Mason's Mission: Un Misionero Que Puede Sobrevivir

Dia: It's still too early to call it a day

Pushup Count: 83

Hola Mi Gente!

This week absolutely flew by. I honestly don't believe that it's p-day again already. Some cool stuff that happened this week:

- Elder Geary's "cousin" sent us donuts

- We had a very intense argument about disney princesses

- I saw Elder Clark Barry during lunch one day, but I had to speak Spanish, and he thought I didn't know who he was haha

- 5 Elders in my district recieved their reasignments - One is going to Chicago, another to Pittsburgh, two to San Bernadino - and Elder Geary is coming to Bakersfield with me! I'm excited to not be the only Elder on the plane

- I bought Jandals with my MTC card because they give you a certain amount of money each week that I never use

- We had a workshop on the Book of Mormon, and the teacher was from Hong Kong. He had served his mission in Australia, so he learned English with an Australian accent - super cool dude

- "Que significa besame?" - to which the teacher responded, "It means do you want to hear a message about the gospel?" (It actually means kiss me)

- Last Tuesday night at 10pm my district started an English fast - which meant we weren't allowed to speak English for 24 hours - as a practice for our last week here, when we have to speak only Spanish for seven days. We absolutely killed it. I don't think anyone said more than 5 words in English all day. I'm really proud of our efforts and it makes me feel better knowing that we can all at least survive in Spanish

- Apparently I talked in English in my sleep during the fast, but we're not counting that, and then the next night I spoke Spanish - still no Spanish dreams though

- My amazing second mom sent two glorious apple pies that we all broke our English fast with

- "Estamos listos ser locos?!?"

- Elder Sutton can give someone a pretty good welt with a moon ball

- Elder Richins slapped me with a chancla, so I chased him down with a spatula - I won.

- Tons of spikeball

- Saw a kid from elementary school that didn't remember me at all....

- We've had some amazing weather these last couple days

- "Hola! Are you guys going on missions too?"

- On Sunday we walked around and looked at every giant mural in the newest buildings - they're really cool

- Hermano Hunter got a parking ticket and ranted about it for the first 15 minutes of class

- Great devotional from President Mark L. Pace, general sunday school presdident, and his wife on scripture study and prayer

- I mixed up letters in a Spanish phrase, which was super cool (like saying beanut putter or something in English) so maybe I am getting pretty good

- My companions and I have had the chance to teach in Spanish two more times - we're getting more comfortable with it, but it's really hard to explain some gospel topics - Imagine how you would explain the plan of salvation to someone who doesn't know about it - it's pretty hard, and kind of a weird concept - now imagine doing that when you can barely put together a sentence about what food you ate for lunch. Our friend understood us anyway... the gift of tongues is real!

- We got a 99.9% perfect report from our last teaching appointment - she was way too generous haha

- I stood in line for a package that wasn't real

- Elder Holt's girlfriend sent us some of the best sugar cookies I've ever had

- It's starting to look like getting to the laundry at 5:30am might still not be early enough

Thanks to everyone who has emailed me or sent letters/packages. It means a lot and I love hearing from you guys. Please keep it up. I leave in 9 days, which is absolutely insane. What's even more insane is that I have to speak Spanish for almost all of that and I'm not even worried. I am beyond excited to get to California, but I'm definitely going to miss the MTC. It's such a cool place - literally everyone is wearing a tag - and the real world's gonna be a little bit of a slap in the face. I can't wait :)

Spiritual Thought:

I had to teach the plan of salvation in Spanish yesterday, and it was tough. But what I realized as I was doing it is that in reality the plan is super simple. We came to Earth to get a body, to be tested, and to choose Christ. If we do so, we'll be able to live with our Father in Heaven and our families forever. That's it. It's that simple. As I've had to teach in Spanish the simplicity in all of the gospel has been made clear to me. Christ taught simply, and so do the prophets today. If you start stumbling over little details or questions, don't. Remember the basics and go find an answer. I've gotten a lot of questions answered by simply searching and praying. The most important simple truth is the God and Jesus Christ love you. Don't forget it!