I'm about to BLOW ALL YOUR MINDS by not flexing on you with my insane spanish skills at the beginning of my email ;) No shade Bryce, no shade hahaha!
Anyways... Man! What to say...
All
the little hilarious moments, all the small spiritual gems, all the
small successes and failures are the essence of my life in the CCM. It
sufficeth me to say that I love it haha!
Of
course there are times when I doubt, question, worry, sorrow, and other
pursue other worthless endeavors, but really its been very minimal so
far. I have been having a great time! Spanish is an interesting little
puzzle but I really do enjoy unscrambling it and especially using it to
teach and pray. Prayer in Spanish is awesome! I normally try to pray in
my own erroneous Spanish for personal prayers rather than English
because I just LOVE how they use the Tu form with Heavenly Father. It
helps me feel closer to God and reminds me I'm his child as well as his
servant.
A couple things that I just thought
of to say... beware they are random haha! FIRST, in the photos you will
see some sweet outfits... this is simply because it has become our
hallowed tradition for my dorm mates and I to dress to impress as we go
down to wash our clothes, AND we saw trees and literally were like WOW A
FOREST and ran over there and goofed off while we waited for the dryers
to finish drying our clothes half way hahaha! Its like WAR in the
laundry room cuz ppl leave stuff in the washers and dryers so everybody
just pulls each others stuff out and leaves it on the tables with little
passive aggressive sticky notes... its super entertaining honestly!
XD
SECOND, enclosed in this email you will find a picture of
a sexy yellow bicycle... that is because here a lot of the workers ride
those around down here and it reminds all of us gringos of Nacho Libre and
it really cracks us up for some reason.
I have
random pics in there of me pretend playing ping pong because my
companion and I do that a lot and let me put this simply... I'm almost
Jackie Chan level!!!! XD
I still love my
district and I especially love the three others in our dorm, Elders
Christensen, Farnsworth, and Smith. Smith has lighter brown hair and
glasses in the photos, Farnsworth has curly light brown hair and is
tall, and my companion Christensen has the darker hair and glasses.
Farnsworth is super sassy and its hilarious... i wish i had examples but
i don't... idk... think of Lucien kinda but not so savage. Smith and I
often pair up and do things like meet the MTC President and explore
places (of course always within sight and sound of our companions,
except for when we forget that WE aren't companions and turn around and
run back haha!) anyways, President Bennett (the MTC president we meet but
who is also leaving in like two days or something) said we were bold
when we tracked him down and met him and he likes bold missionaries, so
now as a joke whenever Smith and I do something kinda stupid we just
look at each other and say WE ARE BOLD MISSIONARIES! Christensen is not
super similar to me... He LOVES Coldplay (for the record I like a few of
there songs Dad, I'm sorry!), is in theater, keeps a dream journal, and
the boy can do the SPLITS! Also he has like a million hilariously random
things that he just cant stand.... Because of Dad's great example I
daily "help" him get over these obstacles hahaha! XD He's unique guy but
we do get along well, and I am always tryna help him cuz he REALLY
struggles with Spanish... like he is constantly in the corner studying
and he becomes more and more like Kirby from "The Best Two Years" each day! XD
A
lot of guys I am close with and really look up to (like my studly Zone
leaders) are leaving this week and man I'll miss them, but they have
given me a charge to step up and make sure the newcomers feel welcome
here. I have been trying and spend a lot of time running around the
Comedor during mealtimes meeting new ppl and taking peoples trays back
to the kitchen to get washed. Its really one of the only ways to serve
others here in the CCM, so it is a cherished ritual for me, cuz I run
best when I'm worried about others rather then me.
Actually,
that reminds me, Me and the three aforementioned Elders helped give one
of the two Hermanas [Sisters] in our district a blessing of comfort a few days
ago and that was really cool! Luckily it (unlike most other things here)
didn't have to be in Spanish or poor Elder Smith would have had a real
rough time.
There's so much to say and yet
nothing... it's so hard to explain. All the little joys can only truly
be understood if they are experienced, and you all do not have that
advantage. What I can say and do believe however, is that I have been
carried up on the wings of your prayers, and my how grateful I am for
that influence! :) I am doing my best to lose myself in service out
here, because through out my life I have found repeatedly that I find my
true identity, talents, and potential, when I am busy helping others
find theirs. That is when I am at my happiest, and that is when I am at
my best. I have found a community of people here that are amazing, and
often i have found that they are here when they need it, even though
that had no clue i did.
I love you all and I
love the Lord. My love is not perfect but His is, and that will help me
get there. I hope each of you will find the joy and happiness you need
in your life, and i testify that it will come as you are in the work of
the Lord. :)
Ta ta for now.
(That part was just for you mom ;) hahaha!)
