Week 1

Hey everyone,

So this week has gone by in somewhat of a blur. My first day I got to see Whitney and Aaron who met me at the entrance to the MTC, and there said goodbye to them, and Brenly's cute family. Thank you Burton's for being so kind and taking me to the MTC! After farewells at the curb and a few quick pictures, Elder Alston (my BYU roommate) was my host who took me around to get my picture taken, get my key etc.. it was pretty hectic and very hot in my suit, but eventually I got to my classroom where I met my district! We're District D in the 17th Branch/zone. Most zones get a new district every other week. but our zone got a district the week before, and 3 the week I got there, so we have 6! It's fun though having so many people to meet, and with our group our zone got hermanas for the first time all summer. In my district my companion is going to San Jose, along with 2 others who are in a trio with an elder going to my mission (go figure), and then 2 elders going to Guatemala. Our hermanas are going to Tuscon, San Jose, Espana, and my mission, the best of all, New York New York South!

My companions name is Elder Russell, he's from Dallas,TX and he lived in Wyview the last two years. He's turning 21 in 4 days, but we still get along really well even though he's almost 2 years older than me. It's good for me to learn ro calm down and not rush everywhere because he likes to take his time and is pretty relaxed. We are in a room with 2 elders that have already been here 4 weeks and are going to Mexico, so it's really good for us to practice our Spanish with them all the time.

The schedule here is super organized and we have to plan every waking moment of our day, but I like that since I hate being disorganized and not knowing what I'm doing. I got called as the senior companion so I get to head our daily planning sessions each night, and in 4 weeks we'll switch places and I'll be the junior comp=) Our teachers are Hno. Edwards and Jensen and I liek them a lot! I've always loved Spanish, espescially when we had foreign exchange students from Bolivia, Argentina etc. so It's super fun to get to practice/learn it all day long!

During Gym I usually play volleyball, which I love, it's fun to play sand volleyball since I've never played it that much and the sand brings a whole new aspect to it, but we aren't allowed to keep score or anything so it really is all just fun! It's difficult when playing sports to call everyone Elder___ or something since we hardly know anyones first names and we aren't supposed to have nicknames or just call them by their last name. The position of a missionary, the responsibility, the blessing and power that we are given when we are set apart is so real that I totally understand why they'd want to retain the dignity and importance of our positions.

I love being surrounded by such outstanding people everywhere I go. Everyone is super polite, friendly, etc. which is probably good since we're all going on missions, but it's still nice to enjoy being in a mini zion. One heart and one mind. It's great how everyone helps each other out and tries to always be focused on our reason we're our here. A big thing at the MTC is learning the "My Purpose" at the beginning of PMG and it's so inspired, I can't believe I didn't seriously start studying it until just a month before I came here!

Today is Preparation Day which means we got to go to the temple, right after breakfast, the sun hadn't come over the mountains yet, but it was shining on a part of Provo Canyon (I think) and it was such a beautiful morning it made the experience all that much better. I've missed Utah, the mountains, and fall is so amazing with the mountain covered in hues of red, orange, etc. I love being here! It's sometimes hard when you're working basically non-stop and never get a break, but it's awesome all the same since the thing we do is what I love, the gospel! I can't wait to got to go out and share it with people. That's something that I've really been taught this week. We've all been called by God, and there are people in our areas that only we can help. It's such an exciting time to finally be here. I've looked forward to this my whole life I can't believe I'm finally 19.

Well time is short so I'll try to wrap up. This last week we had the opportunity to watch/participate in some mock scenarios with investigators and it was so educational to see what it's like and what we can do to be better missionaries. How we can share our important message even with complete strangers. Just getting to know who they are and always during the lesson focusing on them, their needs, what they know etc. It's super good to learn from our mistakes, when I want to just share the first lesson and let them know it's true, God loves them, he wants them to return to him, and he has restored his church to the Earth through the prophet Joseph Smith so we can have all the keys and ordinances to return to him. I can't wait to learn how to say all that in Spanish=) i basically can, but it's just memorized phrases, I don't know that much vocab, and conjugating future, conditional, etc. my class hasn't even covered that yet. I guess it's only been 5 days, but I just want to learn more. We have a lot of personal/companionship study time each day and I want to make that as educational as possible, so we're trying to do all the activities in the chapters, and always practicing Spanish wherever we are. On Sunday we had to prepare a talk in Spanish which was pretty hard because I actually wanted to say things with my words instead of just copying out of the spanish PMG, but it took a long time. Even though I wasn't called, I'll still have a talk on the Atonement all ready when I get to New York=)

Well I love you all. I miss you, but I'm glad that I'm here learning and getting this opportunity to serve. The transition hasn't been hard at all, which is good that I never think much about the outside world. HOpe you are all well. Keep up the good work always being a missionary. The Church is true!!

Love,

Elder Lewis