From the Peru MTC

¡Hola a todas personas!    ¡Estoy fantastico!    ¿Y uds?                    Well, the MTC here is great!   I´m adapting to the food, I am making lots of Gringo y Latino friends, and there is just an overwhelming spirit of welcome and brotherhood here between the missionaries.  (Well, I guess sisterhood for the sister missionaries)                                                            Ok, overall it´s been nice.  We have class for the greater part of the day, which usually is just personal study, companionship study, or teaching our ´teacher investigators´.     And my spanish is coming along well, I´m probably speaking it the majority of the time with what little I can pull out of my spanish brain bank, but I find that I´m alot better at speaking during lessons than I am at normal conversation.      So, today is our P-Day, and at around 2:30 we get to go into the outside world to shop!   The money here is called Soles, and about 1 US dollar is 3 soles, but the prices fluxate and right now it´s about 1.7 soles per 1 dollar.    And the people here are great.  yes, I can only understand a small portion of what they say, but when they talk to me they use less complex language so that I may converse properly with them.  It´s swell!  And all the Latinos are way shorter than all the norteamericanos, one of them (Elder Pingo) was about half my height!   And thier names are sweet, for example, one elder´s last name is Llamacponcca.   Try saying that!    Our classes are split up between the NorteAmericanos and the Latinos, so I have an English speaking class, although we speak spanish as much as we can anyways.  And in that class I have another Trio!  Woot! (Elder Tuckett and Elder B      )                                           Well, also the spirit here is just as strong as the spirit in Provo.  I guess that{s just a trait that all MTC´s carry.   And I´ve also had a couple opportunites to feel the spirit.  One time was when we (my NotreAmericano companions) were teaching our ´mock´ investigator about The Atonement, and I after I said my bit, and my companion began to speak I got a rushing feeling that it was the right time to bear my testimony... but my other companion started to pick out a scripture and I dropped the idea, I don{t know why I didn´t go with that feeling, but it also turns out afterwards that our teacher said the lesson went very well... except that we should´ve bore our testimony in the lesson.  So, I´m glad it was just a practice exercise, but I learned, even in that small instance that I gotta do what I need to do when I feel a prompting.  And the neat thing is, I don{t think I´ve ever really had a promping so specific, i have always been able to feel the spirit when it is present, but this experience was very good for me.                                                                                           Well, I´m also on a timer in here, so I´ll hurry up my final answers: that native language my companion (elder Farinango) speaks is Quechua  (in peru there´s another language named Quichua), Good luck on your Preschool, you gotta send me some pics once you get it going, and good luck to Sidney, what day is she getting married?   And people here just discovered I could draw, and now everyone is requesting for me to draw them stuff!   I{ve already done 3 pics in hymnbooks, a drawing of one missionaires girlfriend, and about 4 more requests!  God blesses us with talents, and I´m learning that they need to be shared, whether you want to or not.               And lastly, hang in there Madison, you have a good heart and endure well.  If you strive to be kind with others, that same kindness will return to you tenfold.                  I love you guys, you are awesome, and I´ll try to attach a pic of Elder Farinango   (we can only take pics outside and on P-day.   Ciao!)                                           Elder Sanders.                                             

Eden makes it to PERU ! #5

Greetings to all! I am no longer a denzin of the United States, for as I as write this, I am here at the Peru MTC ready to absorb the gospel like a sponge of righteousness!  The flights themselves went nicely, on the first one I sat next to this old Dentist who served in the war who was going to Alabama, and on the second I sat in the midst of a group of girls who were going to Peru for a service expidition.  Pretty neat.  The very first moment of getting out the plane was the weirdest: seeing a wall of ads in a different language.  ¡Loco!  The airport went by smoothly and we were able to be escorted to our MTC mobile, or a spanish version of Charter buses we have in the US.  The air in Peru is very cool, a little thick and always slightly foggy, and it´s 100% overcast 24/7, and I hear when the sun manifests itself it is ´a rare delight´.  The city was also a brand new sight for me.  Every other block was either fancy or completely run down poor, with random walls of graffiti and large movie posters with exquisite pavilions.  It was just like the apartments you see in movies where it looks like old rooms slapped together and held together by glue and paper.  They had a few American resturaunts, and alot of KFC´s.  On the bus I was thinking how odd it was that we hadn´t seen a McDonald´s yet and as I turned around I beheld a 3 story hotel looking McDonald´s mansion.  Later, I got to the CCM (spanish for MTC) at about 2 am, which should be 1am in Utah time, and entered my dorm.  There´s 6 people to a room, and this MTC is way newer than the one in Provo, but significantly smaller.  The whole thing is only 3 buildings with a courtyard, basketball court, and an utterly spectacular, netted, astro-turf soccer field with stadium lights.  I CANNOT WAIT to play on it, although all the native missionaries are probably going to destroy me with thier exceedingly great skills. 

