Hola mi Famila,
How is everything
in Holladay? I got your letters this week and I loved hearing from you
guys and I read them whenever I get the chance. It seems like everything is good and home and
everyone is one piece. I am in one piece as well. I am really
happy that it’s my p-day today and I was looking forward to writing you guys
this whole week. The MTC is big and the elders in my District joke around
that it is sprit prison and we are stuck in it. I live on the MTC campus
in 19M and my class are in 9m. The language is really difficult but I
have realized that it will come. The Hermanas in our district are
freaking magicians and already can speak the language. The elders in my
district just laugh because we can’t speak any Spanish but just say a prayer
and how are you doing. When I first got here the host took me into the
main building. I got my name tag and
everything that I’ll need for my stay at the MTC. Then he took me to my
room which is a big room that can hold six missionaries in it but there are
only four in our room. The Elders in my room are my companion, Elder Lee
from Virgina, Elder Hurren from Alabama, and Elder Rodriguez from Murray.
I told you in my first letter the Elders in my room don't talk much, but that
changed and we talk a lot now and we are definitely bonding and becoming good
friends together which is way nice. The two other Elders in my district
are way sweet and I love to talk with them. My companion is weird and
does some weird stuff. He doesn't really study much and I feel like I
have to do most of the work when it comes to teaching an investigator and
learning the language. He straight up flirts with the Hermanas in our
district and other districts and he is a complete jerk to them. He also
didn't come to MTC really prepared. He brought pants that don’t have a
button, no hangers, or laundry bag, no soap to wash himself in the shower, no
laundry soap so I had to spot him with some. He is an interesting duck,
that’s all I can say. He would also block the door when the Hermanas left
to do something and when they came back he wouldn't let them in and he would
block them out. I had to tell him a few times to let them back in and
told him to stop. He is quite an experience. I also get frustrated
because I am the one trying to work hard to teach the investigator and he doesn’t
really make an effort to do anything. He helps out when I ask him to look
up something or figure out a saying. I feel like the senior companion at
times when he is supposed to be leading. He is crazy but what can I do
about it? The other Elders in my district are awesome and we laugh a lot
together. We crack jokes together and we just have a fun time
together. Elder Hurren from Alabama is way tight. He has the
southern accent going and it’s awesome. He is also way funny and I sit
right next to him in our classroom and we have fun together. Elder
Rodriguez is his companion and a way cool dude as well. He played soccer
at Murray High and at Salt Lake Community College. We laugh a lot
together and have so much fun together. There is a Hermana in our
district who is from Washington and is extremely smart and caught on with the
language within the first day. She loves apples and tells everyone she
meets that her city is the apple capital of the world. The elders in my
district came up with a nickname for her and we call her the apple lady when
she isn't watching because she loves her apples to death and gets one every
meal during the day. She also is freaky because the very first day I was
here I hardly knew anyone real well and she straight up told me that she eats
so many carrots that she turns orange and I was like who the heck is this
lady. I later told the Elders and we laughed about it. We have a
sweet teacher. His name is Brother Green and he is from Portland.
He always is happy to teach us and I have learned a lot from him. He
makes you work hard and do your best. Our other teacher is kind of crazy
and insane but he is a roving teacher and goes around all the classrooms and
helps out. After our second lesson with our investigator
he pulled me and my companion aside into a classroom and told us straight-
up that we didn't love our investigator and we need to love
her more. And the whole time I was thinking like what the heck, I
can’t carry on a conversation nor speak the language. After he
talked to us he left and I was kind of put down the whole day
because it is so difficult to try and teach plus do it in Spanish.
But I have learned to love Brother Zenger and I realized that
he has a good message about him. Yesterday we had to prepare to
teach our investigator and I was the one working my butt off to come
up with a plan. I prayed and prayed and I felt like we
should just go in there and show her we love her by just asking her
questions and getting to know her. I told my companion to start
figuring out questions and he came up with like two and then I had to find
the rest. We had this plan all down and we practiced it with the
Hermanas and we felt like it was good. Then after our language study we
had to go with another teacher and role play with her and I was
like ok. So me and my companion rolled in there and started to
do our lesson and she said timeout and told us that it felt like
we were just throwing out questions at her and we weren’t
getting anything across and she told us that the language isn't the barrier. In my head I was like what the heck how do
you teach when you don’t understand anything they say and how can you go
off that? I didn't feel good at all after what she said and I
went to dinner afterwards not feeling right. We came back to our
classroom and Hermono Zenger was there. He got mad at the Hermanas
because they were late and told them they were wasting Gods time when
you are late. After we had a prayer and everything we had to go
and teach our investagator. The first elders where up and when
they left he talked to my companion and I. He told us
to pull out peach my gospel and go to 185 or something I can’t
remember and it was about how to teach and listen. He told us to
just go in there and try and listen and even if you have to have her
repeat or write things down it’s fine. He told us to just ask
her what was most important to her in life and see if we could go off
that. He gave us really good advice and helped us out a lot.
We went in after he told us that and we asked her that and we told her that we
couldn't really understand her and our Spanish is bad and she asked why are
we learning Spanish. Me and my companion proceed to tell her that we
are learning it to help God covert people and that was pretty much
our lesson. We left afterwards and Brother Zenger asked how it
went and we said good and told him what we said and he was very impressed and
said we did what was right. Hopefully we can teach the investigator more
and I will understand the language better in the days to come.
Thanks for everything you do and I can’t wait to hear from you guys during
the week and I love you guys tons and miss you guys
tons. The stake presidency is going to be awesome and I am excited
to hear about our new bishop. There isn't a moment in the day when I
don’t think about you guys. I wish I could tell you more about
everything but I'll try writing you during the week. Love you guys
tons and hopefully I answered everything you asked. Can’t wait to get your package!!! Miss you and
love you!!!
Love,
Elder Smith (Stin)
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