Week 2

February 24, 2011

HELLO OUTSIDE WORLD!!!!

So first of all I'm going to scold all of you. It is now 1:10 on Thursday 2/24/2011 and no one has sent me anything explaining, or even telling me, that Deron Williams got traded. Well that's the rumor in the MTC underground sports world. I would like a little confirmation or something. I'm on a mission, but I still want to know whats going on. It gives me something to start conversations with investigators. So by not telling me you are hindering the work. hahaha

Well I'm not going to lie, this week has been rough, but no worries, the Lord has taken care of me. My companion has been awesome, as well as my district. Mom I got your package on Tuesday, as well as some cookies from my favorite friends in 228 Tingey hall, and Trent's mom dropped off 2 dozen fresh Krispy Kreme donuts yesterday, so I have an abundance of blessings. Now I know what the scriptures meant when they said that the windows of heaven will be open, and you won't have room to receive the blessings. That is definitely a reference to not having room for all the food. But keep sending it, because I'm sure it will all be gone by next week :)

So yeah, I can't believe it is Thursday again already. I felt like I had my last P day like 3 days ago, but it also feels like I've been in the MTC for a long time, so I don't really know. Time works differently here than in the rest of the world. Kinda like Santa Clause or something, I haven't quite figured it out yet, but once I do I'll let you know. Saturday we had our weekly zone activity thingy, where we practice street contacting. My companion and I were on fire! Our German is coming along great. We practiced our street approaches on some of the teachers, and we didn't do have bad. One of the teachers destroyed us with a whole bunch of issues we couldn't answer very well in German, but other than that we did really well. But the language is so frustrating at the same time. We are teaching two different investigators now, and it's so frustrating because there is so much I want to tell them, but I just don't know how to say it in German, and when I do say stuff, I'm not sure I'm saying it right. But that's why I'm here, to practice, so I guess I should stop complaining. It has really made me study a lot harder though, so I guess my frustration can be a good thing.

Sundays in the MTC are sweet!!!!!! I can't tell you how nice it is to just take a day off from German, (well kinda off, sacrament meetings is still nur deutsch, but we don't have class or study German) and just be rejuvenated. The fireside was this pretty sweet musical fireside where people just shared a short testimony of their favorite song, and we sang one verse of it. Just like in my BYU ward. It wasn't as cool though because a lot of missionaries weren't very reverent. But it was still cool. Monday was... interesting. We have been teaching this investigator named "Felix", and although our teacher told us he didn't speak much English, we were all sure that he spoke a lot of English, and that he was some MTC volunteer. It turns out he is our new teacher. Yeah, it was definitely really weird when he came in and started talking English. I couldn't understand him for a while because I was used to hearing only German from him. But then he switched back to German so its all good now. But I'm pretty sure that everyone in our district is exhausted. It gets really obvious late at night. On Monday night we were practicing teaching, I was the investigator, and Elder Jacklin and Elder Rosenvall were teaching. But right off the start Elder Jacklin looks at me and says "Wir haben eine Botshaft fur uns." Which means We have a message for ourselves. I looked at him for a second, and then I started laughing, and then all three of us started laughing, and we could not stop. Bruder Wickes, our new teacher who used to be Felix, kept trying to get us to stop but we couldn't. It was just one of those times when you are so tired and you just start laughing and keep laughing because everyone else is laughing.

The exact same thing happened Wednesday night when Elder Jacklin and Elder Rosenvall were teaching my companion, Elder Sanderson. Elder Rosenvall said something weird, like "Ich konnten haben" which doesn't make any sense, and everyone just started laughing and we couldn't stop. Hopefully we will get some more sleep tonight, or else tomorrow is going to be interesting.

Tuesdays are probably my favorite day. We go to the TRC that day, which is where we just practice talking in German with volunteers about different church related things, this week it was inviting members to help us. It was fun. The best part is the devotionals though. We are always hoping for Elder Uchtdorf, but no matter who comes it is amazing and I always feel like they are talking straight to me. This week it was elder Kearon of the seventy. He has a sweet British accent and he talked about how we need to be our message, that the joy of the gospel needs to be evident in how we look. It was way good.

Well time is almost up, so I just wanted to say I love all of you and thanks for keeping me in your prayers. I know this church is true, and I'm so grateful for this chance I have to spend two years getting closer to my Savior and Redeemer. Thanks again to everyone.

Love,

Elder Terry