Hello!: Week 4

Hola everyone!

Thanks for all the letters and packages I have gotten from you! Weeks at the MTC seem to start getting faster and faster. My district is now the "oldest" people in the zone. Which means we leave next. I have about 2 weeks left here! Nobody in my zone has gotten their visas yet. So we are most likely going to be reassigned. Which I'm totally okay with! I have the opportunity to say I served in 2 places! But, I hear Buenos Aires missions are faster than the other Argentina missions so maybe it will come before I leave. I should get my travel plans next week.

The food is still good here and the best thing is still the biscuits and gravy! The district is going good. Our spanish is getting there. I'm trying to memorize all the vocab in our little book we have that contains a lot of keywords from the lessons. Also, my zone gets 16 missionaries today! And most are going to Argentina! Muy capo! I forgot to mention that a thing we do to help learn for Spanish is called TALL (Torture Asylum Logrithim Lair) (That doesn't make sense.) Anyways, it is a basically the MTC version of Rosetta Stone. My district doesn't really like it because you do the same thing over and over but I like it.

Teaching lessons is going good here. My companion and I are teaching an investigator named Samuel still and we talked to him about the Word of Wisdom and he is doing a lot better! Even though he is an actor, you feel this weird charity love feeling with them. I guess it is because you study for them non-stop trying to help them out.

That's about all that has been going on. I saw a couple people from college and gave them handshakes (actually elbows are hi-fives because this place is a petri dish). Dylan Sellers is among one of those people. He was my friend in California and met him during PGY. And he is going to Brazil! I can't remember what part Dad, but I thought you would like that.

I see Tori everyday and I thank Heavenly Father everyday for that. She is doing well from what she tells me! She leaves this Tuesday and I am so jealous (not really) because she gets to go straight out while I have 2 more weeks here! Her companion's name is Sister Call. And they are going to the same mission with each other so that is exciting. Not gonna lie, it's really awkward seeing one of your best friends from school and only giving them a handshake (or elbows or a hi-five)

Anyways, how is everybody doing? I would respond back to everyone individually, but I have a limited amount of time on the computers. Everyone is lucky that they are going to Montana and everything! Elder Crowther in my district is from Montana originally, but now lives in Richfield. He is from Billings, Montana (somewhere around there) What's the sport news stuff? The A's? Niners? Kings? Keli'i! You can send me Dear Elders and they get to me the next day! I feel like I don't know the real world anymore.

So this last Tuesday, we had a devotional, or course. It was Elder Matthew Richardson from the Sunday School Presidency. He talked about acting thy part on your mission. Oh by the way, has everyone done referrals like I asked? Anyways, it was a good reminder of why we are out here. We are here to devote ALL of our time to the Lord. Everything we study and talk should be about the Lord.

Also, what I figured out this week was that how much the Lord loves his children. I picture in my mind of the last episode of Avatar (more specifically "The Old Masters") when Zuko goes into Iroh's tent and just gets on his knees and starts repenting and saying sorry for everything he has done. And as Zuko was speaking, Iroh hugs him and Zuko says, "...I though you would be furious with me." And Iroh responds, "I was never angry with you. I was sad because I thought you had lost your way." Gives me goosebumps whenever I think about this. Heavenly Father really loves his Children. I have been praying for his love and how I could feel it. I can now testify that Heavenly Father loves his children! More love than you can even imagine. John 3:16-17 says that God so loved the world that he gave his only Begotten Son. Jesus Christ loves us as much too. He died for us. He died so that we can live with our Father again. The Atonement brings mercy unto us. I have been studying the Plan of Salvation a lot because I need to know how to teach it, but one thing that stood out to me was that Jesus Christ will be our Advocate. I never realized this before, but advocate in the Spanish sense means lawyer. Jesus Christ will defend us, if we accept his gospel and use The Atonement.

Well...that is all I got this week. Keep sending letters! Letters are a missionaries favorite thing! I'm especially talking to Levi Wright and the Park Family ;)

Love you guys! Stay strong! Know the church is true. Remember to study the scriptures and say prayers. Love one another.

 

Con amor,

Elder Grant Benjamin Evans