Tuesday, July 5, 2011

MTC: Week #8

The American Flag outside the Provo Temple
Hello family and friends,
Wow time is flying by so fast right now.  Three weeks exactly from today, I'll be sitting on a plane to Taiwan.  Can't wait!  Hope everything is going well for all you wherever you are.  It was sad to hear about Sister Christensen.  A death in the family is always hard for the family, but it sounds like all is well!  Those were some wonderful quotes you gave me from the funeral mom.  Elder Holland is such a good man, and has such a strong testimony.  Dad, thanks for the letter.  I'll answer those questions in a bit.  Mom, continue working hard with your exercise and work.  Your hard work will pay off.  Anthony, it was good to get your email.  Keep working hard these next few months.  Spencer, have as much fun as you can this summer.  You'll always think back to the memories you had. (Convince mom and dad to let you go to cali one of these summers:)  )  Julia, keep up the hard work. I don't know what your plans are . . . soccer/volleyball, but whatever it is, play your best in each game like it were your last.  Landon, keep up the scouting.  Work your hardest and keep smiling
So this past week was pretty exciting.  Last Tuesday, William R. Walker came and spoke to us at the devotional on the 10 things to do in order to become a successful missionary.  It truely gave me the desire to work a lot harder.  Wednesday, not much happened besides the missionaries coming in.  Thursday, we found out that both of our teachers were ditching us.  One of them, Brother Barton, has been working here for 3 years and so he can no longer work here.  He is honestly the coolest guy ever.  We already have a ping-pong game, basketball game, and golf tee time set up for when I get back.  So I'm pretty excited! If you got my memory card, there should be a picture of us with him by the big map of the world.  Our other teacher, Brother Prier, thinks that getting married is more important than teaching us (ha ha), and so he is running off with his fiance this weekend to get married in the Idaho temple.  So we now have two new teachers, one we haven't met yet.  Saturday was probably the longest day.  It was our final lesson with Brother Barton, and I didn't want him to leave.  We asked him a ton of questions about Taiwan and his life.  Pretty fun!  After that, we had a Fourth of July celebration.  Some guy, I forgot his name, came and talked to us.  He has worked with a few of the Presidents of the USA and so he's pretty legit.  After he spoke, each of the different countries flags were marched up to the front of the meeting while some bag-pipe players played.  It was awesome!  After that, they let us go outside (inside the MTC boundaries of course) and watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks.  There are some pics of that too.  (OH, DON'T DELETE ANY OF THOSE PICS. I need to print some out for some people).  Sunday was the 2nd fast Sunday at the MTC.  It was a rough day for me.  I was honestly starving by 9 in the morning, but that is part of fasting.  We had a nice mission conference, which is pretty much a stake conference, with all the missionaries.  It was seriously the longest meeting I've ever been to, or at least it seemed that way.  Right before we had sacrament meeting, the power went out.  Our entire sacrament meeting was held with 2 little lights, which was a little different.  After sacrament meeting, I went on my usual temple walk.  It was so weird, I go up right next to the temple and I see my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  It was good to see all them!  The devotional that night was probably the best devotional ever.  Julia is gonna be jealous... Jenny Oaks Baker came and played for us.  She is so good at the violin.  She played and talked and played and talked and I loved it.  At the end she had her young children play a song for us.  One played the piano, one played the cello, and another one played the violin.  They were amazing!  And that brings us to now.  Just gonna have a relaxing day!
So to answer your questions dad...I don't really care what music and talks you give me.  At this point, I have come to love any music that I can listen to.  So as much as you can put on there.  Also, ENYA :) I already have a copy of my sacrament talk so I won't need that.  Right now I don't have a device to record audio (talks and other things right now)  I don't know how much those things cost, but I think they may have some at the bookstore here.  So I'll check. I still need to write Grandpa Smith.  Mom, don't send me new shoes right now.  I'm fine with what I have.  The memory card...if you need me to explain any pictures I can. I received my bag from Missionary Mall and it works perfectly. So thanks.  Um, if you have to send one final package, make sure there is a bag of peanut M&M's. Well I love you all, Elder Smith