Week 3 February 22, 2014

This last week was full of excitement! Sunday was literally one of the best days of my life. The Sunday night Fireside was given by President Holland of Utah Valley University. He gave one of the best talks about the Prophet Joseph Smith that I have ever heard. He had a few stories that I had never even heard of before, from Joseph's childhood. But what made the talk even better was the UVU institute choir that came to sing at certain parts of him talk. In the middle of the talk, one guy who was playing the part of John Taylor singing in Carthage jail for Joseph Smith before he was martyred, sang a solo of my favorite Hymn, "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief". It drove me to tears. Then at the end of the talk, the UVU choir joined the MTC choir that I was singing in, and we all sang "Praise to the Man". But, I haven't even said the best part of the night. Elder Holland came to see his son speak! He himself only spoke for a couple of minutes, mostly just to introduce his son, but the spirit that an Apostle of the Lord can bring into a room is incredible! I have been in the same room as an Apostle before, and it is always incredible. But, it means a little bit more when you are a missionary. Then, after the program he blew us all a kiss, which went straight to my heart.

On Wednesday, I got my travel plans in the mail to go to Las Vegas yesterday. So, I only got two days notice, but it was really great. 

On Friday Elder Gibb, Hermana Boone (two missionaries in my district), and I had to be at the bus at 4:30 a.m. to go to the airport to go to Las Vegas. The reason we had to go was that we had to make a personal appearance at the Mexican Consulate there in order to get our visas. The day was super long, we flew to Vegas and back all in one day, but we did get to go to all of the great sights of Las Vegas...like the airport...Burger King...and The Mexican Consulate. And, I did get my visa! so I am going to go straight to Mexico in just a few weeks! 

The Consulate was really kind of weird. We were told that we had to know exactly where we were going in Mexico, and to have a good explanation of why we were going. The missionaries who go to the Consulates in Boise and Salt Lake all were questioned, and sometimes they even deny people their visas. But in Vegas, they just take your picture and your finger prints and you are set in like 15 minutes. I didn't have to say a word, so that was really nice. But afterwards we had to wait in the airport for 4 hours, because we got done early, and to top it off, our flight was delayed an hour for some reason. 

Another cool thing that happened this week was when we walked onto the plane to Las Vegas on Friday. Elder Gibb turned to me and said, "that guy over there just took a picture of us". I didn't know which guy he was talking about, and I thought it was a little strange, but not too much, because while we were in Salt Lake people came up to talk to us about our missions all the time. But then I looked and saw that the "guy" who took a picture of us was actually my cousin Justin! It was really cool to be able to see him, and to talk with him a little bit after the plane ride. And then while we were waiting to board the plan going home, he bought some Bundt cakes for all of the missionaries that went to Vegas that day. It was super sweet! And the Bundt cakes were really good. 

Today was another P-day, so I got to go to the temple again today which was amazing. I am also getting a haircut in a few minutes, so we will see how that goes. Spanish is coming fairly well, and my lessons are getting better and better every day.

Elder Earl

Oh ya! I would like to thank Bro. Jones for sending me a Dear Elder this last week. It was really great! Thank you for taking the time to do that. It meant a lot.