MTC Week 6: I am leaving now…I know I just need to love the people, work hard, and rely on the Lord…and I have learned…

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