This is a picture of 3 of the boys from our home ward--elder nate quinn, elder mike kinney, and trav man all in the MTC together.
Excerpts from Trav's letter:
- Things i have learned from this week: i have learned how to hold my bladder, and how to eat without throwing up.
I'd love to say that i've eaten a bunch of crazy things but no, we just eat a ton! haha! 3 nights this week, we had to eat 3 dinners in a row yikes! Before every dinner, i have to say a prayer that my stomach will have a little extra room. There was one time where i took a bite of chicken and was chewing, then i thought, if i swallow i'm gonna puke haha so i just sat there with this chicken sitting in my mouth and then i said a prayer and swallowed haha. Thats how those dinners are. Its great though, we are getting fed really well.
Things with my companion are great. We are speaking more spanish and just started this thing called purification. We made a list of 10 things that we need to do better in our companionship and just as missionaries, and then we prayed and fasted this weekend (since it was fast sunday) for help in bettering ourselves as missionaries. So we put down some things that will help us be more obedient, more spiritual, and better at spanish ha. Me and puertas have been doing really well, and i see that he trusts me more even in my first 2 weeks. I realize that last week i was being kind of selfish and that fact was, i just didn't know how to do anything haha and now i'm getting the hang of things better, i know the people better, and i am more comfortable when puertas throws me under the bus as we teach in spanish. He is always like, and now my companion is gonna talk about ...fasting or the temple haha. I try so hard to follow the conversations and then puertas just drops something on me and i teach and bare my testimony about it haha. We have taught some normal lessons too like the restoration and the plan of salvation too. Today we are gonna go teach abotu the commandments and something else i can't remember.
I'd love to say that i've eaten a bunch of crazy things but no, we just eat a ton! haha! 3 nights this week, we had to eat 3 dinners in a row yikes! Before every dinner, i have to say a prayer that my stomach will have a little extra room. There was one time where i took a bite of chicken and was chewing, then i thought, if i swallow i'm gonna puke haha so i just sat there with this chicken sitting in my mouth and then i said a prayer and swallowed haha. Thats how those dinners are. Its great though, we are getting fed really well.
Things with my companion are great. We are speaking more spanish and just started this thing called purification. We made a list of 10 things that we need to do better in our companionship and just as missionaries, and then we prayed and fasted this weekend (since it was fast sunday) for help in bettering ourselves as missionaries. So we put down some things that will help us be more obedient, more spiritual, and better at spanish ha. Me and puertas have been doing really well, and i see that he trusts me more even in my first 2 weeks. I realize that last week i was being kind of selfish and that fact was, i just didn't know how to do anything haha and now i'm getting the hang of things better, i know the people better, and i am more comfortable when puertas throws me under the bus as we teach in spanish. He is always like, and now my companion is gonna talk about ...fasting or the temple haha. I try so hard to follow the conversations and then puertas just drops something on me and i teach and bare my testimony about it haha. We have taught some normal lessons too like the restoration and the plan of salvation too. Today we are gonna go teach abotu the commandments and something else i can't remember.
- i just love this work! it is such an amazing feelnig to go around from house to house, with the sole intention of helping that family. That is really the only reason why i am here, to help these people accept the gospel and bring them a life full of blessings and happiness. I just love the interactions and the role that we playh as missionaries. Even through the hard stuff like one family that just got baptized told us they had a relapse with drugs and drinking. It was aweful of course but thats the beauty of the atonement. They can be forgiven and they will be as they continue to live the gospel. But the fact that they shared that with us, with complete trust in us to help them was a really cool thing. I just love this! I'm beginning to see why daniel and katie always tell me how jealous they are of me :)
- Ah man i can't tell you all how much better i feel this week. There are still hard days when i get super frustrated either with myself, or with another elder (not even my companion). I try to just remember why i'm out here and that its not about ME! I loved the first day we planned together, my comp and i, and he said the prayer. He said help us heavenly father to know how we should plan YOUR day. I just really liked that how it really is his time that we are on, not our own. And even though i lose that perspective at times, in the end it always comes back and i remember.
- Last tuesday we had a good finding day. We only found 30 new people instead of 100 haha we set our goal pretty high huh? But 30 was still great and we've gone back to teach a couple of them. There is one white family (not married of course) that was actually really into our message. The girls name is vanessa and she was like, ya know what, a ton of religious people like you guys come and knock on our doors and i've never let any of them in. But for some reason i just felt like you guys should come in." We were shocked ha and just prayed and said thank you heavenly father for these miracles we see literally everyday. They are great and their family is really just looking for a new start, which is exactly what we can give them!
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