesday morning at 5 in the morning. And I woke up at 4. I think now i'm almost recovered from that. On the plus side, I've been sleeping really well. And I got to talk to you all at the airport! That was so good to hear from you all. Except saying goodbye to Mops made me cry in the airport. That was unkind. Our flight was very uneventful, just with 19 super excited but very sleepy missionaries. We met President Baker in the airport, and we went to the mission office! I really like President Baker already. I'm excited to get to learn from him. He's a funny guy, but he takes this work seriously and that's great. Speaking of taking the work seriously, I will only get mail once a week. I get mail every friday, and I open it mondays. So if anybody was planning on sending me food (bread, cookies, brownies....not saying you have to, just if you want to....) mark it as perishable. If it's marked as perishable I can open it friday to get the food so it doesn't go bad. but otherwise, I only open mail on mondays. Also, the majority of the work here for me will be done in short sleeve shirts I think. So i'd love to get a few more short sleeve shirts. I can buy them if that's easier I guess, or if you could send them that'd be great. (neck 15.5, tailored fit). I haven't actually worked too much in my area, but what I have done has been great. We have had tons of meetings and trainings so far, especially cause Elder Watkins is the district leader. So I've spent more time in meetings than I thought possible. Also, they're doing something new for trainings, and it mostly involves another hour of companionship study. So we are usually studying til about 1 every day. It's tough, but we promised President Baker we'd do it faithfully. And we have. And I think the blessings are coming. The time we have had to work as been really successful actually. My first tracting, my first knock on the door, was like perfect. I was expecting to get rejected, but she seemed super interested. And not only that, but she has family in Utah that are mormon, and she's already trying to give up coffee. That was cool. And yesterday, we were walking to an appointment, and we saw a lady watering her lawn. So we decided to go contact her. And me being me, I went up and forgot that people here speak spanish. I'm just jabbering on in english, she's very confused, but luckily Elder Watkins was there to remind me that people speak spanish. But she said she and her daughter need to go to church, and she said she'd like to go to church with us sunday. That was really cool. We were definitely guided there. But the coolest one happened last night. We were just walking out of our second dinner, and we set a goal to contact 10 people a day. So we start talking to people, and we walk down a street and this lady asks us to come over and talk to her. So we do, and she wanted to know what we did. So we told her, and gave her a card, and started talking, and she seems very interested. She invited us to come back later this week, and teach her and her daughters. I have a very good feeling about her. The Holy Ghost is definitely working with her. She said later, we talked to her for a few minutes, she said she didn't know why she talked to us. She just felt like she should. And she opened up a lot, I really think she's ready to hear from us. I'm really excited to start teaching her. That experience, and others, is really helping me get excited about what i'm doing. I'm starting to realize how much the gospel can do for people. Everyone needs it, even if they don't realize it. But it answers the questions we can't answer, it brings hope where we can't have any without it, and without it I can't even imagine how empty I would feel. I have a purpose in my life because I know my Heavenly Father has a plan for me, and that I can return to him through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I don't know what I would do without that knowledge.

Anyway, I'm starting to run out of time. But I sure love you all. And i'm doing great here. Elder Watkins is awesome. I think he's just perfect for me. Except I keep calling him Elder Watson. (elementary, my dear elder watson). Hopefully I'll get better at that. But I'm going to try and and take pictures of my place today, and send my memory card later today. I just realized, I forgot to tell you where I am! My area is Jefferson Park right now. It's a great area, I love it. It's filled with mostly people from El Salvador and guatamela. I can't really understand people that well. But I'm getting there. They all talk so fast! When I can understand what they're saying, I can reply pretty good. Luckily Elder Watson understand much better than me. I've actually been surprised at how well I've been able to understand and speak here, and I've had lots of people tell me my spanish is really good for a greenie (verdecito). So that's nice. My area is pretty cool, I've already taught my first gang members and drug dealers. That's super weird. I actually spent my first night in lennox, which is down in Compton. That was fun. It's not that unusual to hear sirens and stuff at night, and there's helicopters that patrol at night. And we were eating dinner with a family in the ward, and they said about a month ago, they woke up to the SWAT team on their roof, shooting out the lights on the apartment complex across the street for a drug bust. It's an interesting part of the vineyard, that's for sure! But don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I am about the Lord's business, so He will be about mine too. I love you all, it was so great to read your letters this week, and I can't wait to write you again next pday! I love you guys so much, and i'm so grateful that I will get to live forever with all of you! The church is true, and I know that. Good luck with your weeks! don't forget to read your scriptures and pray and go to church and everything, it really is in the small things that we get the greatest blessings. I love you!

