Dear Everyone who reads my emails,
Hola! So, bascially, I am super sad that there´s no way I´ll have time to tell about everything I would like to tell about, but I will try!!
First off, last Thursday night after my email we watched a devotional, an old one taped at Provo a couple years ago, by Elder Bednar. It was answering the question: How do I tell if it´s the Holy Ghost or if it´s just me? Well, that was definitely inspired or something because Dad and I talked about that just a few weeks ago and we hadn´t really come up with a satisfactory answer. But Elder Bednar said, "QUIT worrying about it!!!" He said that as long as we´re being good and keeping our covenants, everything would work out. He told a cool story about how he as a missionary in Germany once picked up President Packer from the airport and took him to a train. He felt like they should have something to eat so he gave them a 20 marc note to take with them. Then that 20 marc note ended up saving Sister Packer because they were able to use it as not a bribe, but a "righteous exchange" and saved her from her passport issue. So he used that as the prime example because he didn´t have this overwhelming spiritual prompting to do that, he was simply doing something nice. Looking back, he said there likely was a spiritual prompting, but he didn´t waste time trying to decide if it was or not, he just did something nice! I wish I could go further into that because it was amazing, but that was the gist of it.
So, I like my district! Here´s the rundown on everyone: me and Hermana Lyons, Elder Ridd and Elder Datwyler from my Provo district, Elder Bybee and Elder Landinez, and Elder Church and Elder Hendricks. Ridd, Bybee and Hendricks are going to Madrid, everyone else to Málaga. Ridd is from AZ and I´m from OH and everyone else is from Utah. Elder Bybee and Elder Landinez are my favorites and Bybee was district leader for awhile and he was the first person I felt like I was friends with here (besides my comp). Bybee is one of the few elders here who had a year of college first, and it´s surprising how much you can tell the difference in the maturity level. Not saying guys right out of high school shouldn´t go or anything, but you can definitely tell the difference. But we´ve had some funny moments. We invented a new game to play in the classroom called Markerball and basically you try to knock down dry erase markers that are standing on the table with a small foam ball. It´s harder than it sounds and strangely addicting. We challenged another district to a match and it was super fun! Also, Landinez and Bybee were about to teach a lesson and Landinez was trying to find a good scripture and he said to look up Genesis 18:9 so we looked it up (go look it up so this story is actually funny) and he goes "This is the worst scripture on families ever! How is this ever going to help anybody???" So I figured someone gave it to him as a joke and asked where he got it and he says he got it from Preach My Gospel, so we looked again and turns out he was supposed to read Genesis 18:19 which is very different! So now that´s the district joke and anytime anyone needs a good scripture, we suggest Genesis 18:9. Also, Elder Matthews is from the other district and he is a very interesting guy. Watching him snort pepper was one of the funniest things I´d ever seen in my life. Elders get REALLY bored here sometimes....
We got to sing for some Spanish children! They were the cutest things ever! They were touring the MTC or something and seriously, I must adopt a Spanish child someday or something, because I loved them...Also, we got to sing on Sunday night on the steps of the Madrid temple for anyone passing outside. Members like to come listen. The rumor is that it´s on YouTube sometimes...so you could try to find it if you want but no guarantees there.
Basically, I have ended up loving it here. I realized that all the reasons I missed Provo were little things that wouldn´t make or break my mission. So I decided to stop being selfish and realize that if there were things I need to learn here then it shouldn´t matter which one has better food or whatever (although, the food isn´t actually that bad, it´s just that one of the very first meals I had was this tuna fish sponge casserole thing. Nasty!) But I decided that I don´t like either MTC better, because there are things I like better about this one and things I like better about Provo, so I should just feel lucky that I got the best of both worlds! The only problem is things that can´t be replaced, like the awesome friends I had in my district. But oh well, I really like the people here too. I was sick for a couple days though, I had a cold. But the MTC President´s wife gave me this nasty bitter medicine stuff that ended up actually working, so I wasn´t too miserable for too long haha.
We also had a Spanish couple tell us about their conversion stories. The wife was converted and baptized in 3 days, the husband in like 4 years. I wish I could elaborate because they were awesome and super funny and energetic, but it was cool because it reminded me that I should never give up on anybody or lose faith, because even when people take forever, they could still decide on the truth.
Well I had lots more to say, but I´m totally out of time. Email is SO annoying here, but don´t worry, I´ll have tons more time once we get to Málaga.
