August 30, 2007

Hola familia!

How's everyone doing? Mary, Steve, I love hearing about your little boys so make sure to keep me updated. Same things goes for little Eva(?) when she's born.

Mom, Dad, how're things on the home front? Thanks to both of you for letters. Dad, are you feeling better now that you can relax more? Hope so.

I had a great week here at the MTC, como siempre. Just got back from the temple and that was a blast. Elder Holland was here on Tuesday and he talked about a lot of things and he's just amazing. One of the things he talked about was Preach My Gospel and where that came from and it was way cool.

Thanks to everyone who sent me letters, I really appreciate them. Thanks for the granola, Mom, it's amazing! Sometimes I eat really small dinners and then come back to my room at night and eat a bowl of your homemade granola.

One quick note while I remember, I need a memory card for my camera. Maybe you could give Brig some money and he could buy one and just bring it to me. Whatever the case, I'm out of built in memory on the camera (And have been since the first day here)

Many of you asked how the Spanish is going well, if I'm learning more quickly than high school, etc. Let's be really clear, the reason I didn't do well in high school was because I was a lazy lazy kid. I'm not having any troubles with the language and being able to talk a whole bunch with Brig yesterday actually helped out a lot.

Yeah, so I had the opportunity to see Brig a couple times. He came into my class in the morning and helped out for a little bit, it was pretty cool. I almost got to teach with him, but then I got called away to the front desk for something. Bummer.

This past week I've been studying alot about faith, trust in the Lord, and humility, so if any of you have any cool scriptures, stories, or thoughts, your counsel is always appreciated. Alma 32:16 is becoming one of my favorite scriptures, and "Lead Kindly Light" is now officially one of my top 5 favorite hymns.

I got my first referal from the Referal Center this week. Some super cool guy from Louisiana called in and asked for a free Bible, he said that he and "His Brothas" had recently found Christ and were shopping around the different Bibles to see which one they liked best and he was interested in the King James version. Talked to him a little bit and he accepted the missionaries. He was so cool! Wish I could remember his actual name but it was something like Jamal.

My companion got sick this week. He has an infection and had to go see a doctor in Salt Lake City. I know it's probably not that funny but his infection is in a pretty funny place so I've been making fun of him all week.

This week a really strong Elder in the branch has been having a really tough time with his companion. My companion and I talked to him, and as we did it occured to me how personally The Lord knows us. Let me explain.

This elder is one of the coolest, most loving people I know. He's really excited and loves to work hard. As I was talking to him, I realized that the ONLY thing that could slow him down, is an unhappy companion, because this person loves other people so much.

It just occured to me how well the Lord is preparing us, I looked around at the Elders around me and realized that all of us were surrounded by circumstances and trials that would prepare us perfectly for the mission field.

For myself, I find it a little hard to get out of myself and care about other Elders. I have a tendency to work really hard, but just forget about the others, and if they're not working hard or doing what they should be doing, that's their problem.
So the Lord gave me accountability for them.

Elder Rogers is a great leader but needed to figure out how to deal with someone who wasn't motivated.
So the Lord gave him an unmotivated companion.

Elder Rassmussen needed to get motivated and needed a lot of help in a lot of ways.
So the Lord surrounded him with great elders that can really help him through.

And on and on it goes.

Looks like I'm about out of time but I love you all.

Elder BDW

PS
Mom: Orange flavor Emergen-c sounds great, as does PB + Kashi crackers!