8/31/11

Here's his letter as far as I could decipher...almost need a Urim and Thummim. Names are probably wrong, but my best guesses. Enjoy!

Hey!

So I don't know where to start, so much has happened, and it sounds like things are going well down there.

First off, I'm having a lot of fun. The hardest part is trying to remind my elders to tone it down a little. There are no major problems, at least everyone gets along great. I love those elders, they are so willing to learn and go out and serve.

As far as what I do, I mentioned in my email I spend a lot of time in the classroom between studying, learning, teaching and having meetings. I have two teachers right now, Brother Ang and Brother Ellsworth. The first day I didn't have a teacher show up, one was in Singapore visiting family and the other is doing study abroad in Jordan. So Brother Marlowe and Brother Stay covered for a few days. But now things are starting to get settled. My district jokes that we are the forgotten district. We showed up to take care of a service assignment and once again nobody was there. Eventually I found the brother who was supposed to be in charge so it worked out.

Just got done with starting my laundry, it's a mad house in there, hopefully everything turns out. I'm still getting used to the whole prep day thing, and making the most of this precious time. Today has definitely been good though, to just step back and get myself sorted out.

The schedule hasn't been too hard to get used to. It helps that we are all trying to follow it. I've been waking up at 5:30 to go running with some of the elders, and it actually wasn't too hard. And yet I still have a hard time falling asleep. It's ok though, I don't feel tired much. Gym is also a great time. I finally went and found soccer the other night. The problem was most of the elders there had been playing together for at least a month.They wore me out pretty quick. Usually I just play 4-square.

One cool thing that is new is these investigators. Apparently the church hires people, (members, nonmembers) real people, to come and let the missionaries practice. I've done this twice now. I show up to the building, find the room, knock on the door, and start talking. The investigators don't break character, if it is a character. I teach two ladies, one a nonmember one a less active. So far I think Elder Romrell and I have done a pretty good job of inviting the spirit.

On top of these investigators, each of my teachers has taken on the character of one of their own investigators. It's interesting, one of my teachers has been home three months, so there we sit at the opposite ends of the spectrum. It is such a good thing they put us through that first, I learned a lot.
What is amazing to me is how well the spirit works. The second day, Bro. Marlowe had us teach him. Now, we had talked very briefly, and he pretty much left it all up to us, he didn't break character until after the closing prayer. But we did it. I feel that had it been a real investigator, they would have understood. Purely amazing.

That's not all either. Every once in a while I meet with other elders in my zone and we role playwith each other. I have done a lot of teaching, which is good, it makes me feel a lot more comfortable.

Within my zone, there are several missionaries, who are using American Sign Language, which has been really cool to watch. For the devotional the other night, two of the sisters did a musical number, both signing while one sang. It was great. I've tried to pick up on some of the language, but it's crazy. My zone leaders are actually three elders who all use sign language.

Elder Nielsen took off yesterday. I was a little sad to see him go, but I'm glad he gets to finally enter the field. We were able to get a picture before he took off, I'll try to send it sometime. It was so nice to see him around all the time and ask him questions, and just plain bugging him.

Yeah, that's about all that's going on here. The work is definitely going forth. I really appreciate all the letters.

Elder Newey

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