 

And Mom (and Dan) is going to love this, but my companion is a member of the Ecuadorian indian tribe where they speak (I don´t know how to spell it but here´s how it sounds) ´keechua´´  and he has the whole long hair bit and everything!  I´m excited to get to know him, because right now it´s really tough to do anything because my spanish is as lame as a moldy tortilla.  But by this rate, I´ll learn it in no time!  (I´m already speaking it about 40% of the time here, and there¨s alot more Americanos than I was anticipating)  But everyone in my room is Latino, and I feel lost pretty much the whole time.  I can put together senteces pretty easily, but for some reason I have a really tough time just trying to understand what someone said.  My comprehension skills are not balanced to my creative thought processes.  And the food isn¨t hard to adapt to either.  In fact, it was really good.  And I learned that whatever food you put on your tray, you need to eat, because I heard the chef will yell at you and make you go back and eat the whole thing.  Good life skills.

 

And I¨ll say, last night and this morning I had never felt so homesick.  The concept of literally being in an entirely different continent (sort-of) really hit me, but I think I´m doing better now.  I miss you guys SO MUCH.    Today´s schedule is really laid-back thankfully, at the Provo MTC I think I was in my classroom with in 15 minutes of arriving. But here, everything is way more laid back.  Then again, that´s probably because there´s only about 150 missionaries here.  In Provo they have about 2600. 

 

And another really cool thing about this CCM is that every Saturday we get to go out in the city and practice proslyting to people.  It is pretty much the real deal. I´m excited to do it just because my Spanish is so poor, and it will be a very interesting and rather fun opportunity.  Then, by the time I can really speak the language, I hope to bear my testimony to all that I can say it to. 

 

All in all, I don´t have my journal so I don´t any specific doctrine to share in the letter this time, but I´ll bear my testimony that the Lord cares for us.  As foriegn as this place truly is to me, I know that I´ll be both building myself and others that I interact with, whether it be church investigators or whoever reads these letters.  Once again, you guys are fabulous, both Family, Friends, and Fans (if any Youtubers got my message!).      My new P-days are on Wednesday, so I´ll write e-mails to you then.  (and it´s pretty much hopeless to send packages, so don´t worry about it, I´ll try to send those letters/pictures I wrote on the plane as soon as I can get some stamps, plus, I´ll try to send some digital pictures next week)

 

¡Nos Vemos a todos personas!  ¡Ciao!

 

-Elder Sanders

Elder Sanders flight plans :)

Hello family!      I got your package full of goodies (Thanks Mom and Madison!) and all the letters so far, and I haven't gotten my VISA yet, but I'll explain that at the bottom of the letter.

 

This e-mail is just a recap of how Wednesday is going to go:   I wake up at 6 AM, and head to the airport, my flight leaves at around 8:50, and then I'll fly to Atlanta Georgia.  I should arrive there at about 4 to 5 O'clock, which I'm pretty sure is in Utah time, but it might be in Georgia time.  I'm pretty sure it's at around 5:00, but keep your phone handy. I'll call the house first, and if no one answers I'll go to cell phones.   After that I get on a plane to Lima Peru at 5:30pm and arrive at 11:00am.  That's it for Wednesday, and after my 6 weeks are over, on September 5th we fly back to Atlanta Georgia for our VISA's, and then we can fly down to Ecuador.  (THAT will be a long day... plenty of letter+sketch time though!)   

 

So, I can't wait for our phone call, today I'm doing laundry and tomorrow I'm packing, and it turns out Elder Tempest has a toothache so we get to leave campus in a shuttle for the dentist at 2:30,  we get to see the outside world! :)  

 

Other than that, I think I now have enough candy to last my until Christmas (it was very kind!)   And I appreciate all the letters I get, (which, by the way, did you guys get my letter home with the letter for the cousins, and Erik, did you get my hand-written one?  I wrote it before I sent last weeks e-mail and missed the mailtruck because our P-day time is later in the day!)    