Borsh- how are you buddy? I can't believe you're getting straight A's. What the heck. But i'm so proud buddy. That's awesome. I'm glad you're reading Lord of the Flies. I always hated that book. Now we can hate it together! Say to Kola and Lily for me, and keep up the good work with school!

B- Brent, just imagine, all the sophomores you're dating were the girls I hung out with last year. That's super weird. I can't believe you're translating for conference too. That's awesome. You need to tell me all about that.

Amy- that's an awesome story about the POW. I can't even imagine that. 7 years?! thats so crazy. Don't ever let Cary leave the country ok? That's not ok. Tell Wilson I say hi, and I wish him good luck with everything. I hope pilot training gets better, just take it day by day. That's one of my favorite talks ever by Elder Kristofferson, he says, "don't look forward to the pain" Just live day by day, and you'll get through everything.

KT- Mickey Bars for everyone! I'm so jealous of Disneyland. I'm glad you and Lola are doing great, and I can't wait to see more pictures!

I'm all out of time, but I'll write you guys next week!

Before I forget, I am leaving for LA on wednesday! We got our flight plans right after I finished emailing you guys, and we're leaving at 5 in the morning. Our flight leaves at 8:30, but we're leaving the MTC at 5. So i talked to my branch president, and he said it's fine if I call you, so I need to buy a calling card I guess and We should have about an hour where I can talk! It looks like, and this is my guess, I'll probably have the hour between 7-8 to call. Around that time. So if you guys could talk about it tonight, and maybe work out a schedule for me to call that'd be great, with phone numbers an everything. And send it in a dear elder tonight, because after tomorrow I won't get mail. So if you want to talk to me, work out what times are best for everybody, and get me the phone numbers and I'll do my best to give everyone a call! it's gonna a little early. I can't believe Kt and Todd will be leaving the day before I get there. I'm glad you guys are warming it up for me. And say hi to Katrina for me! I wish I could be there so bad. I'm so excited for her.

This has actually been a really good week. even though i've had a hard time sitting for most of it. We had our mission conference sunday, and that was two straight hours of sitting. I was scared for that but it actually turned out really well. One of the MTC presidency, President McIff, gave a talk a really liked. He called it the steps of eternal progression. And simply, what it is faith, repentence and obedience. Faith gives us the desire, the driving force, obedience moves us farther along, and through continuing repentance we keep moving upward. And he said many times we overcomplicate the gospel. It's a very simple gospel. One of my favorite things he said is just that sometimes repentence is as easy as saying it was wrong and not doing it again. Which reminded me of something I read in the bible dictionary. The bible dictionary is awesome. Sometimes I just sit and read it, its really interesting. And it explains a lot of very important doctrines very simply. I was reading the passage about fear, and it says "From the Fall of Adam Heavenly Father has been teaching his children not to fear, but to ask for forgiveness in full confidence of receiving it." Too often, at least for me, I think of Heavenly Father as someone who is expecting complete perfection and is just waiting to punish me. But it's the exact opposite. All He's waiting to do it forgive us and bless us, we just need to do our part through repentence and obedience. I actually really liked the mission conference. I really felt the Spirit very strong. Something interesting for me, is Heavenly Father most often blesses me with spiritual experiences when I'm not expecting it. When I'm expecting it, I get worried about what I should be feeling, and then often get disappointed or miss what Heavenly Father wanted to tell me. But when I'm just trying my best to do what's right, and keeping an open heart Heavenly Father often blesses me with what I didn't know I wanted. Elder Jensen talked to us on tuesday, and he talked a lot about submissiveness. It's like a choir. All of the people in a choir need to be submissive in order to get the right sound. There can't be soloists when the choir is singing. And he talked about that a lot. And he said he was talking to Elder Maxwell before he died, and he asked him, with all his studies on Christ, what christlike attribute he wanted the most. and he said submissiveness. Because if we are willing to submit to everything Heavenly Father has in store for us, we will be in harmony with his will and we will be happy. It was a really good talk. I have a new favorite mormon message this week too. It's called Create, with President Uchtdorf. It's awesome. Something I've learned a lot about here is a quote from President Monson "Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved." It's really easy, especially in the MTC, to focus on the rules and lessons, and forget the reason we have them and do them. The bottom line of all of them is to help people, and when you're focusing on loving people it's hard to go wrong.

