STIR CRAZY

Halloo, out there... in the real world...

I must say, we are beginning to get a little tired of being here... the MTC is great, don't get me wrong, but we still are studying for like 14 hours a day... we're kinda at the point where we start laughing at a lot of things, and such, and simutaneously panic at how "not-native" we are at Spanish... but we're sticking together. It's weird seeing missionaries we know heading off. We've seen at least 3 districts of native speakers come in and out [the native Spanish speaking missionaries only stay at the MTC for 3 weeks]. It's kinda like a whole other missionary farewell kind of feeling, but it happens every week. This Elder to Korea, oh, you're off to Russia, Brazil, Florida, etc etc. Yikes.

Our English feast [I think he meant "fast"] is just about 100% of the time. Ok, yes, I'm kidding, but we are going to be awesome at it this week. We have figured out many wonderful things about Spanish, such as that all "v"s are pronounced as the English "b". A popular phrase one of our teachers says is "a ver" or "Let's see" which sounds like "a bear!". To which about everyone in our class shouts "WHERE?" or "DONDE?" or "RUN!" "Polar, or grizzly?" "Cual? A ver? a Verdad?" (Koal-a bear? a Bear-dad? Papa bear?) Hmm, maybe you just have to be here to understand... we have several bears one of the hermanas (Hermana Brodegard) drew that are taped up around the class to mock our teacher, cause he can't really speak without saying one of the "ver"s... yeah, ok, you just have to be here. Like I said, we need to get outta here...



But it's going pretty good. To our absolute terror, we are now in our 6th week, which means all of our phone calls at the Referral Center are entirely in Spanish. Yeah. Great idea.... So far this week I've misinterpreted the phrase "No hablo Eeenglish!" for "Oh, we can talk in English!", forgot my name (in both languages) and etc, etc. I DID do one ENTIRE call in Spanish though, so VERY satisfying. I hope the guy wasn't lying to me just to be nice, but he said he would have the missionaries come over in April, after he gets back from vacation in Guadalajara (spelling?) - while he's there he said his parents go to the LDS Church, and he'd go with em once or twice. I'm deciding to believe that.... in any case I talked about that in SPANISH, so I think the Lord will help something come of that success.... but YIKES, frightening.

Hm, I had a whole paper of cool stuff to write, and left it upstairs in my room. Phooey. Well, hm, lets see... Sunday was pretty good, we got to attend the Draper Temple Dedication service via satellite. It was actually surprising, seeing 2000 guys - I mean, Elders and Sisters - being that quiet for an hour beforehand and all throughout. The meeting was very good. Many talks about temples and their importance on the earth. Families can be together forever because of the Lord's power to unite them together after this life. Afterwards, as we walked out into the sunlight, I looked up, and the sun was lighting the clouds - you know, towards evening, late afternoon, when the whiter puffier clouds look like they are edged with gold? Hard to explain, but as I watched them while walking, I really felt that God lives, and that we came from, and are looking up and forwards to a brighter, lighter heavenly home, to dwell with our Father in Heaven someday.


(the Draper, Utah Temple)

Also that day, we walked up and around the Provo temple - beacuse we could, and, well, its a chance to see something else... at the time, Provo was having what I understand is like fog, but the clouds are dust... basically, brownish smog. Ugh. But we went up and walked around the temple, singing hymns in a quartet in Spanish (my companion is WAY into singing and music - EVERYWHERE). But while we were there, the sun burst through, and lit up the temple. The valley below and all around was in fog, but at the Lord's temple, it was lit by sunlight. It was like we had come out of the world and were on top of the world, surrounded by mountains, closer to God. Cool stuff.






Well, I have 4 minutes. hmm. I think all else I wanted to say was, THANK YOU for everyone's letters this week. They always seem to come exactly when I need them, with what I need. Baby Colton looks just like Mike, congrats Angela and Mike, he's awesome already. Heidi, THANK YOU for the family home evening letter! I haven't gotten to read it but I definitely will soon! I miss you all, and it's weird thinking you are all just living normal life, but I hope all is well for you! I know that our Heavenly Father lives. He loves us. He is aware of us, and wants to help us with all He has. Jesus Christ is our Savior. He always is there waiting for us to come, and He will heal us. This is His work and His glory.

LOVE YOU ALL,
ELDER THELIN