Peace out,
Hermana Andrew
Hola! So, bascially, I am super sad that there´s no way I´ll have time to tell about everything I would like to tell about, but I will try!!
First off, last Thursday night after my email we watched a devotional, an old one taped at Provo a couple years ago, by Elder Bednar. It was answering the question: How do I tell if it´s the Holy Ghost or if it´s just me? Well, that was definitely inspired or something because Dad and I talked about that just a few weeks ago and we hadn´t really come up with a satisfactory answer. But Elder Bednar said, "QUIT worrying about it!!!" He said that as long as we´re being good and keeping our covenants, everything would work out. He told a cool story about how he as a missionary in Germany once picked up President Packer from the airport and took him to a train. He felt like they should have something to eat so he gave them a 20 marc note to take with them. Then that 20 marc note ended up saving Sister Packer because they were able to use it as not a bribe, but a "righteous exchange" and saved her from her passport issue. So he used that as the prime example because he didn´t have this overwhelming spiritual prompting to do that, he was simply doing something nice. Looking back, he said there likely was a spiritual prompting, but he didn´t waste time trying to decide if it was or not, he just did something nice! I wish I could go further into that because it was amazing, but that was the gist of it.
So, I like my district! Here´s the rundown on everyone: me and Hermana Lyons, Elder Ridd and Elder Datwyler from my Provo district, Elder Bybee and Elder Landinez, and Elder Church and Elder Hendricks. Ridd, Bybee and Hendricks are going to Madrid, everyone else to Málaga. Ridd is from AZ and I´m from OH and everyone else is from Utah. Elder Bybee and Elder Landinez are my favorites and Bybee was district leader for awhile and he was the first person I felt like I was friends with here (besides my comp). Bybee is one of the few elders here who had a year of college first, and it´s surprising how much you can tell the difference in the maturity level. Not saying guys right out of high school shouldn´t go or anything, but you can definitely tell the difference. But we´ve had some funny moments. We invented a new game to play in the classroom called Markerball and basically you try to knock down dry erase markers that are standing on the table with a small foam ball. It´s harder than it sounds and strangely addicting. We challenged another district to a match and it was super fun! Also, Landinez and Bybee were about to teach a lesson and Landinez was trying to find a good scripture and he said to look up Genesis 18:9 so we looked it up (go look it up so this story is actually funny) and he goes "This is the worst scripture on families ever! How is this ever going to help anybody???" So I figured someone gave it to him as a joke and asked where he got it and he says he got it from Preach My Gospel, so we looked again and turns out he was supposed to read Genesis 18:19 which is very different! So now that´s the district joke and anytime anyone needs a good scripture, we suggest Genesis 18:9. Also, Elder Matthews is from the other district and he is a very interesting guy. Watching him snort pepper was one of the funniest things I´d ever seen in my life. Elders get REALLY bored here sometimes....
We got to sing for some Spanish children! They were the cutest things ever! They were touring the MTC or something and seriously, I must adopt a Spanish child someday or something, because I loved them...Also, we got to sing on Sunday night on the steps of the Madrid temple for anyone passing outside. Members like to come listen. The rumor is that it´s on YouTube sometimes...so you could try to find it if you want but no guarantees there.
Basically, I have ended up loving it here. I realized that all the reasons I missed Provo were little things that wouldn´t make or break my mission. So I decided to stop being selfish and realize that if there were things I need to learn here then it shouldn´t matter which one has better food or whatever (although, the food isn´t actually that bad, it´s just that one of the very first meals I had was this tuna fish sponge casserole thing. Nasty!) But I decided that I don´t like either MTC better, because there are things I like better about this one and things I like better about Provo, so I should just feel lucky that I got the best of both worlds! The only problem is things that can´t be replaced, like the awesome friends I had in my district. But oh well, I really like the people here too. I was sick for a couple days though, I had a cold. But the MTC President´s wife gave me this nasty bitter medicine stuff that ended up actually working, so I wasn´t too miserable for too long haha.
We also had a Spanish couple tell us about their conversion stories. The wife was converted and baptized in 3 days, the husband in like 4 years. I wish I could elaborate because they were awesome and super funny and energetic, but it was cool because it reminded me that I should never give up on anybody or lose faith, because even when people take forever, they could still decide on the truth.
Well I had lots more to say, but I´m totally out of time. Email is SO annoying here, but don´t worry, I´ll have tons more time once we get to Málaga.
Peace out,
Hermana Andrew
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