ELDER 2.0

FAAAAAMILY.

This week was rough. I was struggling up until yesterday. I was struggling with not knowing the language and just being here. Yesterday we had a SYL (speak your language) activity which is where you can only speak your language without notes or anything and our teacher would say Holy Ghost or Joseph Smith and we would have to tell what little we can say it and testify and it actually made me feel like I could speak without having my notes or anything. There is a long way to go but if you times what I know by three then when I leave here I should be somewhat able to do this language. This language thing is so much harder than I would have thought. I guess I just assumed you learn it super fast and it feels like you have learned absolutely nothing but when you look back you've actually learned a lot for only being here for 2/3 weeks. They count weeks by weeks been here not total days so that first Wednesday through Sunday counts as a week so technically I'm in week 3 even though we've only been here two so I'll end up being here 8 I guess. It's hard sometimes because the teachers speak Albanian 99 percent of the time and sometimes its hard to understand what they're saying and we just have to piece together what we know. I Know my mission will be hard but I honestly feel like if I can just make it out of the mtc I will love my mission and it will be smooth sailing even though it won't be easy I've already learned I can trust the Lord with everything while I'm out there as long as I'm being obedient. I'm here for him so he will guide me to where I'm supposed to be. Whatever success I do or don't have will be fine because if I'm doing everything I can I know that's what he wants. I cannot wait to actually be able to speak this language and tell those crazy Albanians how much this gospel can bless them. I try to focus on today and not looking forward to the future because it makes it seem longer but today is day 16 and there is no way I've been here that long. The days are long but the weeks fly by is completely true. I've gotten used to sitting in a classroom for 11 hours but it is still a little long. I wish I could just study the scriptures all day. My FAVORITE part of the week is the devotionals. Tuesdays and Sundays the Holy Ghost puts on his boxing gloves and punches me in heart as hard as he can. Those devotionals are amazing and I try to eat them up because I know i'll never have them again. If I wasn't being perfectly obedient I would sneak a video camera in and record them for you dad.... Be glad you raised a righteous son I guess :) My other favorite thing is our service we got assigned. We take down the chairs and roll up the floor mat in the gym because they have the devotionals in there and they have stadium seats that come out and a bunch of stairs and a stand and stuff and we have to take it down after each devotional. It is a blast. The chairs aren't the folding kind. they stack on top of each other and you stack them in twos then you load them on these carts. Elder Fowles and me try to do it as fast as we can every week. Then we have to roll the mat up and fold it on this cart thing. Anyways it's literally one of the things which gets me through the week. I'm always pumped for it. Find joy in the little things I guess... We've started a horse shoe rivalry. Elder Fowles and me are on a team with some Finns and we horse shoe pretty hard... My team got destroyed today which was a tough loss since I've been throwing around some pretty hard smack talk and it wasn't easy to lose... My competitive spirit doesn't like losing. Even though we don't keep score at the MTC..... Elder Fowles and one of the zone leaders is the other team and Elder Neilson is from Lone Peak and a pretty big football player and my team mate is one of the most hilarious kids ever. We have fun with it.

My companion and me are good but I would say i'm the most close with Elder Fowles who is one of my roommates but isn't in my class. All is well

My Companion Elder Kek