4 Pounds and Counting

Hola mi familia!

So another week has come and gone in the MTC! Crazy, times goes so fast. One Elder put it best, "the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days." So thanks for all the letters this week, I will get around to writing Jared and Macey back today hopefully. Mom you gave me advice on patience and Dad you gave me advice on charity. We must be on the same wavelength because those are the exact things I have been stressing in my prayers lately.

  

This week I got to see many of my friends come into the MTC! Elder Kyle Allen, Elder Jacob Olsen, Elder Sterling Rogers, and Elder Zach Smith. I am so blessed to have so many friends serving missions. I read a couple verses in DC 121:7-9 that really hit home with me. It talks about everyone going out, working hard and bringing people to Christ and when we get back our friends will all be there to welcome us (at least that's what I got out of it yesterday, I didn't bring my scriptures to the computer room). So I found out something really crazy but really cool this week. I am the only Maryland, Baltimore Spanish speaking missionary in the whole MTC! It’s really cool but also kinda humbling. It made me realize how important every missionary is to this work.

So this week we started two new "investigators", Roberto and Rancho. It's more work to try and prepare lessons for multiple investigators but I love teaching and trying to use more Spanish. Many times though I walk out of an appointment, thinking, "I don't know half the things I just said." It's amazing how much the Lord blesses us if we put the work in. One cool lesson we learned from one of our teachers this week was "If you're happy, notify your face!" I loved that and I am trying to work harder at showing my happiness. So right now we have 11 Elders in our district and 23 people in our zone. We lose 4 from our district next week as they are leaving for the Guatemala MTC and we lose 6 more missionaries from the other district because they are going to Texas, their 9 weeks are up. So to fill in those missionaries we're getting two districts next week! It's crazy cause the majority of our zone will be newbies.

I am trying to not get fat here at the MTC. I have already put on 4 pounds sadly. One of our teachers told us about the MTC's secret agenda to put 10 pounds on every missionary before they leave. Not sure if it's true but it's easily believable based on the food options. Elder Mower and me go on splits sometimes and workout in the gym. Elder Mower has become one of my close friends here at the MTC. I usually play basketball if I don't work out. Every once in a while I play volleyball for a bit cause I met a Polynesian guy that's pretty good but doesn't speak English. On our team of 6 I pass, he sets, I hit, or vice versa, haha. It's still not very fun because no one comes close to digging either of us. But it's all good.

President Rasband, of the Seventy spoke on Tuesday at devotional. He gave an awesome talk on how the Spirit is required for missionary work. It's so cool how much the Church invests in their missionaries. Well I gotta go, times running out. Oh one other cool thing, we have a new second counselor in our Branch presidency, his name is Brother Jennings. Turns out he is the father of Ken Jennings, the guys who won Jeopardy all those times! Crazy huh?

Love you guys,

Elder Greene