June 4, 2012

Hello Family!!

How are you all doing? Wow what a crazy first few days it has been here in the MTC. It has been great to learn and grow in our ability to teach through the spirit. It is sometimes frustrating because we know what we want to say but we are held back because we cannot express and share the language with our inabilities in the language. Thank you so much for the package! It completely made my day and the cookies were so delicious! Everyone in my district and zone absolutely loved them! I have about 5 left and am going to hold them close. They are so good.

WOW what an adventure I had here the first few days in the MTC. Right after you dropped me off and I went inside to this room and I got my nametag and it felt good to put it on. Then I went to my residence and then to my classroom. I met my teacher who is Hermano Sanchez. He was born in El Salvador but went to high school in Los Angeles. He served a mission in Salt Lake City. He is really nice and a pretty funny guy.

I then met my companion who is Elder Van Pelt. Yep totally caught me off guard when I saw his name tag, it took me straight to best two years. Elder VP is 6ft 10 inches tall. He dwarfs me and now I look like a little boy whenever I stand by him. He went to Timpanogos high school and played basketball of course. He Red shirted up at Weber state this last year.  The other Elders in my room are Elder Dixon and Elder Russell. Elder Dixon is from Centerville Utah and went to Utah last year on scholarship. He´s a way nice kid and it fun to joke around with, same with Elder Russell they are both good guys. Elder Russell is from Plano Texas but his family moved to Farmington last year. He was on a swimming scholarship at BYU and lived in Helaman dorms. It’s funny to talk about people we all know together especially with kids in my district and zone. There are some funny connections we are making.

The first night here I barely slept but my sleeping is gradually getting better. The Spanish is coming pretty well so far and it is getting better every single day. We learned how to pray and bear our testimonies and now I am starting to remember more of the stuff I learned in high school with senora Swartz. I am starting to feel confident that I can do this, sometimes we get discouraged but we just have to trust in the Lord. I can’t imagine how Chris, Alec, and Kyle felt trying to learn those crazy languages. I bore my testimony on Sunday in Spanish and it was great. I am really starting to get back the Spanish that I worked on for 3 years at Lone Peak. I love this place more and more every day I am here

Our Branch Presidency is so great! Thursday we had workshops and worked on the language for most of the day, and then we met with the two counselors in the branch presidency. They had us bear our testimonies and explain why we decided to serve a mission. Then we were interviewed by one of the two and then I was pulled aside and was told I was called by the spirit to be a district leader! So now I have a lot of responsibilities and life has gotten quite busy here in the MTC! Brother and Sister Jones are the parents of Jennifer Hendricks, it’s cool to see all the connections there are in the MTC

On Friday we taught our first investigator named Sergio. He is from Argentina and it actually went pretty well. There was no silence in our whole 30 min lesson and we were able to communicate what we wanted to tell him, the spirit was strong in that room and we were able to pray with him. Much of our personal and companionship study time is spent on how we can progress this "investigator".

Sundays have so far been my favorite day in the MTC. Yesterday was an amazing day full of wonderful things. I had training yesterday morning and a branch council mtg. it was great and I met my branch president. He is from highland Utah and we talked about where we lived. He asked me if I knew Les Robinson and I responded yes and that I was very good friends with his grandson Dax, he knew dax and it was funny to talk about that. He then asked if I knew Rachael Pitts and then I just started laughing. He lives just down the street from the Pitts and I told him that I dated her before I came on my mission and he told me I was very lucky because she is an awesome girl. Ha-ha it was hilarious so many crazy connections! We had a Mission conference and it was amazing. The MTC president talked about the importance of names and then I reflected about our own Newman name and the good things it has done. It was wonderful. Look at Proverbs 22:1. I saw gpa Huntington this morning at the temple! It was awesome! I'm down to one min familia I love you and miss you so much! I love this work that I am able to be a part of and I know that it is true! I will talk to you in a week! Encourage people to send through Dear Elder.com we get it Mon through Friday at 5! Love you! Thanks for the letters!

Elder Newman