Monday, June 17, 2013

June 14- P-Day Number 2!

PDAY NUMBER 2!!
This week has been awesome! A couple of really cool things happened this week that I want to tell you about. First, my Branch Presidency is AWESOME!! My Branch President, President Tyler, has the most amazing memory I have ever seen and he is ALWAYS quoting new scriptures, sharing AMAZING experiences, and teaching wonderful lessons. He is the nicest old man I have ever met... I feel like he is my grandpa. haha I set aside a specific part of my study journal just to write down the wonderful things that come out of his mouth. For example, he shared an experience where he met Elder Neil A. Maxwell and Elder Maxwell invited him to be in a big interview for a newspaper. President Tyler said it was one of the most amazing interviews he had ever heard, and he was very disappointed when the paper came out the next day and none of the interview was printed. When he asked Elder Maxwell what he thought of the whole thing, Elder Maxwell said, "I have learned not to be betrayed by my own expectations." President Tyler applied this to missionary work and said that we cant expect too much out of ourselves. We do our best and the Lord will make up the rest! Second, I dont know if any of you have heard yet, but there is going to be a church-wide fireside in a couple weeks that will promote member missionary work. Its being held at the Marriott Center (BYU's basketball stadium) and they are forming a MTC choir to sing in it, so I decided to join. Guess who is running the whole the thing?! The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve apostles!! Pretty cool right?! I get to sing in a fireside in front of the Brethren... what a cool experience that is going to be!! I was also selected to sing in a smaller group of missionaries that will sing in a special choir for a Mission President's seminar the next week. I'm not sure of all of the details on that one, but they were much more strict on who they let sing for the seminar so... I guess we will see =] Third, MAN OF STEEL CAME OUT TODAY!!!! I have been wearing my new superman shirt all day in honor of it!! Haha and last night when I got back to my room, in honor of the opening night, I put on my superman shirt underneath my clothes, then I walked into everyone's rooms in our zone and unbuttoned my shirt so they could see it. They all know Im a huge Superman fan, so they got a pretty big kick out of it. Sadly, all of the guys agree that I look more like a Peter Parker than a Clark Kent.... so they all call me Toby. Because Toby McGuire played spiderman... its the worst. Haha oh and they call me "Elder Piedras". It means "Elder Stones" in Spanish. Its Much better than Toby! I think thats it for this week. Spanish is coming along well, still teaching lessons all in spanish, and basically just learning how to be a great missionary! Ill send some pictures! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!

Love,

Elder Stones
 
1. MTC District
2. Elder Stones and Companion Elder Pope
3. Clark Kent
 


 

Friday, June 7, 2013

June 7- FIRST WEEK IN THE MTC!!

Hola Familia, Amigos, y Missioneros!!
How is everyone back home and in the mission field? Its crazy to think that just two days ago I was home with family and friends, and now I am a full time missionary for the lord... its a big change, but its awesome!! So, mom and dad, I know I already wrote a letter to you guys telling you about my first day here in the MTC, but you get to hear about it again because no one else knows anything. Sorry! Okay, first little fun fact: The day that I got to the MTC there were over 950 NEW missionaries arriving with me! Thats the most the Provo MTC has ever had... kinda crazy. On the first day, I was assigned to my Branch and District. We are all learning spanish in my branch, which is fun. We have 4 Districts in my branch. One has been here for 4 weeks, one got here last week, and 2 of us got here this week. The cool thing is that the guys who got here last week are already pros, which is just a testimony of how amazing the MTC is! They definitely aren't pros with the language, but they are pros in the MTC, and hopefully that will be me next week! I feel like I'm already getting the hang of things, which is good, and I'm actually really enjoying myself. I also have a GREAT companion! His name is Elder Pope, he is 18, and he just graduated from high school 2 weeks ago. I admire him so much for that. It would take an immense amount of faith to undertake this great work right out of high school, but he is handling it like a champ. He is perfectly obedient, atheltic, and he eats very healthy, so hopefully if I stick with him I wont gain any MTC weight haha. He is going to enstill some great habits in me that will benefit me in 6 weeks when I hit the field. I'm very thankful for him, and know we are going to help each other grow a ton while we are here in the MTC. There are 4 Elders and 4 Sisters in my District. Me, Elder Pope (from Utah Going to Boston), Elder Miller (from Queen Creek AZ going to Pocatello), Elder Berthelson (from Pheonix AZ going to Boston), Hermana Coffey (From Utah going to Chile), Hermana Pennock (from California going to Pocatello) and the two other sisters I'm still getting to know, but I know they are both going to Chile. Alison did you see that? I have TWO missionaries from my district going to Pocatello! I told them to keep an eye out for you and when you get to the MTC maybe we can introduce you guys. Okay, thats my district. On the first day in the MTC we had this great meeting to teach us that we are going to teach people, not just lessons. They crammed about 100-150 missionares into a room, brought in an investigator with a concern/problem/question and we (the 150 missionaries) all worked together to make our message fit their needs. It was pretty awesome. We practiced with 3 investigators and I think we did pretty well with 2 of them... I know by the end of the MTC we will be better teachers and hopefully be able to teach and answer the questions of all of our investigators. We also had a great meeting to welcome us in to the MTC! On the second day, we jumped right into learning the language. We have a great teacher, and the 4 hours flew by; however, we found out that we would be teaching our first investigator the next day (TODAY) and it would be ALL IN SPANISH.... so thats going to be an adventure. Elder Pope and I prepared for a few hours yesterday and we have a few more hours to prepare today so hopefully we dont crash and burn too bad. Hmm what else... oh, the 4 elders in my district all room together and we are trying to only speak spanish while we are in our room... let me tell you something, its hard to speak only in spanish when we dont know any spanish. We pull out the dictionary quite a lot, but I know we will be blessed as we continue to strive for that goal. Also, I was very blessed and received the call to be District Leader! Its not a huge deal considering there are only 4 other Elders in my district, but I'm still humbled to have been asked to fill the call. Its a lot to take in on top of everything else I already have to take in, but I have tons of help here, and my District is already incredible so its going to be great! Early early this morning my branch all went to the temple and that was an awesome experience! Its an amazing feeling to be surrounded by thousands of elders and sisters that all have the same goals as me and are all striving for the same thing. There is an incredible spirit here. I think that thats about it, this is only my third day here, so theres not much to report on, but Im sure there will be lots in the future. A few quick things. :) I can only check my email once a week, but I get letters from Dear Elder every single night. If you guys send me letters through Dear Elder then I can read them during the week and have enough time to email everyone back because I wont be spending my email time reading all of the emails. My mailbox # is 229! So... yeah. I only have about five minutes left in my time so, if you didnt get a personal email from me, I will try to get back on a little later and send you all quick letters!! I loved all of the letters I got!! Thank you for your love and prayers!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!
Love,
Elder Stones