Week 5 March 8, 2014

This week was a super crazy week! On Monday, Every missionary in my zone left for the field except for my district and two other missionaries. One of them left on Tuesday for some reason. The other on broke his arm on the 5th day that he was in the MTC! so he had his stay here extended by two weeks. So, he was supposed to leave the same day that I am leaving, but I will get to that later.
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> Sunday, the Branch presidency told us that starting Tuesday, The Elder that broke his arm was going to be companions with Elder Gibb. And Elder Bradley, who was Elder Gibb's companion, was going to join Elder Stensrud and I in our companionship. We were not expecting this at all. I have never heard of people getting their companion changed in the MTC like that. They also asked me to start serving as the district leader, which I accepted.
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> Then, everything got super crazy on Thursday. The elder that broke his arm had a doctors appointment in the morning, and then, during dinner, he was called to the main office by a security guard. We were all really nervous, because the only other time one of us was taken by a security guard, it was because of a death in the family. But, he was actually cleared to leave for the field! And, he was scheduled to leave the next morning! So that whole night, we were rushing around, trying to get him ready to leave.
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> On Friday, he left in the morning, and everything went back to being normal. So, I was actually in a trio companionship for three days this week.
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> The other cool thing this week was that we got two new districts in our zone! It has been really fun taking them under our wing, and explaining how things work at the MTC. It is also really fun, because around them, I feel like I am fluent in Spanish! I don't mean to be rude. It is just easier to see how much I have actually learned with them around. The gift of tongues is real!
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> Also, I am leaving for Mexico in 9 days! crazy right! My whole district got their travel plans yesterday! I leave at 7:30 on the 17th. We fly to Houston, Texas, and then straight to the Saltillo airport. There are 5 missionaries going to Saltillo. The four elders in my district, and then one other sister, that is in a whole different zone. I am super excited!
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> Spanish is coming great, and I have started to really get the hang of teaching lessons. Especially teaching about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. My companion and I taught the Restoration in Spanish to two sisters in my district yesterday, and they looked like they were about to cry. The Spirit was really strong. It also turned out that Carlos, our investigator is a member of the Church. He talked to us for a while after our last lesson with him. He said that he really enjoyed being taught by us, and then he told us a bunch of jokes. Some of them were actually really funny! we had a really good time with him. But I can't wait until I get to Mexico, and I find out just how bad my Spanish really is.
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> Well, that's all for this week.
> Love, Elder Earl

District with Elder Porter...Missionary who broke his arm in the MTC and had to stay a bit longer