Well Hello There! I just wanted to say thanks so much for all of the letters and packages that i've gotten this past week! (I'm being serious this time) They really have helped so much and after sitting in a classroom for 16 hours a day theres no better sight. This week honestly has been one of the busiest but most amazing of my life! Time really does fly by and it seems like I was just emailing you yesterday! Even though we have jam packed schedules and literally no time (except 15 minutes at night) for ourselves, the days seem to go by in the blink of an eye! I hope all of you have been getting my letters... Ben that Duck Dynasty poster was perfect! All of my companions were chasing me around the campus trying to steal it from me! And liz I love the stickers :) Keep the letters coming and I'm trying to reply to everyone as fast as I can! I found out a few days ago that I leave for the airport at 5:30 Monday morning. The rest of my zone doesnt fly out till the next day! In all of the packets it tells how many people are in your flight group and most groups have between 30-50. Yep in mine its only me. I'm really sad that i'm leaving the MTC in just a few days because I LOVE it here!
So since I was sent in a week earlier than I was supposed to, I was with a district headed for Little Rock Arkansas. There are 4 sisters and 4 elders. To be honest, starting out things were a little rough (Because of reasons stated in my letter) but i'm just so grateful for the other two elders that were put in my district. They're such fun guys to be around and in just a week we've become best friends! I've actually gotten along really well with all four of the sisters here and have developed a pretty cool bond with them. A few of them were really struggling with the whole home sickness thing and so they asked me if I would give them a blessing of comfort. 0.0. thats what my face looked like haha! I was really nervous to give them since I had never done it before but I would never say no. Going into the blessings I had no idea what I was going to say. I put my hands on her head and even though they were shaking, I felt a huge feeling of peace and I knew exactly what to say. It was by FAR one of the coolest experiences of my life! And both of them are still here so I guess it might've actually worked... haha! As everyone knows I can sleep pretty much anywhere. The one problem I've had is that they only give you ONE PILLOW here! Back at home I was so used to having at least 3 (1 behind me, 1 to hug, and 1 to lay on) that I wasnt really sleeping well. Finally I got a little creative and stuffed some pillow cases full of sweatshirts and towels and it worked perfectly! Sunday we had a really cool mission wide conference. They talked a little bit more about how big of a part technology is going to have on our missions. So i guess between 10 and about 2 everyday we're going to be on Mormon.org or facebook and talking with people who are interested in the gospel via skype, messaging, and email. I really think this is going to help out a lot because it will really give those people who dont get out of their houses much a chance to recieve the gospel. Plus there's a big chance we might get IPads by Christmas!
The work especially at the beginning is really hard! I came into it thinking that all you needed to know was the doctrine but that's not the case. Pretty much when we come here they throw us in the deep end and expect us to be able to swim. The key and kind of our district motto is fail fast. You have to figure out what their needs are in order to make a lesson plan based on what they need. Sounds easy right? Nope. The problem is that they never tell you what they need! You pretty much need to have a psychology degree to figure it out. We've been teaching an investigator named Arnold and it really has been going great! As long as you come into the lesson prepared, the spirit truly takes over and you know exactly what you need to say to them.
Yesterday we went over to the main campus for in-field-training. They pretty much teaching you all of the things you need to know that cant be taught in the classroom (working with members, approaching investigators, etc) I really love the west campus! The only problem is the food. For breakfast we have a box of prepackaged cereal and some milk. For lunch we get a packaged salad. SALAD!! The dinner is alright. So i was a little confused why everyone was saying how people gain tons of weight! When we went over to the main campus they let us eat lunch and dinner over there. I walked into the cafeteria and almost fell over in shock... There were all you can eat buffets EVERYWHERE! I was in heaven. For breakfast they have bacon, sausage, pancakes, french toast, anything you can imagine! I saw Sean Barton and he told me how is companion had gained 23 pounds since they got there. Now I can see why. I tried to find kate but she was no where to be found which was a little disappointing. Is she still there? There was an awesome lightning storm so i figured that probably sent her packing. Every night at least one missionary escapes and the campus security knocks on our door asking us if we know where they're at. Hahah!
Well Its really early and my minds not really working so hopefully some of this made sense!
Love you guys!
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