October 12, 2011

The countdown has begun, just under two weeks until we hit the mission field. Needless to say we are all pretty darn excited. Days in the mtc can sometimes be a little long and repetative but all in all things are going awesome. We got a new batch of missionaries in last week and new latino and north american companions. Both of mine are awesome. It was hard to let go of our last ones but we decided to give them a chance and werent dissapointed. My Latino companion's name is elder Balvin from Huanico Peru, he is a blast, he has this hillarious dead/pan humor,.....at least I think he does....you never know with this language barrier thing though, and he asked me to teach him piano, which also proves to be a little difficult at times but we get by :) But today I was actually able to go with him to the temple for his first time, that was a very cool experience, it brought back memories of my first time and how amazing it was. I would encourage everybody to go to the temple as often as they possibly can, the blessings of temple attendance are so important and they arent few.

Oh yeah, I got a little sidetracked there, My north american companion (elder pande(panda)) from utah, is a super hard working missionary, he is great, (funny story, he actually collided heads with another missionary during "futbol" and they both had to go and get tons of stitches to close up gaping woulds on their foreheads. Oh, it was a good time haha, )

Im glad to hear you guys had an awesome thanksgiving dinner, Its funny because I totally forgot about that little candian holiday in general.....thats what happens right? haha Im in my own little bubble here in peru, and I love it. I could go on and on about things im grateful for, but to save you from gratefulness overload sickness, I will just say that this gospel and my family are both at the top of my list. And I know that might be a little cliche, but thats really what life boils down to. You meet people without the gospel and without a loving family, and it just breaks your heart. And that drives me everyday to be a better missionary.

Teaching has become one of my favorite past times here at the mtc, practicing the fundamentals is key in missionary work, and even though we arent teaching real investigators yet, we have had some really cool experiences. The best feeling is when you come out of a lesson and you both are like 'Ýeah! What an awesome lesson! The spirit was so strong, and when you pulled out that scripture and I asked that question! That was totally the spirit!" you know, those "spiritual fist pumps" if you will haha. Seeing other people feel the spirit when you talk to them about the truth of the gospel of how they are children of Our Father in heaven, really is the best feeling.

Thank you so much family for the incredible amount of support you all give, including grandparents and friends, like I said, I've met some missionaries here who have almost zero support but still want to serve the lord. Thanks for being such great examples for me, keep being awesome missionaries, I'd love to hear about your missionary experiences.

I love you all and I will let you know next week about my travel plans for Chiclayo :)

Elder Lonsdale