10/21/2008 Letter

We received a letter in the mail on Friday. Here are some excerpts:

Today is my first preparation day, hurray! Ah, life is good. The Church is true!! I'm starting to get used to the schedule of being a missionary. My companion is awesome. I'm so glad I have an obedient companero. We finally got two more elders in the room with us and they don't follow all the rules as closely as my companion and I. We are like early to all our meetings, working hard together, and praying together so I'm happy. Sometimes it's hard to love him, but when I do it's awesome so I'm trying to focus on his strengths. He has like 8 siblings (2 older) and lives near Chicago. ... He loves to play soccer and work out. ... Anyway, he has a strong testimony and is learning fast -- so it's a challenge to keep up. Elder Peterson is going to Vancaqua, Chile.

The elders that moved in our room are now in our district (they moved up from beginning Spanish) and one sister from our district moved up to advanced but we also had one move in from beginning so anyways we have 11 in our disctrict now -- we're pretty much family. The guys are cool -- and there are like 8 different missions -- 3 in Chile, 1 in Nicaragua, 2 in Honduras, Anaheim, and Guatemala. I still haven't met anyone going to Anaheim, but I heard a prayer in one of our big meetings by someone going there.

Spanish is coming along slowly but surely. So far we've learned to pray in Spanish, bear our testimony, say some greetings, etc. We've also been working on Lesson 1 in PMG. We made an outline and then taught it for the first time yesterday.

My 3 teachers are great. Hermana Alleto comes every day, and Hermano Lindahl and Tuttle come every other day (no class on Tuesdays). They have great personalities, Spanish skills, and testimonies. We had a ton of meetings (extra) this last week since we're new but now are in a good schedule and things are looking awesome for the next couple weeks.

Sheri Dew was the fireside speaker Sunday night (awesome talk) and we have devotional tonight. Don't know the speaker yet. Choir is great -- we sing on Sundays and Tuesdays. Gym five days a week has been a blast. We went to the actual gym one time and have played soccer on the field the other 2 times (five a week starts this week). The food is actually better than the CANC so I really like it.

I loved going to the temple today. It was so pretty! I guess there's not much more to report so have a wonderful day!