Dear Familia,
Wow, sorry I have not sent letters very often. Here at the MTC they have every minute of
your day planned. It is a lot of fun
here, but it is very frustrating at the same time. It is crazy for me to think as I am writing
this letter that I have 11 days until I’m going to Guatemala. I don’t even know what the word Espanol
means. It’s pretty scary. For real though, the Spanish is so hard and
they do not go easy on you. We had to
start teaching an investigator as soon as we got here. Do you know how much Spanish I knew? Zero!!!
Talk about awkward silences.
Our district had a rough start too because our teacher has
been sick a lot and we had Confrencia General so I think we are a little
behind. All the Spanish speaking
missionaries are always jealous of the English speaking missionaries because
every time we get to speak in English we can feel the Spirit and we feel
peaceful.
We had our last lesson with Aurora (our first investigator)
last night. We tried hard for her to
accept baptism. By the way, she is
Catholic so when we invited her to be baptized she said she had already been
baptized by the Catholic Church. So,
with my limited Spanish I offended her pretty good. After she said she had already been baptized. I looked at my companero and I knew I was not
going to be able to say this nicely. I
said, “Iglesia de Catolic tiene no poder de Dios.” That’s not good. It means, “The Catholic Church does not have
the power of God.” Anyway, she got mad
but luckily we were able to smooth that over.
After that, the lesson went pretty well.
Also, I wanted to talk about District Leaders. In the MTC it doesn’t mean too much. All I do is conduct meetings, get mail 2
times a day, interview senior companions, make temporary companion changes and
be an example. It has been good for me
because it keeps me in line, because even here at the MTC there are
temptations. Like during TALL time,
which is a computer program for learning the language, some missionaries just
go on YouTube and watch Mormon Messages.
It is tempting. You are allowed
to, but they do it at the wrong times. But
I do listen to Come Thou Fount over and over on LDS.org. (Jakob's favorite hymn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPw7-QniaDQ) I really was blessed with an obedient
district.
I have had some rough times though because often I don’t
think I’m good enough. I have learned
that sometimes I go too hard on myself. So,
I just don’t pay attention anymore and I’m doing great. My companion is great. His name is Elder Mauter. He is from Arizona. He is swoll as they would say. Swoll means buff/ripped. He wrestled in school. He is quiet, but he is a great Elder. By the way, they have
arm wrestling champs and there was an Elder that was the champ. His name was Elder Moser. Funny, huh?
But, he is about 5’2” or 5’3”, but last night Elder Mauter smoked him.
I can’t begin to explain to you what the residence halls are
like after we are done for the days. It
is mayhem crazy. Everyone has been in a
really small classroom all day and they let it all out. They set up tie marker and they are yelling
and fighting but it is so funny! We have
an Elder in our district named Elder Barrett.
He is so funny. He always lifts
our spirits.
Our district is made up of 4 Elders going to Antofagasta
Chile, 4 Elders going to Quetzaltenango, 2 Sisters going to Chile, and 2
Sisters going to Costa Rica. We have so
much fun.
Thanks so much for the package!!! It was great.
(Package talk….)
I would love it if you sent me inspirational things and
parts from that book, Mom. Also, oh
yeah, I didn’t tell you guys. The first
week we had Elder Bednar for my first speaker.
It was cool. If you get the
chance try to look up his talk named, “The Character of Christ.” Oh my gosh.
It’s incredible. It might be hard
to find because it was given in the MTC on Christmas. It is the coolest thing I have ever
heard. I am going to try to get it here. (http://www2.byui.edu/Presentations/transcripts/religionsymposium/2003_01_25_bednar.htm
I think this is it. I already forwarded
to him.)
Tell everyone I love them.
Tell Peeps I love him and I miss him.
Tell Keech to keep it up and stay strong. And Mom and Dad…love you guys so much. Thanks for everything.
Elder Reinhold
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