This week has gone really well at the MTC, boy time is just flying by now! Thank you all so much for the letters and emails and all that you have sent, I love to read them! And yes i got our packages today with the pants and blessing and stamps, thanks so much! Most other things i can just get here at the bookstore, and since missionaries get 40% off, it's super cheap! But anyways...yeah the MTC is going great! The work is so hard, and it is basically as much studying, if not more, than it was for me while I was in college. But what makes it wonderful is what I get to study: The words of the Lord. It is such a great time, and even though it is hard it is SO worth it! It really is like what Grande L (lol) said in his message. It's like living in the temple for six weeks! What a privilege it is to be here.
So, our last "investigator", Nico is no longer being taught by us, we are assigned to teach two new investigators, but we aren't quite sure who yet. Teaching Nico was an amzing experience, and he (Fratello Weller is his real name) is actually now teaching us Italian for half of the day! He is a great guy! I am excited to start teaching more investigators, and even more excited to speak with il popolo da Italia. They are great people, and I know that the Lord has prepared them for what we have to teach. Missionary work is just so great!
So I am basically falling asleep here at the monitor; every P day we "get" to wake up at 5:50 to be ready for our service project at 6:05. But it is okay, doing service for the MTC really actually puts me in a good mood. But I am so excited for the one hour "cat-nap" we are allowed to take on P day. So relaxing! :)
I had a really wonderful experience the other day in class. We had a substitute teacher come in to show us a "teaching demonstration" of how to teach a lesson, while the other missionaries listened in and thought of ways to improve and whatnot. But we all thought that he was just gonna come in and teach, since he is fluent in Italian and all. But out of the blue he asks me to be his companion! and so we went in the other room to plan for about 5 minutes, and then we started teaching an entire lesson and getting to know "Valeria" entirely in Italian! But wow. I was so surprised at what I actually could say! I don't know how to say everything exactly the way I wish I could say it, but I can usually take a round about way to get at least some of my point across. And when in doubt, bear testimony. It is amazing the things that will come to your mind, through the Spirit. And at the end of the lesson, we invited Valeria to pray (for the first time she had ever done so) and ask if what we said were true. Even though she had no idea how to pray, and sure we taught her a brief overview of how to start and end a prayer, her heart was so sincere, and as she spoke tears came to everyone's eyes. The spirit was there so strongly, and I truly felt our Heavenly Father's love for her. What a great place this is!
The food here, yep. Top notch! And Brandon you will delighted to know that they have...wait for it...blueberry "smuffin stops". Yeah. I have had a bowl of those for basically every meal. Luckily we get like an hour a day to exercise, things are going good in that regard haha.
So my companion! haha, what a champ! He is a nut, but I love him. his name is Brennan...errr, Anziano Dean. He has sooo many entertaining stories, he is a character. We have a ton of fun together! Like the other day, we started making up a song to fit the pokemon TV show theme song, but instead of saying "Po-ke-mon!" We said "con-ver-sion!" It was a good time! Our district is so awesome! We all are sooo close, and everyone is just awesome to be around. the first week or so whenever we would see each other we would yell "CIAO!!" in a spirited, happy way. It was hilarious. We have some russian missionaries in the class next to us, and the other day we overheard one of them in the hall "Man! What is up with the Italians! All they know is ciao and anziano and they say it alllll the time!" It was hilarious, but we toned it down a tad.
We have had so many good times! The other day we were walking with our teacher to another building during class time, and she told us to be especially reverant, so one of us had the idea to line up single file behind her like birds and fold our arms like the primary kids and look down reverantly. Everyone stared as 10 grown men walked around like primary children around the MTC, it was funny. And also, (and okay, we got in a little trouble, and felt bad about it.) we had a "pudding cup challenge" on P day. Anziano Skinner's mom had sent him like 45 snack packs, and he wanted to get rid of them, so he challenged anziano anderson to a pudding eating contest. (don't worry, I got pictures) But in about 7 minutes they downed 15 pudding cups...right in a row. it was nasty! Anziano skinner ended the contest by losing his lunch in a trash can. But it was hilarious. boys will be boys, haha.PART 2:
man, I am good at hitting the enter and tab or whatever it is combination that makes it send!
to continue: yeah it has been a really fun place! also a wonderful place where the spirit of the Lord can be felt. We had a special experience the other night after we had a lesson about Enos, and how he didn't just pray "to" our Heavenly Father, he prayed "with" him. So we were challenged to really pray with our heavenly father last night. It was so wonderful. Heavenly father truly does speak back if we will pray sincerely and open up our hearts to him. I know that is true.
I love you all so much! You are in my prayers, and thank you so much for remembering me in yours. i can feel the strength that comes from the Lord. I am glad to hear all is well at home, "keep frolfin', keep livin'" As they say. "they don't say that mom." "well I do!" -The R.M (brandon knows what I'm talking about haha)
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