 

So, I think now I'll check the e-mails you guys sent me (I only have 20 minutes left to read them, that's why DearElder is better because there are no time limits and I can read them whenever!)    and I can't wait to speak to ya!  Which, I can only do so for about 10 minutes, so have a question list ready beforehand, 

 

The book is blue,

The Church is True,

         &

LOVE YOU ALL! 

 

-Elder Sanders

Week #3

Hello to All!  

 

This week has been mighty!   It's a new feeling once you get used to being at the MTC, the days seem extremely long, but the weeks pass by really fast.  How does that work?  I dunno, it's great either way. 

 

NEXT: Thanks to all those who sent me letters!  They are as exciting as finding a brick of gold in a McDonald's playpark.   Chantel: That was a great letter, it really takes me back to when we were young, thanks!  Meikalya: That painting was awesome!  I tacked it up on the wall where I study in my room, send me more as you make em!  Madison: Great letters Madison, I love how you much you love to send me letters that say how much you love me.  And I'll take you new bet on... I get on the plane next week!  Mom & Dad: You're letters are definitely close to my heart, I"m saving them all up, so I'll have a treasury by the end of my mission!

 

So: At about 8:00 AM, August 3rd, I'm going to be on a plane to Atlanta Georgia, and then get on a plane to Lima, Peru a couple hours after I get there.  That's a lot of sketch time, so I'm excited.  It's so weird that I'm going to be leaving here in less than a week, it really feels like I've been living here a whole semester! 

 

My Spanish is coming along as usual, and we're getting more opportunities to practice teaching, role playing is proably the best way to learn how to really talk to people in the Mission field. 

 

(And yes: I got your package, Vinegar+Oil and Socks!  Woot! (I'll read the letters that came with it after I write this, because time is as precious as the Ring is to Gollum ;) )

 

And Ok, this is going to take up the majority of the letter because it was by far the most most memorable day so far:

 

K: Monday was like a roller coaster of emotion, I think I went from being really tired (and a little sick, we've had a bug spread from one person to another in our classroom, but I'm good now) from feeling exciting, to glum, to happy/spiritual, to homesick/dreary, to NIRVANA!  So, we've been teaching an investigator named Casey (Acted by our teacher Hermana Alvarez) we had done a horrible job on Saturday because we didn't really keep the spirit and lost the purpose of the lesson, and we reviewed it Monday.  We got a very blunt explanation that we would've 'lost the investigator' if it actually was in the field, and we were all glum  (but in the lesson the next day, we did a spectacular job at keeping the Holy Ghost and did very very well!)   so, we were down for a bit, and were later revived by the sweet power of prayer, and after that, I was in my happy/spiritual stage.  

 

But before our next class session, I got a bit homesick and was lost in thought, and our other teacher, Bro. Urquhart, gave us a unique activity to do. He told us to go outside, find a quiet seclusive place, and answer 2 questions to ourself:  What is my greatest desire, and how can I be worthy to acheive it.  He gave us a half and hour, and our trio found a nice spot on the other side of the building facing the valley.  Within about 5 minutes of thought, the overcast sky began to swirl together, wind whistled dramatically around the brickwall, and low rumbling of thunder and light rain filled the air with brilliance.  I absolutely adore stormy weather, and while I was thinking very deeply, I had the immense pleasure to be immersed in a fantastic one.  The air smelled sweetly of rain, large bells from BYU rang in the distance, and I was in complete harmony with the world. Simply put, it was very Cinematic, or to say...    Epic. I absolutely would've wished I could've been out there an hour, and the experience made me absolutely lively for the rest of the evening.      

 

All in all, i learned ALOT that day, from spanish to how to teach people properly to being close to God. 

 

 

As for other thoughts, in Tuesday's fireside we had a member of the 70 talk to us about accpting the holy ghost, and on Sunday a guy from missionary management (?) showed us a bunch of 'Mormon Messages' (those awesome church commercials) and gave us plenty of cool quotes.  Here's some you guys will like:

 

"If you put yourself down, you offend God"

 

"Whatever you do, do your best"

 

"It's not who you aren't, it's who you are. And being yourself is great."

 

"Selfishness destroys service"

 

-Firesides are always the best, and I'm finally getting into shape!  an hour of fútbol y correr cinco dios de la semana really helps you feel great about feeling good.

 

 

 

So, in essence, I'm doing great, I'll see if I can do some more hand letters, and Dad, I'll print out and read your e-mails too (I only have a few minutes left!) 

 

CIao!

