Holy smokes I leave in
two days!!!!!!!!! I can’t even believe it right now! This week went by super
fast but it has been pretty restless cuz I haven’t been sleeping good, but its
ok cuz I feel fine!
We had our last
devotionals Sunday and Tuesday, but we have one more tomorrow, but we won’t be
in the choir tomorrow. Did I even tell you guys that me and my companion joined
the MTC choir?! Haha ya, it was an interesting experience but it has been fun
singing in it!
So Sunday, one of the
Branch President’s counselor’s wives passed out during the closing prayer in Sacrament!
We just heard a big thud and I thought it was someone who was leaning back in
their chair and fell, which would have been hilarious, or I thought it was the
Branch President, cuz apparently he has kidney stones and he was hurting so he
was walking around in the back during the whole meeting, but nope, it was the
first counselors wife. Brother McCracken ran over and gave her a blessing and
she woke up a few minutes later and that was pretty cool cuz it reminded me of
that Mormon message when the boy was hit by lighting during football practice
and that one guy gave him a blessing. It really strengthened my testimony on Priesthood
power, and me and Elder Eliason were able to give one more blessing on Sunday
before we were released so that was cool!
Other than that it has
just been a lot of class and teaching this week! We had a District goal of only
speaking Spanish everyday this week and it was hard cuz we can teach the Gospel
in Spanish but can’t talk about anything we want yet, so I had a headache
everyday, haha but it was fun and I really feel like my Spanish has improved a
lot this week! But next week I’m just gonna be like uhhhhh...... what?
Haha but I should be fine!
We had infield
orientation yesterday and that is at main campus so I saw Elder Turner again a
couple times! Main campus has way better food than the west campus haha. We ate
lunch and dinner there and they definitely have the better cafeteria and they
have THE WRAP STATION. Dude, Brady told me about the wrap station and said it
was bomb. Holy cow it was the best thing I’ve eaten in 5 weeks haha. I had two
and the first one I had the guy double wrap it and I swear this thing weighed
five pounds. Oh ya, and I ate 10 cordon bleus on Sunday so I now hold the
record as far as I know, and Elder Peterson wanted to challenge me and he got 9
but the poor little guy couldn’t hold them down. Ya that’s disgusting!
Speaking of disgusting
how I mentioned earlier my Branch President had a kidney stone. So all day Sunday
the dude is telling us in meeting and sacrament meeting about his kidney stone
and he told us he prayed for his wife to get one and she did and he kept coming
in and saying "it hasn’t come to pass" and he said he’s gonna bring
in his collection. What the what?! That is not normal and then he emails me on Tuesday
and is talking to me about it again!!!!!! So ya there is a weird disgusting
story for you guys!
Today we went to the Temple
but we just took pictures cuz we don’t have enough time to do a session cuz we
gotta pack, so I just gotta haircut and have been packing today. And we are not
aloud to have gym time today cuz they don’t want the Missionaries who are
leaving to get hurt and that is a bummer but probably good cuz I have jammed 3
fingers, and I pulled a muscle in my left leg, and I got kneed in the shin like
five times in the past week playing basketball haha so ya.
So when I call I will
be using a payphone and I bought a calling card from the bookstore here so just
make sure you answer right when I call because it will take 130 minutes off my
calling card if I don’t get an answer, so make sure you have your phones on
you! I arrive in Atlanta at 4:49 pm so I think in Utah it will be 2:49 pm, so
dad just expect a call sometime after 3:00 pm and then Mom and everybody in Arizona
just be ready around 3:00 pm your time! I still don’t know if we fly to Salta
or bus to Salta, but I think it will be fun to take a bus so we can try to talk
to people!
It has really hit me
that I am leaving now. I am beyond excited but it’s kind of scary now cuz it is
the real thing. But I know I just need to love the people, work hard, and rely
on the Lord. I’m sure when I get there it will be very tempting to feel alone
and scared but I just need to remember that I always have Him by my side. We
all do so there is never any need to feel alone. Remember that and don’t ever
let satan convince you other wise. In the past five six weeks I have learned a
lot. I have learned a lot about the importance of charity and love even though I’m
still horrible at it. I have learned that we are all children of our Heavenly
Father and we are all brothers and sisters. I have learned that nothing really
matters besides the Gospel and the people in your life. Everything else is just
stuff. That is one thing that Bishop Turner said to me a lot and I never really
understood it until now. I have learned that my job is to bring people to Baptism.
Before I thought it was to invite them to come unto Christ, but when you invite
them to be Baptized I am inviting them to come unto Christ. Baptism is the
gateway and it’s the starting point to help people soon get to the Temple and
to then one day return to live with our Father in Heaven again. They talked a
lot about this yesterday in infield orientation and it was neat to learn about.
So that is cool that
Braxley and Kolby are still cleaning Sante Fe! How do you like it Braxley?! I’m
pretty sure Kolby has showed you satan’s lair by now. Haha that place was
scary! That is cool that Brady is coming up here and going to UVU! Good luck. I’m
sure that will be awesome!
Okay, so I have some
more pictures of our district at the temple this morning and then I got some of
me and Elder Bates and Elder Peterson! Elder Bates is the ginger that looks
like the dude off the incredibles and Elder Peterson is the other one. Elder
Bates is from Spanish fork and he is awesome. Me and him always got into it
when we played volleyball cuz we could spike it like nobody’s business. He
plays rugby and stuff and he is way athletic but I can still jump higher than
him:) But that explains all my jammed and swollen fingers haha! Elder Peterson
is from Washington and is probably one of the funniest guys I have ever met in
my life! They got here 3 weeks ago so they are not leaving with us on Monday
which sucks cuz we all want to be companions out in the field, but they are
going to Bia Blanca, but we have become real good friends and we are gonna keep
in touch!
Elder Peterson and Elder Bates
Oh ya and I took the stereotypical
Missionary picture while I was at main campus for you guys! I think that’s the
big map everybody gets a picture at? I have no idea!!
Well I’ve got some
more packing to do and a bunch of letters to write to all you guys, but I hope
you have a good couple of days until I get to talk to you!!
One other thing I
learned is in Preach my Gospel chapter 6! I want you all to study it. One thing
I did in that chapter was circled and underlined all the action words and
statements in green! Green means GO! There a a bunch of them but if we want to
be more like the Savior we have to act. We gotta get up and go do it right away
and I have noticed if you apply all those actions and pray for help you will
start to gain those attributes.
I love you all and can’t
wait to talk on Monday!! Oh ya, and the other picture is my district with one
of our teachers Hermana Boyce! She served in Bolivia and has been a great
teacher! And we have our last class with Hermana Haycock today so I will get
another picture with her and my district too!
Hermana Boyce with District
Love,
Elder Lester
Elder Lester