7-2-11


Hola!

So I am at the MTC!! The missionary training center is an amazing place that is filled with young men and women full of burning testimonies. I get to learn a foreign language with thousands of other men and women my age. I am in the intermediate class, and I am doing my best to learn Spanish. Okay, here is what I got: Yo soy un missionero del iglesia de jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias. Pretty awesome huh? Okay so I have two companions here at the MTC. Elder Richie, Elder Kirkpatrick, and I are in a trio. These elders are awesome. Elder Richie is a very robust guy from Denton, Texas. He is going to the California, Roseville mission. My other companion, Elder Kirk, is a fairly quiet guy from Colorado Springs and he is going to the Chile, Vina del Mar mission! There are seven elders in my district, and four hermanas. Two days ago I was called to be the district leader. Basically, I go to extra meetings and pick up the mail... Haha but I am definitely grateful for the opportunity to serve my district. Everybody except for me and Kirk are going stateside. New York, Texas, and California are just a few of the missions.

The elders and hermanas in my district are way smart and I feel like they are all way better at speaking Spanish than me. However, I had the benefit of an awesome senor companion before I came out here, and there are a lot of things that I know about that these other missionaries have no idea about. In our class we have been speaking mainly in Spanish, but sometimes we speak in English to make sure that we understand. I have two different teachers, Hermano Lewis y Hermana Lopez. They are both awesome, but they definitely do not go easy on us!

So these first few days have way different than the rest of my time here at the MTC. All the new missionaries have been going through a bunch of orientation meetings and teaching lessons in groups. After the first week, however, I will be on a pretty regular schedule. We have been practicing the first lesson as a companionship, and on Monday we get to teach real investigators! Well... volunteers pretending to be investigators haha.

Okay so when I first got here they sent me immediately to my classroom because I was late. But the problem was I didn't have my luggage! I had left it in the front of the MTC because they told me, and I thought they were going to put it up for me. Well, they didn't. haha and my first night was spent trying to find my luggage with my Zone Leaders. Haha I was a little worried because it had been sitting out for about 6 hours, but every thing was still there! Whew...

So I have realized in just the few days that I have been here that I am not really very useful if I don't have the spirit with me. It is all about the investigators and their relationship with God. All I do is invite them and help them to get there. My purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. Awesome! Well, let's see what else I can learn this week! Until then,

Hasta luego,

Elder Nathan Hales

KTF (keep the faith)