Troubles in the MTC

So the title is very misleading if i'm talking personally. i arrived late because my plane broke before boarding and i had to go to LA and back track to Salt lack. The flight was super exhausting! 5 1/2 hours of flights, i was so tired that day. Jackie was late picking me up, technically lol. she told me to wait for her a the baggage claim, but the problem was that she was at the wrong one for 30 minutes... nice once sis. oh but it gets better! then she walked past me multiple time without either of us noticing each other, and thats my fault! We finally found each other when she had the info desk announce for me, she was so worried i missed my flight, i had a good laugh. When i finally got to the MTC, we hugged, took pics y then sent me on my way. since i was abouit 4 hours late, i had to drop allmy stuff off at the front and get my name tags and room key then straight to a meeting. i got there the last 10 minutes of it. it was for all new missionaries and i honestly didnt mind being late hahaha. after that we went to dinner and i had to get my temp companion to help with my bags. i felt so bad because they were pretty heavy, and food and candy from my wonderful sisters.

     but im loving the MTC. Most of the classes are fun and enthralling! the food is mediocre, but the MTC makes up with that by giving us papa johns and chick fil a so far. We also get ice cream out the wazoo. they just have a ice chest full of ice cream bars and ice cream sandwiches. Esta iluminado!(its lit!) I miss each and everyone of you guys, not a day passes by that i dont think of y'all. You're all in my prayers. i dont really feel sad or home sick yet, however alot of elders in my district are. i shared a room with 4-6 elders this week, Elders Lieshman, Larson, Honda. why i said 4-6 ill explain later... We get along pretty great together, we're all goofballs, i guess me more than others lol.

      Anyways, i was called as the district leader of my district, 24C. i was not expecting it, and i dont know how our branch president, president Hyde, came up with that decision... lol. im in charge of the elders y hermanas(sisters) in my district. i have to get mail and deliver it after class, and take charge of some meetings. it get me out of studying before church on sunday so im cool with it haha. dont get me wrong im studing hard here but it gets overwhelming  because you're literally studying 24/7! 

      One thing i do enjoy so much is Spanish class! our teacher is awesome! his name is brother Frampton. he served his mission in San Antonio,Texas, i think. Guys no homo, but hes muy guapo, and everyone including us elders agree... he came into our class in the morning only speaking spanish to us, which only added to his charm. but that helps soooo much! this whole week ive been learning more and more spanish, and now i feel like i comprehend  90% of the what they say when people speak in spanish. so check how crazy this is : we got in last wednesday, and that coming friday we had to teach someone, only in spanish! i missed it for a reason to be explained later but i taught the day after, saturday. it was so crazy! we teach a woman named Viviana. she lived in bolivia until about 5 years ago. im pretty sure shes an actor, no way they would just throw us into a real investigator. its just so hard to teach so early in. we werent even taught how to teach the lessons, we were just thrown in. The lack of vocabulary and knowledge of spanish made it so difficult! Anyway, the first lesson went well, i spoke pretty much the whole time because my companion at the time had no spanish experience what so ever... but i was able to teach about the atonement a bit and got a "return appointment".  We taught again on monday, and my companion, elder honda, went to teach with me. WE WERE NOT PREPARED. we werent able to teach the plan of salvation like we wanted to because we did not have everything we need in time and we didnt have it translated. we couldnt feel the spirit and it was just not fun. it dampened my mood for a couple hours. however, lesson learned, always be prepared!

       this is where we get the title folks. the last week was a rough one for 24C. During the course of 3 days, we lost 2 elders. One of them was mine, and the other was Elder honda's. let me say this, these elders did not go home for worthiness issues, they werent even sent home at all. My old companion, elder Anderson, was the most kind and cool kind of guy! he had such a strong testimony of this gospel and he WANTED to be here. for the 3-4 days he was with me, i began to love him. However, he had past existing anxiety issues that stressed him out and over the top, and he needed to go home to resolve those. he plans on coming back out when he resolves that. i dont mean to share his personal reason but i just want to share that it was not something that he could control. he taught me a valuable lesson of patience and taught me how to sympathize better with others. Even tho i had to miss a lesson with viviana and valuable class time, it was totally worth it to be able to help him at that time. i truly miss him. the other elder, elder Holland went home for reasons i dont know well enough, but it wasnt worthiness.

       last  thing. on sunday i had the opportunity to watch The characteristics of Christ, a talk given by Elder Bednar. IF YOU HAVENT SEEN THIS TALK YOU MUST WATCH IT. it was the most eye opening talk ive ever experienced. i stayed awake the whole time, and this was after a devotional i did sleep in.. by accident of course... so i was already super sleepy. ill give you the theme of it. Jesus was completely selfless, even after he was disappointed and betrayed, he continued to serve others. We have to become converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is ESSENTIAL! We must become like Christ, even when we feel like the worst things happens to us and when we are disappointed and betrayed. An interesting statistic he gave was that if we are not converted to that gospel, in 10-20 years 70% will become inactive... or something like that i cant remember. PLEASE find this and watch/read it.

Again i love and miss you all! 

Elder Bailey