August 4, 2011

quierido familia!

I am absolutely loving it here at the MTC! I cannot even express to you how much I love this. Remember how Nauvoo felt a little bit like Zion? Well the MTC feels a little bit the same. Everyone here has a strong testimony and love for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Everyone looks out for each other and loves one another. It’s so cool to be studying and have random missionaries come up to you and bear their testimonies or share a message or scripture with me. Most of the time it is in Spanish since all the spanish Elders are kinda in the same area but occasionally I get to hear conversations in really interesting languages!

It is such a blessing to have so much time to study the gospel! My testimony has already increased many times over. For some reason looking at things from the stand point of a missionary I understand more. Perhaps it is because I am thinking about how to teach the concepts I read about or perhaps it has something to do with an increased understanding that comes with the call to be a missionary. I have no doubts whatsoever in my mind that this gospel is true and that this mission is what I am supposed to be doing. I am striving to get the very most I can out of the MTC! I tell myself that if I can bring just one more person to heaven with me by studying and working harder than ever, it is worth it. I don't want to have to leave anyone behind. I will never ever do anything less than all that I can do.

The food here is amazing but everyone is already gaining weight! I am not as much as the other guys I know but still. We work out every day and I am actually getting back into shape. I would not be surprised if some of my weight gain has something to do with muscle. I sang in the MTC choir this last week. It was an incredible experience! The choir director, in order to make us sing better, would not tell us how to sing better, rather help us understand the doctrines that the words of the song teach. After that he asks us to teach the song. He said that as special representatives of Christ we can teach it better than anyone else. The choir sang so much better after that. Perhaps it really is that gift that makes the MTC choir so amazing!

I have already had two devotionals while I have been here. The first was the President of mission services. He spoke about love. His talk reminded me about all the things I love both large and small, that maybe sometimes I take for granted. I wanted you all to know how incredibly much I love you! I am better prepared than alot of the Elders here and I owe that all to you guys! Thank you so much for teaching me, taking care of me and being my best friends on the planet! I have been striving to have genuine love for people. I pray to God to help me to love others. I tend to care so much about what they think about me that it messes up my teaching. I just need to love people and teach like Nephi did. The last chapter in second Nephi has taught me some about love.

This is an exciting time to be in the MTC! They are starting a new curriculum which submerges the missionaries in the language and teaching. I have already taught several lessons to my first investigator! Her name is Rennatta and she only speaks spanish! She is really my teacher. My zone is also pushing teaching practice so we teach each other about four times a week. I am enjoying the difficulty of this new program! I am also getting much better with the spanish language. I can get across most simple messages and at least be understood. I have memorized the first vision, a baptismal invitation and many other things already in spanish. That helps alot when I teach. Thank you Alex and Dad for helping me learn spanish! I understand spanish better than most of my friends and I have really good pronunciation.

The second fireside was given by Elder Lund who wrote kingdom and the Crown as well as The work and the glory! He spoke on faith. I am striving to increase my faith in the savior so that I can be a more effective teacher. We focus alot here on becoming not necessarily a perfect teacher by ourselves but rather a beautiful instrument through which the spirit can convert the children of God. I know I just got here to the MTC but I cannot wait to Get to Argentina!

Thank you so much for sending letters! :) It is always nice to get to hear from home in between classes. Once again, tell my friends if they wanna here from me I need their addresses!

My companion is awesome! He is very disciplined! Which is awesome for me because he is helping me to create really good habits at the beginning of my mission. My whole branch actually focuses on obedience so I have obeyed the rules to the very most that they can be obeyed. There are definite blessing that I have seen from that devotion to excellence.

Always remember how much I love you guys!

"Good judgment comes from experience, and well.... experience? That comes from bad judgment." - Elder Lund

I am working my butt off over here and enjoying every minute of it! Again thanks to all of you! Next week I will see if I can figure out how to send pictures home!

Hasta luego!

-Elder Green