August 29, 2012

Hola familia! so this past week has been pretty good i guess. im getting more and more anxious to be in panama. the language is coming along fine i think. not really struggling with it but it is tough at times and i get confused which tense to use or dont congugate my verbs right but thats ok. ive been reading the scriptures alot since being here during like personal study and stuff and ive gotten about 1.5 times through the book of mormon. the sadest part of this week i think was saturday night we had to say goodbye to hermano doxey one of our teachers. he was such an awesome guy and i really loved him as a teacher. he quit because school was starting again this past monday and it didnt work out with his schedule. at the end of his last class he shared with us his testimony. i cried. ive become kind of a cry baby here in the mtc and the spirit was so strong in his testimony. first to have it make sense, i had been praying a lot to know that i could do this and to just be able to get an answer that i know i can do it and that heavenly father loves me. so hermano doxey begins telling us a story and we all kind of expected something funny but spiritual that happened to him and as he started he was like "when i was in the mtc i really struggled, i struggled because i didnt know if i could be a missionary, i didnt know if i wanted to be here or if i could last for 2 years. i have always known the church is true but the mtc was kind of a trial and a test to me to see if i really did have a testimony. it was really hard on my testimony because i doubted myself alot. i remember going to the airport heading out for chile and i had just gotten off the phone with my parents so i was pretty sad and it was hitting me that i wasnt going to be here for 22 more months. and i was seeing all these missionaries going up and talking to people before they head out and i was thinking man i wish i could do that but i dont know what i would say. i remembered praying to have there be someone i could talk to and right as i finished praying this lady caught my eye and i thought i should talk to her but i ignored it. a few minutes later she walked up and sat by me and said hi elder doxey can i ask you a few questions and i said of course you can and she sat down and started crying and asked me about the church. she explained to me that her sister had just passed away about 2 weeks earlier and she wanted to know where her sister was and if she would see her again someday. we had a nice chat and i gave her information to contact some missionaries and i shared with her the plan of salvation" he said this was absolutely amazing to him and exactly what he needed. he said his testimony was the strongest in that families can be together forever and thats exactly what heavenly father gave him the opportuntiy to share in that very moment. he said it was such a testimony to him that heavenly father was mindful of him and he could be a missionary with the help of heavenly father. that story hit me so hard and i had tears in my eyes the whole time when he was talking. it was an answer to my prayers that he shared that testimony with us. i have no idea why he decided to share exactly what he did but i needed to hear it. it reminds me of the scripture in alma where im pretty sure ammon is speaking and he says something along the lines of i will not boast of my own strength for i am weak but i will boast of my god for with him i can do all things. thats so true, we are all weak and need to realize that heavenly father sent his son jesus christ to die for us and we just need to pray and ask for help. jesus has already suffered for every single thing we have felt or done and thats so amazing. looking back on the past week that was probably one of my favorite things. to answer your questions, no not new people in my district. new people in my zone. so a new district in our zone. and like 8 of the 12 of them are going to tucson spanish speaking. its funny, theres even one from mesa who is going to tucson! can they even do that to you!! elder scott my companion is from stansbury park utah? i guess its near tuwilla? thats what he tells people but that doesnt help me at all we now have 9 people in our district. 7 elders and 2 hermanas. the hermanas are going to spain and waiting on visas. 3 some going to chile concepcion. one of them is a guy who sat right across from me on the plane to slc and i really like him hes from mesa. another in that 3 some is named elder auelua-filitaula. hes from alaska 22 years old and spent the past 2 years at the naval academy in anapolis. hes an awesome guy and i really like him. then theres elder bulloch and elder stegelmeir that are both going to panama as well and theyre really nice. they actually just got called to be the zone leaders so theyll officially take over on sunday. i really like our district and i love everyone in it. its gonna suck saying bye to all of them. oh and we had 2 other hermanas but they left a week ago for guatemala mtc. well i think that answers all your questions. not much else i can think of. oh ya, dad, congrats on the new call! your talk you sent me was awesome. im sure youll get alot more opportunities to talk now! i look up to you alot and thank you for everything you have done and are doing for me. te quiero! Elder Adam Price let me know if you got the pictures. also could you send me like compression shorts i can wear for gym time and maybe another smaller memory card or something so then i could send mine home or something so you can have all the pictures? i think there was something else i was going to ask for but i cant remember!