So I made it through my first week. It has felt at times that ive been here for a month and at times that i just got dropped off yesterday. The first day was weird. We didnt have anytime to settle down. I dropped my stuff off at my room and went straight into a classroom for the rest of the day. It was crazy. I didnt feel settled in til Sunday. We get back to our rooms by 9:30ish and lights out at 10:30. Then we wake up at 6-6:30am every morning. My companions are Elder Morris and Elder Phillips. So I am in a trio. I wish we had sisters in our district so that some of the elders would be more reverent and studious. But over things are going great. Oh haha also Elder Morris and Elder Phillips a couple nights a go were freaking out Saturday night because they thought we had demons and evil spirits in our room. They were being so annoying. I turned the lights off at 10:30 and like a minute later Elder Morris said "something isnt right." and turned the lights on. This went on for like 45 minutes while I was trying to sleep. Finally they fell asleep but only after I told them I would say a pray out loud for them. But its all good. We are all learning to live with each other.
My days are packed. Wake up, go to breakfast, then off to classroom studies for 3-4hours. Then lunch and then back to classroom for 3-4 hours. Then Dinner and back to class for the rest of the night. Sometime in the day we do get an hour of exercise time. We can either go to the gym, go to a fitness center, or go to a field. On sundays and Tuedays we go to choir and then after choir the mtc has a devotional. Last nights was with Elder Arnold of the seventy. This week has been a roller coaster of emotions. From feeling completely inadaquit to feel so motivated. We had an Elder totally break down yesterday during our morning study because he felt so lost in the language and couldnt teach our investigator. I will admit that is hard. We have already had 4 lessons with Donald(our investigator). The first one was completely awful. Just awful. But the others have slowly gotten better. When thinking about my mission and speaking spanish, I never imagined all the hard work that comes behind it.Whenever I get down on myself about not being able to speak spanish and teach a quality lesson, I remind myself that i have only been here a weak. And I have much to learn. I cant wait to go to Argentina. It wont feel like Im on my mission til I get there I think.I will send pictures in a different email. Also the Temple is closed this and next week for cleaning so I wont be able to go there on my Pdays until 2 weeks from now. But I have felt the spirit and its helped me in this first week. I am sleeping great. I fall right asleep and wake up fine. I havent noticed anything that we have forgot. But I do think that the carry on suitcase would be great. I havent received the 5 shirts yet but i probably will soon. The cinnamon rolls were awesome. I shared it with the whole district and our teacher. Our teachers are awsome. They are so useful and have so much insight. Yesterday one of our teachers, sister richards gave us a 3 hour lesson on the doctrine of Christ. That and a video we watch sunday with Elder Bednar giving a talk in the MTC a couple years ago on christmas called "The Character of Christ" has influenced me greatly. I am not sure if you can look it up but I would invite everyone to watch the talk by him. It was SO good. I totally thought of mom the whole time. Im not sure if you can find it but it is so powerful.
So this past week was also weird because the mtc had over a hundred mission presidents here for a tranning by the entire quoerm of the 12 apostles. but i didnt get to see any of that because that took place in a different building that we werent allowed in and I was cooped up in my classroom for 9-10 hours a day. I did get to met ray Olsen... and irrigation guy that dad knows and talked with thursday. I havent seen Clint yet either, I always look for him in the food court but no show so far. I have seen a couple guys from the lacrosse team and others in my old ward at utah state here. I got the birthday package from kenz and dad. It was all good except the salsa will be a waste after the first use because i cant keep it cold.
I love you guys so much. i feel so blessed to have the family that I have because your love is so strong. i am excited to hear about all of the adventures you will all have the next years. I will leave you with a thought from Sundays devotional that I love. It addressed concerns of inadaquitcy I felt this past week. The speaker said "The adversary know ALL about you. Just like heavenly father knows you, Satan knows you too. Your strength and your weaknesses." Then he said " Dont let him(the adversary) push your buttons. Have a great week and I cant wait to hear from you all. ETTE
-Elder Keicher
PS these computers dont have spell check and half the keys are faded and are just blank, black keys. So sorry for spelling errors.
