February 15, 2008

Elder Meiners' letter this week is a detailed sketch of the MTC and surrounding grounds. The Provo temple is in the upper left corner and little stick figures are walking around two x two--some slipping on ice, some unloading luggage, etc.

I guess that pretty much sums up the serene mission life of the MTC.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Dear Family,

Not too much to report. This week 10 new elders came in, and the oldest district left. There are only four elders older/senior to us, which is the district above us. Which makes zone teaching really easy. Zone teach is where the companionships within a district go and teach other companionships in the zone. It's easy because everybody we teach that is newer/younger than us, thinks we are amazing, even though we're really not.

Teaching is Spanish can be pretty amusing. Always confused looks on my companions faces. I know all the words, but I don't know how to conjugate and form sentences correctly. So, I just speak Spanish confidently as if what I'm saying makes sense when really I'm making lots of mistakes. "Fake it until you make it." Preach my Gospel says to not be afraid to make errors when speaking another language. Although, for me, I should probably be a little more afraid.

I'm at the halfway mark of the MTC. I've pretty much got the week's schedule memorized by now. On Wednesday when the new district came in, our district had a 'part your hair down the middle' day. Every so often we have themes like that to liven things up-- like Red Tie Tuesday, and Ugly Tie Friday.

On Thursday I was at the Reference Center making calls and getting some in. That was pretty fun.

Did you watch Groundhog Day last week? I thought about it. I don't think I need to be reminded what it feels like to do the the same things every day. But, that was a pretty great movie.

Well, I got to go do somethng.
See ya,

Elder James Meiners

Friday, Feb 1, 2008

Dear family,

I just got back from the temple and had breakfast there. It was 'muy bien'. When we left it was snowing, it's been snowing a lot recently, it looks nice when it snows. The snow was so thick and foggy that you can only see the huge mountains by the MTC if you squint.

The ground was really slick, as we were walking some guy said that missionaries weren't allowed to ice skate. I thought it was prety funny.

Elder Gardner and Elder Cox aren't in my room anymore. The district president left so there were only 7 people instead of 8 in the district. So now I'm in a threesome with Elder Riley, Elder Rogers and myself. It makes teaching harder, along with getting them both together to go places. But, I hear there are threesomes in the mission field so I'll have to learn to get used to it.

My Spanish is coming along well. They teach us church words like baptism, faith, and Holy Ghost. So when I read 'Preach my Gospel' or the Book of Mormon in Spanish I can understand almost everything. I can understand alot but I have trouble speaking. In class I was giving the prayer in Spanish (we pray and sing in Spanish)and I meant to say "Bless us to be better missionaries", but the word for better is 'mejor', and the word for woman or wife is 'mujer', so I said, "Bless us to be women missionaries". My teacher Hermana Thomas just made a face at me after the prayer.

We're already one of the older districts in our zone. Thre's a district that's leaving on Tuesday, (the 5th). Then there will be one district older than us, and two newer than us.

Every week on Thursday we have an English fast, where we are not supposed to speak English. We had one yesterday and we're getting better at it. I'm sure with a few more weeks of practice we'll have it down.

For the first time I went to the Reference Center where we get and make calls to real people and confirm if they received their free whatever, or if they want to get something free like a Book of Mormon or Lamb of God video. Sometimes I would get the "Sure, you can have the representatives (missionaries) come by".

I'm debating whether I should take a nap through personal study, or actually study. Just kidding, of course I'll study. I just say that because yesterday as I was reading 'Jesus the Christ' I was sitting in a chair with my head on my tie looking down reading. And I started to read slower and slower, than my eyes closed, but in my mind I thought I was still reading. Then I woke up again in fifteen minutes. I didn't even know I had fallen asleep. Everyone in the district commended me on my new talent of being able to fall asleep sitting up. I can tell the Lord is blessing me with many new talents. I'm working hard and doing well, because "work is good for you".

ELDER James Meiners