8/10

hi family and friends! no questions this week, so i will just get right into it. I made some notes about everything i want to right so hopefully ill get everything down. We had a really cool lesson last week about Death. There are two kinds, spiritual and physical. We talked about how little kids say "oh i wanna be a fire fighter or a pl=oliceman or a army man" because they save people, and tahts great! But then we talked about the importance of each death. Yes it is sad, when somebody dies, BUT EVERYONE gets to be resurrected and receives immortality. Spioritual death, is so much more vital. If we are dead spiritually (through sin and imperfections), then we cannot live with our families forever or with God and our savior jesus christ in their presence. Our work as missionaries, is to "help others LIVE spiritually"!

We help them do that through the atonement of jesus christ. If only little kids knew the importance and significance of what missionaries do, they would all say "i want to be a missionary when i grow up". It was really powerful and just increased my testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ and his atonement for usI had a sweet experience in the RC (place where we call people to see if they received books of mormon, dvds and stuff that they order). I talked with one lady named Jacueline Tisdale for an HOUR! it was seriously so amazing! We talked about her church, and she was like oh yeah ive been wondering about the book of mormon and what you guys beleive for a while. She is really religious but not necessariluy a part of a religion if that makes sense? I eventually got to sharing the entiere 1st lesson with her and even the first vision which was really powerful! She asked a ton of questions and a lot of the things she believed, or even WANTED to believe were aspects of the mormon church. We jstu kept talking and talking and she kept asking questions and it was great. Eventually she asked two questions about the sabath and "the gift of tongues" that i didn't really know so we set up an appointment to talk this week again where i could study and find an answer to her question s( which i have done already and i can't wait to call her back!). So taht was seriosuly so amazing. AND it was really cool too cause when i hung up the phone, it was like a huge energy was just drained out of me.

The spirit was so strong during our phone call even though it was over the phone! I hung up and just felt literally like my energy was drained in a matter of seconds. It was weird but sooo cool cause the spirit that accompanies us is REAL and its there, you can really feel it! We work so hard physically and spiritually, but they are both equally draining.We had a cool teaching experience in the TRC too (where we teach volunteer investigators). This time though, they didn't have enough volunteers, so we got to teach 3 natives from another district. HA they are SOO cool and just so funny. Whne we taught, it was awesome! my spanish was just flowin and i felt like i could erally say what i wanted to! it was seriously so great and we satisfied all their needs and everything which was hard because the scenario was that they didn't believe in God or Jesus Christ so it was very different but exciting.

They are our good friends now and are always asking us if they can help us with spanish and things, they are soo awesome! However, elder walker and i kind of walked all over elder nelson. We felt really bad afterward and he was really frustrated because he came up from the beginner class, so he doesn't know quite as much spanish, but he can really talk and teach and stuff. But i'm rather impatient so whenever there's a silence after someone teaches, I usually take it or elder walker and poor elder nelson just sits and listens to us teach, only occasionally giving his 2 cents. So he was frsustrated and we felt pretty bad about it. We had an interview with our teach afterward, Hermano hidalgo, who is seriously so awesome. I love the guy really so much! He is so sincere and everytime he teaches us, i just feel his desire for us to be the best we can be. WE've really bonded. BUT we talked with him about what we could do better this week to help elder nelson and even ourselves. There is a lot to work on for each of us so we planned it all out on saturday and sunday. This week we have a bunch of activities to help[ us with our spanish and our teaching. We had a comp inventory too on saturday that was really succesful, again we talked a lot about this week and how we could help one another. It's cool to see how we grow with one another in our companioships as we go through difficult times, and frustrations. We grow so much faster when we struggle (something i'll have to remember). Sunday was amazing of course. I love going to church and hearing the talks and taking the sacrament. The meaning of it really stands out since i've been on my mission and it means a lot more to me now than just getting a snack and a drink in a long meeting ha. E

very week, we have to prepare a talk on saturday, for sacrament meeting, and then during sacrament meeting, they announce who will speak so it's kind of a surprise. This week, of course, i got called on and luckily i was prepared (i've been prepared every week), but it was really great. So i gave my talk to our zone in spanish and it worked out really well. I got a bunch of compliments on it afterward and many people said my spanish sounded really good. Then we had an awesome preisthood meeting too. We talked about priesthood blessings and the power and authority that we are acting under. Sometimes when i think about giving blessings in the field or whenevr, i get kind of nervous. I don't know why, i'm always worried that i won't know what to say or something but this meeting really boosted my confidence. As we were talking i was feeling kind of uneasy but then the teacher said something, and i remember thinking, "trav, have confidence in the lord" and it was follwed by a very subtle spiritual confirmation and i just smiled and knew that whenevr that time comes, that i would need to give a blessing, He will be with me. I also remembered a conversation with dad when he said, he has always had a tremendous confidence in the priesthood power as he gives each of us fathers blessings and things like that. It made me think back to the blessing he gave me right before i came to the MTC, and i just remember feeling such a marvelous power and confidence in what he was doing as he layed his hands on my head and gave me a blessing.We go to the temple every sunday too and just walk around for an hour, it's so relxing and peacfeul. We took a bunch of pictures this week because, i forgot to tell you, one of the sisters in our district got reassigned and left this morning! (ill tell you about her in a sec).

But the temple was great and it was fun taking fun and funny pictures all together. Great time, Oh and it was way cooler which was great cause usually we're all sweating profusely hA!But about hermana Dunn. She has a cyst on her brain, that they knew about before and she's gotten catskans and stuff and she was still approved to go to salta argentina. Unfortunatly, she's been getting lots of head aches here and so they went to take another catskan and decided that since their arent graeat medical facilities in salta, she might need a reassignment. So after about a week of meetings and doctors appointments, her call gets sent back to salt lake to be reviewed. Her doctors kept telling her that she was fine and should be able to go. So they call her down to the main office and she talks with the MTC president where he breaks the news that she is reassigned to San Diego, California spanish speaking and she is leaving on tuesday (today). THey told her this last thursday so she had just a few days to get everything ready. The poor thing was so sad when she told us and everyone could feel for her. It's weird how much you grow with people as you are around them 24/7. We all just felt so bad for her but she had such a great attitude! She kept saying, the only one that could have made this call is an apostle, and for whatever reason, heavenly father wanted me to have this experienec. She has been such a good sport and just handled it all really well. It was a testimony to all of us that we are really in the lord's hands, that he has a plan for EVERY one of us individually. She left this morning and now it's different, but its good I'm glad to hear about everyones experiences back home. MOm i loved your letter about grandma and grandpas.

The story with you and grandma shopping and how she was COVERED with all the things she wanted to buy just made me laugh haha! It sounds like it was a very peaceful relaxing time. Sometimes those are my favorite times, when i don't have to do a thing and can just breathe! but we don't get that here :) but it's all good. I Liked hearing about all the things that remind you of me too. Like your taco bell runs and stuff and the chicken quesos! yumm those are my favorite. I'm getting sick of the food here to be honest. I'm craving a little t-bell or maybe even a garden run?Katie, i have looked for you "TALL" book and they don't have it anymore. I think it's sold at the BYU bookstore but i'm not sure. Tell me if you want me to get you another book that taeches the same stuff. Oh also, that was really cool to hear about uncle kevins project with the testimonies thing. I'm basically out of time, but i love you all so much. I hope you are all blessed from my prayers and things. Keeping nurturing your testimonies and remember we are ALL missionariees. Not just me. You guys are so great and i feel you support all the time. I love you soo much!elder edwards