Sunday, June 30, 2013

Friday, June 28, 2013 - (compilation of emails home - first P-Day)

Hey yeah its my P-day! First one in 10 days, and boy do I need it! There is seriously no free time. Practically every minute is planned out, and if it isn't they teach you to fill it with something! Planning planning planning! There is a lot of it. But its good! My teacher said if you have free time you can go ahead and write "SATAN'S TIME!" in all of those spots! lol But anyway, sometimes when doing language study on the computer we can look at videos on lds.org so I will definitely look at that link you sent me mom. 
[Note: The video he references is called, "Need answers?  https://www.lds.org/youth/video/origin?lang=eng ]

And about the temple. That so great! [He was commenting on a visit to the temple that his Mom went on with some other sisters in the ward] so I wish I could be going as much as we did at home while I’m here but sadly it’s not the case! The temple will be closed for a month for cleaning after this Saturday, but luckily we will be able to go today on our p-day. I’m so excited. You have no idea of how many times I have thought of our times in the temple together, Mom! I miss that already! All the elders in my district miss the temple a lot too. We talk about it a lot.

Thank you so much for all of your letters and the package! like I said, I love them so much and they bring a huge smile to my face every time no matter what they say!

So here is my full on update: here we go…
So 10 days in the MTC and guess what I am soooooo tired! When we had our first class (1st day) our teacher only talked to us in Portuguese. He speaks more English with us now but still they are always speaking in Portuguese to help us get better at understanding it. It was soooooo frustrating at first but now I see how much it helped. By the third day we were teaching a lesson to an "investigator" all in Portuguese! It was horrible the first time but we had 3 more lessons to go with in that week. It made it even harder because we had to work together as a tri companionship. After our second lesson, we had Elder Houston join our district because his visa hasn’t gone through so he was pair up with elder Woodall for the next 2 weeks which I was fine with because Elder Gardner and I get along great and he helps me out a lot. So the next 2 lessons went a lot better. On that first lesson with just us two, I still had everything written out but we still had a lot more time to teach her and she wasn’t getting what we were trying to teach here very well. So I attempted baring my testimony without my notes. It was very amazing but i did it! I bore testimony way better than I ever thought I could have. And it got even better when I taught her about Joseph Smith in our last lesson. Even though it was a pretend investigator I could tell the spirit was there as I taught of the First Vision. It was so cool! I know that the Lord is helping me even though I felt like he wasn’t that first few days. I just had to have faith. :)

Also to answer some of the questions I was asked in some of your letters home. I am indeed living on the MTC main campus, and I am so glad. My whole building is learning Portuguese. SOOOOOO many people are not able to get their visas for Brazil! Its crazy! But also cool to relate to so many people here. And the broadcast was sooo great! It was too late to be in the choir but it was so cool to be in there as they practiced for it. We had to be there in our seats like an hour and a half early. It was so amazing to see all of the apostles come walking in and how everyone just got so quiet and stood up! It was like the spirit came in like a wave with them! AMAZING! Elder Baitman, another Elder that I am really close to in my district (from Oklahoma), and I were freaking out together when we saw Elder Holland and waved to all of us missionaries! haha But yeah it was so cool to see that broadcast and be a missionary at this time. All of the mission presidents have been here all week for training, which has been really cool too.
Oh and Dad, even though google translate didn’t do the best job, I actually understood a good part of your letter! haha The language is sooooooo hard for me but I am slowly picking it up and I know it will come.

Thank you to all those who have written me, it is impossible to write you all back because I seriously have no time other than this short time on the computer and a few minutes at night before 10:30. So thank you to Kaycee Sorenson, Momma Edwards, Uncle Russ, Aunt Julie and Uncle Jeff, Gma and Gpa Landon and Swalberg. And the packages from Tella and Sister Barber! And of course the many letters and dear elders from you Mom and Dad! I have loved every one! Thank you, thank you, thank you! It means the world to me, seriously! So don’t stop! haha

Well I forgot my SD card in my room so I will have to send pictures next week but I have been taking them!

Thank you so much, I know it sounds silly but I really wanted it done like that. Thanks for letting me see it! [He was referring to how his Mom is maintaining his facebook/blog with his letters] I love it! I love getting letters through dear elder sooooo much and through the mail too! Dear elder is great! Because I am the DL I have the duty to go and get mail after lunch and after dinner so its so cool to see all of those letters there. I will reply to your other email and name who has sent me stuff so you can put it on my blog with my update email cause I simple don’t have time to reply to everyone but want them to know how much it reallllllly means to me! They have be a releif in such a crazy intense week!
I love this gospel so much and know it is true with all of my heart! God our heavenly father knows us individually and loves us beyond any comprehension!

Talk to you next p-day, (fridays)
I love you all so much!
-Elder Swalberg


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