MTC departure into the land southward

Garrett is unable to write this week because he has departed the MTC and is traveling to Mexico.  He reports to the Reynosa Mission home anytime now.  He wishes to thank those that sent him the goodies, packages and letters while he was in the MTC.

Elder Smith arrives in Reynosa.

Week 5 MTC - Spanish, Soccer, and Pro-Bowler Chad Lewis

And a wonderful week it has been. I am four short phrases from having the lesson 1 phrases and vocab memorized. It really helps with learning Spanish to have sentences memorized that you know are written correctly. I have other stuff to memorize in Spanish as well, which is tough. Because first you have to know what it means in English, plus you don't know how every word sounds so that is difficult kinda. But I have D&C Section 4(halfway done with that), our purpose, first vision, and baptismal invitation. Those aren't to long though. We had some really great lessons this week. We have made some good progression with our mock investigators. The surety of getting on a plane in less than week to Mexico is only slightly frightening. We have to be at the office at 2:30 AM, and we don't get to Reynosa until 6:00PM. So that's gonna be a long day for sure.

Gym time is a wonderful time. When our district decided to play soccer I was a little irked because I wanted to ball. I was wrong though soccer is the bomb. There are some elders here who are just so good haha. The goals are like 6th grader size, and it is still so much fun.

We went to the temple today which was great. A long wait though there are a lot of people in there.

The MTC mystery sickness made her way to our room this week. So that has been really fun.

The devotional this week was really great his name was Chad Lewis. He played for BYU and a pro-bowler on the eagles. He had cool stories about Andy Reid and how Reid used a conference talk one time during an emotional team meeting.

It is crazy to think we will be south of the border so soon with our limited lingual knowledge. But I know that our lackings will be compensated for. 

I love you all and keep you in my prayers!

Week 4 MTC - Art Rascon influence. It's a small world...

So it has been a month. There is a saying here that the days are slow but the weeks fly by. And it really is true as weird as it sounds. Life here at main campus is fairly different. But the schedule is the same. Still class and work. But class this week was really great. We got into some really cool doctrinal stuff. We had a devotional last night by the head of church media. 

So the food here is a million times better. Classes are much closer. We have a real gym rather than concrete. But we have a lot less freedom. 

We went to the temple today which was really great. Oh! And for all who know Art Rascon, I taught his parents. In a mock situation of course. But it was really cool. Twice a week we teach volunteers pretending to be members or investigators. I mean the MTC has a lot more resources than I anticipated. And I walk in there sit down, see Rascon and just ask if their son is Art. When they yes we talk in English for like 10 minutes about who I am and how their son showed our priest quorum around ABC and how awesome I thought it was. And teaching them was cool as well. 

P'day is now Monday with the move. It is a bit intimidating that I ship out in two weeks. I feel completely unprepared haha.  I want to write letters to people I juist hardley have any time. I´ll try to be better. It is inspiring to think there are people that have been prepared for me to find and teach just living and doing daily things right this instant. 

Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement, and may God bless you.

Week 3 MTC - move and mock teaching with David Archuletta. Also my unit changed to #374 with the move.

I have been rightly corrected  for my misspelling of week in Spanish. S/O to andrew for that. But don't let that mistake make you think I'm not progressing because I am..even if it is slowly haha. I memorize a lot of phrases in English and then Spanish. Our teacher and PC programs teach us grammar and help teach us gospel principles and missionary/teaching skills. 

My companero and I are doing well with our two investigators. One has committed to baptism, but the other has thousands of doubts. With our handicapped communication abilities, it is sooo much harder to be able to teach all of a lesson. The only thing we can do is rely on the Spirit to help us and hope that the mock investigators have mercy on our horible spanish. They do though, help us a lot. It is gonna be so different when we hit actual mexico haha. This week we had a great devotional from this ex-pro bowler NFL/BYU player who had some great stories. 

General Conference is pretty different in the MTC. It was a really great experience and I learned a lot. The district is moving to Main campus tomorrow so we have to pack tonight, which will be super fun. 

Oh I almost forgot! Our district got to do TRC,  "teaching" investigator, to David Archuletta. That was pretty cool he is singing in the new movie movie meet the mormons which apparently we're not allowed to watch haha. 

The food here is still the same, which isn't too bad but I am really looking forward to the food in Mexico.

Not much else to tell, except in less than three weeks I'll be out of the country. Somewhat frightening to me. I am super excited though.