Week 3

9-27-10

Hey everyone!

I'm sorry lasts week letter ended in the middle of a sentence. I tried to send my finished letter, but for some reason my computer was being weird and wouldn't send it, and then it kicked me off. Luckily another elder next to me had extra time( how I don't know), so I logged on my account through his time and found the letter hadn't sent, so I had to just send the last saved draft, which I don't even know where that ended so sorry about that! Hopefully you already knew all that since I sent you a letter a couple days ago, hand-written, to try to explain everything, hope you got it!

So this week has been pretty eventful for me. One of my highlights was my opportunity to have my teacher interviews, as Dad probably knows from all our monthly interviews, I love getting to talk on and on and on and then I'd force him to sign all my Duty to God requirements even though he'd fallen asleep during our interviews! Hunter I hope you're doing your Duty to God, it really does prepare you really well for not just the mission, but life in general. Anyway, I loved getting to know my teachers a little bit better on a one to one basis, and then just discuss my goals, my Spanish, how I'm coming along, my companionship etc. Both of them are really awesome, especially Hno. Jensen since we're his first class he just shows such a love for all of us, he's so great, and so is Hno. Edwards! This week we learned a bunch of stuff, and it's hard since we've gotten past what I learned in my two years of high school so it's all new for me. Learning how to use por and para more properly has been nice since I use it so much and I never really knew the difference, now I wish English had a way to differentiate between our use of them since we just use "for" and it can mean so many different things, depending on the context. It's so awesome learning about Spanish, not only am I learning more about another language, but I think languages themselves are fascinating and I get to learn a lot about why we speak in English certain ways. It reminds me JRR Tolkien, since he was so smart he learned tons of languages, and even made up several for his books! Spanish really is a beautiful language and I can't wait to get in the field so I can inly use it. It's sometimes difficult to follow our H.S.E. policy of speaking our mission language when it's so much faster and more convenient to use Spanish, like right now! I could be trying to rearrange my sentences so I could use my limited vocabulary, but it would just take me the whole 30 mins to write one paragraph! It's coming along slowly but surely and I know I can receive the ability to speak it if I put all my effort into it=)

Another highlight of my week is our mission president letters. Again I love just discussing what I'm learning, how I'm doing, etc. It's great time for introspective thought and just a way to realize everything I've learned. Kinda like saying a prayer. God already knows our thoughts/needs.concerns, but prayers are ways we can figure out what we really need, realize all we have to be grateful for, and just an opportunity to come closer to our Heavenly Father. Prayer also is an awesome way to bring the spirit, that and singing or bearing your testimony, definitely great things we do a million times a day here! I love it! I also really enjoy comp study time (well also personal and Language, but companionship is more relevant right now), because it's such a good opportunity to strengthen our relationship and teaching ability. We've definitely found out that when we go into a lesson not on the same page, then it totally falls apart. Even if we don't completely agree with the other person, we have to compromise because if we can't support each other then we both just fall. It's been a good learning experience so in our hour each day we've been focusing on working on our lesson plans, and then picking an attribute of Christ from Ch.6 in PMG and then discussing it and writing out our thoughts. Not only does it help us learn how to be better companions for each other, but also how to help everyone. it is one of my favorite chapters...well actually they're all so amazing I don't think I could pick one since I just thought of several others that are also equally helpful and awesome! I'd highly recommend going through it and getting familiar with it. Some really great stuff=)

Along with my companion and I learning, we found out all this stuff from the TRC and TE (Teaching Resource Center, Teacher Evaluation). It's hard, but really beneficial when every Saturday we have to go practice our Spanish by contacting/knocking door to door, and then teaching a whole lesson. It really shows us what the mission field is like, and how far we have to come!

For everyone else that might be reading this, just to let you know, thank you so so much for all of your letters! I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to a lot of you. last Monday I got a ton right before e-mail and then dinner so I didn't get a chance to write anyone back, but I tried doing better today. Unfortunately I didn't spend that much of my free time writing like normally since I tried to get some sleep. I've gotten pretty sick this last week, which is really unfortunate and horrible timing=( I have a sore throat, congestion, head aches, etc.. The good news of this all is that I'm in the MTC choir so I get the wonderful opportunity to sing at the Priesthood Session of General Conference, the bad news is that my throat is horrible and I can't sing! I've actually been really blessed in that even though my throat hurts all day and I'm always coughing up a lung, every morning for practice I've been able to sing fine (just not my full range which isn't a problem since I'm a 2nd tenor) so I've been really blessed there, I just want to be better by Saturday so I've been doing everything I can to try and get over this as soon as possible.

Oh yea, yesterday was fast Sunday which was a neat experience getting to hear everyone's testimony's in Sacrament Meeting, and I understood them all even though they were in Spanish! Now I just need to be able to remember how to say it when I'm the one speaking=) I hope all of you had a great week. I can't wait to hear from you all! I love and miss you, but this is definitely where I'm supposed to be right now, and having that assurance is such a blessing. The gospel is such a blessing in my life, I can't wait to go and share it with those people in New York waiting for me=)

Hopefully LaDawn or Whit or someone can get me my stuff soon. Can't wait to get my first package!

Love,

Elder Lewis