Last Week in Provo!

Ok once again I have tons to say and not much time so we'll just dive right in

My visa is here! This means that I'm guaranteed to leave on Wednesday morning! We heard rumors that the MTC in Lima was full but we talked to the travel office and they said it is but they're still letting Peru missionaries go, just nobody else haha. We also heard that the first thing they do when we get there is buzz everybody's head!!! Ugh, I hate my hair that short =P

There's an Elder Crowther in my district who's from St George but he's been telling all the new missionaries that he's from New Zealand and talking with a fake accent that everybody totally buys. They asked him to speak Spanish and when he did they were like "Whoa you sound like you're from America when you speak Spanish!" He just laughed and said that he must be making progress. New missionaries, so gullible ;)

There's another elder on our floor whose room is right next to ours that's from Spain and he's going to serve in Greece which is SUPER cool!! He's studied German and French too and his English is amazing. Plus he said he's going to MIT for telenetworking or something amazing like that. There are some very cool people in the world.

The elders in our district have already started making bets on who'se going to be married first when we get back, by everyone elses vote I'm either number one or two, I'm not sure how I feel about that though haha. We're also taking bets on who can grow a Mexi Stache first, the first person who the teacher tells to shave wins hahaha, that just goes to show how mature we are.

Even though we're really not supposed to talk about music or movies or anything like that that isn't produced by the church or whatever there are still people who talk about it, since Harry Potter came out this week I've heard a lot of people whistling the HP theme haha. It also snowed finally!! Most of it melted but then it was super cold last night and now the sidewalks are covered in black ice. My companion is from So. Cal. where it never snows and he's seen snow like once before so he's totally geeking out over it, I have to keep telling him to watch out for the ice haha.

My biology teacher in high school has a twin brother which I knew before, but I just met him for the first time the other day. He works here! Can you believe it! What are the chances haha.

For the Tuesday night fireside we didn't get an apostle again, but we did get someone from the Seventy. His name is Keven W. Pearson and lemme just say that after he spoke I didn't care at all that the prophet didn't come haha. His talk was absolutely incredible, it was the most inpiring talk I have ever heard, General Conference included. I took more notes during his talk than I did during Elder Bednars. He spoke about a bunch of different things centering around missionary work but the thing that stuck out to me most as it did to a lot of other people was when he talked about our divine identity. We are here on missions not to put our life on hold and talk about Jesus for a while, we're here to throw away our old life and bring the souls of men unto eternal salvation. We are literally supposed to begin a new life, get rid of our own self image and who we thought we were and to become who we really are. Mortality induces amnesia, we knew almost everything before we came here and after we die we'll know even more. We are not who we think we are. During this talk I felt the Spirit so powerfully I wished there was a non member right in front of me so I could baptize them hahaha. The whole thing was just awesome and I truly feel that his talk was directed right at me. Another thing he said was that we're not out here to try and teach the gospel, we're out here to DO IT! He said, "'Trying' means I don't think I can do this, but I feel like I'm somehow morally obligated to give somewhat of an effort." And also that "Average is the enemy of excellence. There is not one average person in the Celestial Kingdom, not one." I think I can speak for everyone when I say that his words were just what we needed.

My companion and I got to go to the temple again this morning, it's always a great experience and the perfect way to start the day/week. I did an endowment session for a guy from Hungary who was born over 200 years ago. SWEET!!

My Spanish is really coming along, I'm getting to the point where when I pray I don't have to just say what I know how to say but more of what I want to say. We're also getting better at teaching the first few lessons and will start those in Spanish too very soon. It's not us though, we just pray and pray and pray for the Spirit and if we deserve it then He comes and teaches what we can't. I've felt the Spirit so often and so strongly the last few weeks it's been unreal. I'm so excited to see what else there is for me to learn and to go out and get my hands dirty spreading the Good News!
There's another elder here who plays the piano and he's so amazing with the hymns he plays he made me decide to start playing again when I get back haha, all I needed was the right inspiration.

Well my time is almost up and I have to go do my laundry now but I want you all to know that I love you and I love this gospel and I can't wait to start sharing it with people. Keep sending me your love on DearElder.com!! =)