 

-Elder Sanders

Elders SANDERS first LETTER !!!! Week #2 !

Hola amigos y familia! 

 

First off, I'd like to thank everyone (especially Mom & Dad) for the letters sent this week, they were great!  And an extra thank-you to Tony & Paul Coffaro, Silvia, Eli, and all other cousins and famila who have me in thier thoughts, I'm praying for you guys also.  And I did get the package, and I shall say: ¡bastante gracias!  The peachie-o's were great!

 

Ok, I'm going to hurry, because we only have 30 min to write e-mails, and I only have 27:30 min left!

 

Before experiences, here are answers to your questions: 1- I'm very good (tired half the time)   2-Elder Tempest is from Draper, UT, and Elder Blackwelder is from Orange County California 3- I do have a locker so my personal stuff is safe 4- I usually pray at 10:30 every night (right as I go to sleep) 5- at this point I'm not worried about traveling to Peru/Ecuador, now I'm super worried about learning the language in time!  Cause as soon as I get off the plane, 100% español.  6-Yes, I get the DearElder letters every day, so keep 'em coming!  (My Preperation days are on Thursdays, so that's the only time I can write to you guys) 7- I haven't seen any general authorites yet, but we've had 2 firesides so far: Sunday and Tuesday, and they magnificently great!  8- To Mom, yes, sister Ghent remembered you, and she is President Ghent's wife's sister.  9- Spiritual experiences?  Yes.  All this time I've been learning that the most important thing to do while teaching discussions to others is the sheer power of the Holy Ghost.  It is by far more important to have the spirit than to have a lesson ready, and it is the REAL teacher when spreading the gospel.  While doing discussions in Spanish in our class, there have been about 2 times when someone will be teaching in Spanish, and I have some difficulty in understanding what they are saying, but when they testify, and the spirit overwhelms the room, everyone could feel it, and it was strong.  Although it was in a foreign language, I could still strongly feel the spirit.  10- Yes, I do need something.  Just some more while ankle socks, I only brought 2 pairs but turns out I need one every day for GYM.  So.. I'd say about 4-5 extra pairs would be enough, they usually don't get dirty enough to wear once then wash. 

 

 

Essentially, the MTC is just stupendous.  I've finally overcame apadtion to my classes and schedule.  Personal study is always a great time to think, and classes with our District are great for learning to teach as a group. During language study, everyone pitches in by helping each other out with the language and flash cards, and our teachers know the right things to say to us.  

 

-And cool story: on Saturday, all of our District went to choir practice (very optional, about 200-300 out the 2600 missionaries here attended it,  I think)  and Elder Tempest and I were the only ones left.  So, we were eating dinner in a less than busy lunchroom because most of everyone was still at choir practice, and an old couple came and joined our empty table with cookies and milk.  Who were they?  The MTC president and his wife!  They are both extremly kind and caring, and while everyone else was busy singing, the 2 of us had a very neat experience having dinner with the leader of the Training Center.  (I guess they do that kind of thing alot,  the other day the Devotional Pianist and her husband joined our table)

 

And I will say.. Sunday was the longest day of the week,  not in a bad way, but just literally.  The day consisted of meetings, study time, and interviews, but for some reason, it just stretching time to a screetching halt, after lunch was over, I seriously thought it was time for bed, and in my mind it truly felt like 7pm, but it was only 1!  Crazy EH!  And the fireside in the evening was a sight to behold, about a thousand missionaries singing their soul out to the Song, "Called To Serve"

At the MTC, we do it very differently.  The song is altered to be longer with an extra chorus, but we start the first verse extremely quiet, almost under our breath, growing louder with each verse as if we were "an army slowly marching from behind a hill onward" and at the start of the last verse, every stands up and exerts all their self to sing as powerfully as possible.  (Quick note to Erik, the most goose-bumps ever, you're gonna love it!)  And I guess it's pretty rare, because they only do that about every 2 months, and my I wish you could've been there.   And not only that, but the talks themselves were pure inspiration, I was stunned!  (and eventually drew pictures of all the speakers later :)    

 

So, it looks as if I'm almost outta time, but I'll send an additional letter with photos in it for everyone (I can't do it through the computer, so far as I know yet, and they gave us a set of Spanish scriptures, a Spanish 'preach my gospel', and a water purification water-bottle!) 

 

¡Adios!       (which if you break it down,  A-Dios,  'A' means to, and 'Dios' means God.  So Adios sorta means, 'With God' , neat huh?)

 

-Elder Sanders