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| Provo, Utah Temple |
I have learned allot this week since I have been reading in the New Testament. I have been reading in Matthew about Jesus Christ. I love every part in it but as I have been reading it this week what particularly stood out to me was Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. How great are the teachings of Jesus! I found myself being bothered by this other missionary that has class in my hall. He would always bother me with little pranks and I kind of wanted to take him out. But after reading about the Sermon on the Mount and how the Lord said to love thy neighbor, I have gone out of my way to befriend this guy and now we are really close friends. I think he’s the man! I am striving to live by the teachings of Jesus and not judging others because I have a beam in my eye!
Now a cool experience has happened to me since I last wrote you. These new Elders moved in down the hall and they are from the Marshall Islands, Tahiti, and Tonga. They all speak different languages so it is hard for us to communicate with each other. So, I got my boys from my district together and we went over and welcomed them and it barely seems like there is a language barrier between us now at all. It was really awesome getting to know them and after that I invited them over for some beef jerky and Milano cookies. They all loved the cookies and I think that beef jerky and cookie were some of the first words that the big guy from Tahiti had ever learned in English. He always comes over to the room now and says Cookie. He’s the man!
This past week we had a service day where we got to help out in the MTC cafeteria. Our job was to lay out bacon on a tray for the Sisters who work there to cook. At first, it was getting kind of boring and repetitive so my companions and I decided to start singing hymns from the Church to liven things up a bit. It might sound lame, but it was really fun. The people working there, like the lunch ladies, started to request songs for us to sing, and even stopped working for a minute to listen. I’m not saying that we sounded good; it was just that we were having fun while serving! We even sang happy birthday to Mary, a lady that worked there who was having her birthday the next day! It was really awesome to serve and I hope we get to work back there again!
We taught the first lesson in English to investigators that have come to the MTC to learn more about Christ. I could feel the spirit strongly as I testified that Jesus Christ is our Savior and by His atonement, we can return to live with Him again someday.
I had a wrestling match the other night and let’s just say it probably wasn’t the best idea! I first wrestled one of the guys in my district named Elder Boyack. After we wrestled on the carpet our knees got rug burn and hurt pretty bad. Then Elder Bowers wanted a piece of me and challenged me to wrestle. I couldn’t deny a challenge so we wrestled and my knees got burnt even worse. After I got done wrestling him, my big new friend, the guy from Tahiti, that only speaks French wanted to wrestle. I really didn’t want to wrestle him because this guy is pretty big; he is about 6'2, 225 pounds. But everyone was calling me out and my pride wouldn’t let me walk away. So I squared up with him and we started wrestling. Little did I know that in his mind, we were playing rugby, he didn’t think we were wrestling. So after he came charging at me, I dropped down and hit him with a fireman! I flipped him right over onto his back but it was not worth it at all. My knees got all messed up on the rug and I even chipped my tooth a little. After I let him up off his back everyone was cheering. Even though the Prophet Joseph loved to wrestle and horse around I think this will be my last time, especially with big Tahitian’s. I’ll send you a picture of him though, his name is Elder Mutini. It is so fun spending time with everyone here!
Sunday was amazing as my friend Elder Munoz gave a talk in Spanish and I understood just about every word. He basically said it doesn’t matter where you are called to serve, “no importa”, it’s that you were called by God to serve. That really hit home to me as I realized that it doesn’t matter. I got to say goodbye to Bennett before he left for Mexico and I know he will do a good job spreading the word of God. I’ve learned a lot about myself here, that I am pretty prideful. Next time I get challenged to a wrestling match on rough carpet, I should be able to say no, because I have learned that nothing good can come from it. I also need to have humility in the fact that I’m not perfect and there are a ton of things I need to work on!
I am now up to 28 pull-ups in a row and I am more than half way to my goal of 40 by the time I leave here. I am working hard to win the ties!!!! Something funny on a closing note is that I have a couple of nick-names already. The guys all call me Elder Dolor here. I guess just like Elder PAIN in English, Dolor means pain in Spanish haha. They also call me King Lamoni because I tend to fall asleep when the spirit is really strong!! Haha.
Please send me addresses from the family so I can write them all letters. Also, can you send me more pictures of my friends and family cause I want to show them to my companions? I will send you pictures of what’s going on here in the mail! I am learning a lot here and will continue to update you, I love you.
PEACE OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
