Letter from Justin (6-14-09)

This letter from Justin was actually his second, written on Sunday 6-14-09. But because it was mailed to North Carolina it actually got to us after his 3rd letter, which was emailed to us.

Here's his letter . . .

Querida Familia

Hola! Como estais? Estoy mejor que estaba el jueves. A lot has happened since then. After my companion, Elder Diaz, went home, I got to choose my companions! I paired up with Elder Probert & Elder Hatton, two of the elders from my district. Today, however, I was assigned to be companions with Elder Gaspar & Elder Denton. Haha. That's got to be a record for the most companions in 5 days!

On Thursday I woke up with the flu. I had chills, a fever, a sore throat, and sinus pressure. I got tested for swine flu, but it came back negative, thankfully! I was told to go home and rest, so I took an extra dose of ibuprofen and benadryl allergy and slept for 6 hours straight. I slept so hard that my companions were banging on my door and I didn't wake up. They ended up sending security after me because they didn't know where I was, and I woke up to a security guard next to my bed!

Anyway, after my nap, I felt 100x better and ended up going to class that day. Class is pretty much my life here. We're in it like 10 hours a day.

Also, thanks so much for the letters. I check the mail like 3x a day.

My responsibilities as District Leader aren't too bad. It's like a mini EQP calling. It's crazy how many people I know here. I finally saw Elder Draper; he's doing great.

Ok, so how are you guys doing? Hopefully, your vacation is going good. I'm guessing that Mom and Dad are heading back to NC soon.

The MTC is a lot different than what I thought it would be like. There are a lot of rules, some of them are kind of ridiculous. But it's good, I think. We had a fireside today and the speaker talked about becoming more Christ-like and developing those attributes. He said that the reason that the General Authorities are "seers" is because they have Christ-like attributes (see 2 Peter 1:8-9). He also said that a mission is a perfect time to discard non-Christ-like attributes.

The Spanish is coming along pretty good. The language study is a lot different than what I expected. A lot of the study is left up to us and we have "missionary directed time." It's hard to be really productive because they haven't really given us a program or anything to follow. Maybe that will be given later or something.

One thing I really like about the MTC is how much people testify. Every day I hear a testimony in like 4 different languages. We already know how to pray in Spanish and we are going to learn how to testify in a couple of days.

My teachers are awesome. One of them is teaching us how to challenge for baptism at an approach, while another one thinks we should just "facilitate" a person's environment so they can teach themselves. I'll probably end up with a method somewhere in between.

Anyway, I love you guys and I hope everything's good. I'm a little homesick. But just a little--not as much as when I went to college. I love you!

Justin