Well, i'm starting to run out of time so i'm going to wrap up this letter. I love you all so much, and thanks so much for your constant letters and packages. I have been blessed way more than I deserve in the MTC, and everybody has been jealous of my mail. I read all your letters and love them, and usually re-read them too. And after today, if you could post to the blog and facebook to send my letters to LA, that'd be great!

borsh-I want to see Lily so bad! she sounds adorable. I'm glad her and Kola are getting along, and I want to see some pictures and videos of her! she sounds awesome. I'm glad to hear high school is going well, keep working hard and having fun!

B-I wish so much I could get a little caesars with you right5 now. I've been craving one for ages now. I'm glad the prospects in your finding pool are looking up, and I hope to hear that you get a new investigator soon if you know what I mean. Am I right, or am I right? And thanks so much for the package! Oh man. It was prefect. I ate half of it the first night. I'm kind of fat.

A-I got so jealous reading about all your food! It sounds so good. I'm glad you had a great week, and I want to humble you in Tetris right now. Something that I've found that helps me with my scripture study, is remembering that the BOM was written exactly for us. they saw our day, and they included the things that would be of most worth to us. The Nefites never had it. It was written only for us. Say hi to Abby and Cary for me!

Matt- I got your pictures, your house looks great! I'm looking forward to the mansion pictures too. And I'll make sure the airport gives you a call wednesday. Tell Lauren hi!

Kt- AH!!!!! I can't believe how fast lola is growing! and why haven't i gotten any pics? I mean, you're super prego! say hi to todd for me, and I hope he's taking all this in stride. I like his bigfoot idea, it's probably a good idea to stay low.

Mops and Pops-i did get my picture book, and thank you so much! I love it, it's great. I'm wearing my piggly wiggly hat right now, I think you would appreciate that. I hope Lily is doign great, and I want to see pictures. I can't wait to talk to you guys in 5 days!

My time is up, but I love you all! The church is true!

Siempre dinero en la tienda de bananas

Hola Familia!

Esta Semana fue muy bueno. Elder Holland came! And man, that was exciting. We've been waiting and hoping for an apostle to come the whole time we've been at the MTC. And one finally did! I was singing in the choir, and at first I was a little sad about that, because it meant I was farther away from him. Because the choir can't sit on the floor chairs. But I felt much better about being in the choir after he said that our version of Faith of our Fathers was the best he's ever heard. No big deal. Man. I wish I had a recording of his talk. It was so great. He went half an hour over, and nobody really noticed. We were all totally absorbed, and I know I'm not the only one who was sad when it ended. But man it was good. I wish I could remember everything he said, maybe i'll make a copy of my notes and send it to you. But man you could feel the Spirit so strong. When he walked in, you could really tell a difference. The whole atmosphere of the auditorium changed. It was really interesting. And he looked really grumpy when he walked in, so I was thinking, oh man, we're probably going to get told we're doing something wrong. So I was a little nervous about that. Turns out, the real reason he was sad was because he had gotten a call about 4 hours before, and I don't know what happened but from what we inferred is that a missionary somewhere died right before the talk. But it was a really great talk. He didn't have a teleprompter or anything, just his scriptures and some questions missionaries had asked him. Something that he talked a lot about, and something I am really starting to gain a strong testimony about, is scripture study. I'm really starting to learn how important it is in bringing the spirit into our lives. He read D&C 18:34-36, which says at the end, we can say that we've heard the voice of God because we've felt the power of the spirit of the scriptures. And for some reason, I'd been feeling super stressed that day. I dont know why, I worked really hard and everything but I wasn't feeling very good, and I was having a hard time focusing during his talk. And it was bugging me. A lot. But when he read that scripture, and I turned and read it with him, the Spirit just came. It was amazing. And I've learned so much how important that is. I've had some of my most spiritual moments at the MTC during my own personal scripture study. And I'm starting to learn how to do it right. There really is a difference between studying and reading. And sometimes when I'm studying about a question I have, or a question an investigator has, I can feel the Spirit so strongly, and I can know the Spirit really is teaching me. I see meaning in verses I've read many times but never understand, and sometimes just pages and pages of thoughts and impressions come to me. Elder Holland said that the best way he can think of to invite the Spirit into our lives is scripture study. And I know thats true, because when he started reading from the scriptures, I could truly feel the Spirit. His suggestions for having the Spirit were great, they were scripture study, prayer, and don't lose it. It's so simple, but it truly is what's necessary. I was studying this morning about what it means to give the Lord your heart. Because that's another thing Elder Holland said. The best gift we can give the Savior is our heart. And as far as I found out so far, all the scriptures I read say be obedient, do the small things, and your heart will be turned to the Lord and your heart will be prepared for greater things that he wants to give you. It was so great, I wish I had more time to say all i want to about Elder Holland. He's so inspiring. The last thing he said was in answer to the question, "why does god love us?" And he started talking about his own children. And the Spirit was so strong. I couldn't stop tears from coming when he started talking about that. My favorite thing he said was, when he is looking at our faces, he sees himself as a young missionary. When God is looking at our faces, He sees his children. That was really powerful. We truly are the children of our Heavenly Father, and he gave up everything for us, even his perfect son, Jesus Christ. I wish I could put the Spirit I felt during that into this letter. but it's just not quite possible. But I hope you can understand what I'm trying to say.

