Joy in the Little Things

Hola mi familia!!

Well I already sent you a letter this week so that I could get my immunizations. But today is P-day for this week so here's another letter! As I said before the first two days of the MTC were really difficult. They work you right off the bat and you don't know what's going on. Initially I thought that I hadn't prepared enough and that I was not ready. But after some work and a couple days of praying very hard, it got much easier. They only teach in Spanish in our classes most of the time and it can be difficult but I have already learned so much. I learned how to bear my testimony and say a prayer in Spanish! It's not like high school Spanish at all. It's challenging to learn so much at one time but I find a lot of joy from progressing towards a goal. Last night me and my companions, Elder Wright and Elder Ziegner, taught an "investigator" in Spanish. I talked about them in my first letter home but I didn't know them very well. They are both amazing people, they both took 6 years of Spanish so I get a lot of help from them. We taught a man named Santiago and he is from Argentina, I gave an opening prayer and we proceeded to teach him about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. Though my companions spoke more than me in the lesson I was able to challenge him to read El Libro de Mormon and he accepted! He asked us how long we have been learning Spanish and we said 2 days, hahah. He was very impressed. Even though the whole thing is kinda fake, it's an amazing training of teaching the Gospel and we came out of there so excited! We went back to the classroom and talked to the other Elders in our district about how there lessons with Santiago went. My district is awesome, we have me, Elder Wright (Anaheim, CA), Elder Ziegner (Long Beach, CA), 4 Elders going to Honduras, and 4 Elders who will leave in 3 weeks to the Guatemala MTC. I already love many of the Elders in my district.

Gym time is nice. Most of the time we have it in the mornings. I worked out once already and that was nice but the gym with free weights is in a different building than the gym with the track, basketball games, and 4 square, so we don't always go to the gym. Connor was right, volleyball sucks here. So I play basketball and sometimes 4 square. My room is cool cause it's just me and my two companions sharing a room with 3 bunkbeds, so no sharing for us! We don't get to be in our room much anyways so it's not a big deal. It's crazy how back home I would sleep for 6 hours or less at college and be less tired than 8 hours of sleep here at the MTC! I go to bed at 10:30 and I'm out!

I am so grateful for how much the Lord has blessed me here at the MTC! We truly do learn at an amazing pace and the Spirit here is so strong. My P-Days from now on will be on Friday, today we only have kinda a half P-Day because we're the new guys. I have seen a bunch of friends here though and I can't wait til Alex become Elder McBride this week! Many Elders hate it here but you learn to find joy in the little things. Well I am almost out of time, but mom could you please mail my immunization record? Also can I send pictures while in the MTC? I'll figure it out. Thanks so much for your letter and let me know if you get mine! (This one and the physical letter I sent) Feel free to Dearelder me as well because we get that right away, instead of waiting til next Friday. I love you guys and let me know how volleyball went as soon as possible!

-Elder Greene