Week 5

Hola mi familia.

This week was a pretty chill week except for the fact that I'm slowly working my way up to control the MTC before I leave. If you have no idea what that means...it means I'm a Zone Leader effective Sunday. I'm still District Leader right now since they havent called anyone else, but receiving training from the Zone Leaders who are leaving. At the right I'm doing this, I'm should be in control in about 2 weeks. Mas o menos. The other interesting thing is that my companion Elder Mandler isn't the other Zone Leader, its Elder Hardman, one of my room mates. So we have switched companions. I already had a "transfer" and I haveen't even left the MTC yet. Elder Hardman is the one from Highland Ranch, Colorado which is really close to Denver. I really like him a lot and I feel like we will work well together. What else besides slowly taking over....hmm...

We had the TRC this week in all Spanish. That was interesting. Luckily the lady we had talked really slow, so I could understand it all, and unfortunately, my comp Elder Mandler (This was Tuesday afternoon, I found out I was a ZL and we were switching companionships Tuesday night) kinda blanked on me for good parts of the lesson, so I did a lot of talking. My Spanish is getting better. I still can't conjugate to save my life, and I'm not always sure about the sentence structure, but I can spit out words that make sense to the people who can speak Spanish and English. So I'm half way there. I think. I'm working on mastering irregular congujations, and getting down when to conjugate, so we'll see how that goes. But for 5 weeks I guess I'm in a pretty good spot. Elder Hardman and I have decided we need to be examples to the District and Zone and try our hardest to only speak Spanish most of the time. We'll see how it goes.

On Tuesday night, our Devotional was by Elder Richard G. Hinckley of the Quorum of the Seventy. Last name is familiar right? Hes a lot like his dad actually. Its was kinda crazy to watch the things he did, because its exactly what his dad did. He has the same sense of humor too. Funny man. I'll probably go more into what he said in my letter, but I think it was in Doctrine and Covenants 50:25 he quoted the last part that says something about chasing darkness away. Thats kind of what we are doing. Chasing darkness away and bringing light into the lifes of the people that we come in contact with.

Other than those few things, its been a really normal week at the MTC. Lots of studying, lots of class, and not enough sleep. We have a ton of free time (ok not free time, we still have to study, but we pick what we study) now because out schedule changed because we got a new teacher, Hermano Frandsen. Hes a real cool guy from Washington. I want to say Seattle, but I'm not sure. He served his mission to Ecuador. When we met him for the first time, Elder Maylett said "Nuevo carne", and Hno. Frandsen said bring it. It was pretty interesting. And it was Elder Hardman's birthday on Monday and he got a card that would sing "Celebrate". Quite possibly the greatest thing ever. We play it now and again for real music and dance for the solid 20-30 seconds it plays. Life saver.

Which brings me to requests. Some weird. Some not. First off, and I'm fairly serious about this. Anyone want to send me a card that sings? Or multiple cards that sing? They do wonders for us. Its weird. And maybe not now, but when I get to El Salvador send sheet protectors for letters I get. I started doing that, but I can buy them here. Not sure about there. Opens from the side preferably. Can I get a birthday list? I can remember most everyone. I dont want to forget anyone. Por favor. And silly putty. Never mind, I dont need silly putty. But can you look into small Preach My Gospels. They look so cool and handy. And easy to carry. Muchas gracías.

Anyways, I´m running out of time. But cool with the hurricane. Sounds weird, but I like them. Bad Marvin. Oh well, life goes on. Stupid tutor. Oh well, life goes on. I´m not there haha

Anyways, I love you guys and miss you. I love the letters and things that I get. Paz.

Love,

Elder Gilreath