Other exciting news from this week. Our teacher said that his bosses say that we're the best district in the MTC. I'm taking it with a grain of salt, but it still feels good. And I know we are pretty dang good. We all speak really good spanish. And actually, we've hardly spoken any english the past 3 days. Monday, I did not speak any english until the last half hour of the day. We all made little signs for under our plaques that say we don't speak english. It's pretty cool. Except I think I killed my spanish brain. But oh well. It'll come back. I also found a new favorite Mormon message. It's from elder wirthlin, and it's called, come what may, and love it. I'd definitely recommend it, it's one of my very favorites. We had a big talk about stress in our fireside on sunday. It was really good. Apparently it's a big problem for missionaries. And the more I learn about it, the more i'm realizing a lot of the problems i've had in life have either been caused by our compounded by stress. And luckily that's something my mission is going to help me with for the rest of my life.

In a less serious vein, this food is killing me. The combination of stress and my stomach and the food is no bueno. Luckily, I'll be in LA in less than two weeks! I couldn't even sleep the other night because I got myself so excited thinking about going to LA. I don't know what they do to the food here. But it's incredible. I've never gone to the bathroom more in my life. And oddly enough, i've never been hairier. The food here is literally putting hair on my chest. Also, Amy is my favorite sibling for the week, because she sent me a candy-gram in a box! Thanks Yam! If any of you happen to want to be my favorite siblings for this next week, I have strange cravings for pizza goldfish, barbecue pringles and beef jerky. Jsut kidding, you guys send me more than enough, and thanks for all the letters and packages, I have a big box full of candy in my room, I just can't eat it all fast enough. You guys are the best. I can't speak spanish or english very well right now. Spanish actually is coming more naturally to me right now. Which is super weird. But I keep messing up in spanish too. I've been having brentisms in spanish. I keep saying Jesusmith and Jose Cristo, instead of Jesucristo and Jose Smith. I can't stop it. I always feel like I have so much more to tell you than I can remember when I'm writing you, and sometimes I have a hard time capturing the Spirit and the feeling I had during some of those experiences. But hopefully you guys will enjoy this letter anyway.

And I will leave it up to you guys as to how much you want to post of this letter. I trust you.

Borsh! I head you joined the frisbee team! that's great. You better practice hard and be better than me when I get back, I can't wait to hear more about that. And I'm super jealous about Lily, I want a puppy right now. I want pictures. Bueno suerte en escuela y en espanol tambien!

oh also, I saw tons of people I know yesterday. I saw Elder Bowerman too, he looks great and it was great to see him.

i love you all! The church is true, have a great week, and I'll let you know all the details about my travel plans next week!