Elder Morley Haley Santa Fe Argentina Mission: Week 4

Well so far Christmas is kicking me in the booty. I find myself being distracted and focusing more on home than anything else. Of course that isn't a bad thing on its own, but when we are supposed to be studying basically 24/7 and practicing Spanish all the time, home honestly isn't the priority. But, it does give me motivation to think of all my family and friends back home and everywhere these emails get sent. I know that you guys are looking out for me and expecting me to work hard and get lost in the service of others. So I'm working on that.

But other than that, the week wasn't too bad. Our fireside on Sunday was alright. A MTC service director and his family and a few friends sang the entire time. It was good. A lot of really cool guys left this week though. Its weird to think about now, because it seems like such a long time ago, but 2 older districts left on Monday and Tuesday. They went to all sorts of countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Peru, Ecuador, California, and probably some others that I can't remember right now. They were all pretty cool. When I first got here, they seemed so much older than me. But by the end of the 3 weeks that I knew them, they just seemed like old friends. I'll miss most of them.

This Sunday, my time as a District Leader came to an end. They change who it is halfway through the MTC. I loved the position. Honestly, getting mail was sometimes the best part of my morning. Even though I don't have the official title anymore, I can still serve those in my district. Monday was pretty lame because everyone left, but we had a lesson with Mauricio that went pretty well. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation and how God loves us and wants us to return to live with him. We know from John in the Bible that God gave his son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior and Redeemer. Spanish and Doctrine classes throughout the week have been really good. We are learning a lot about the different tenses and how to conjugate the words. We have also been focusing a lot on how to teach Investigators and other people with Love and Charity. We want to teach them as though they are our best friends. We have to look at them the same way our Heavenly Father looks that them.

On Tuesday, a few more people left. The people who left on Tuesday were supposed to leave on Sunday, but their flights were cancelled because of something like a power outage in the Atlanta airport. So they came back on Sunday night at dinner and gave us all a nice surprise. Our devotional on Tuesday night was really good. Elder Brian K. Taylor spoke to us on the Atonement and a little on having our own Sacred Grove experiences. It was a really spiritual message and I learned a lot. He showed a lot of pictures of the murals in the new MTC class buildings. I am planning to go around and get pictures of all the murals sometime this week and will send the pictures to you guys. They are crazy awesome and really depict the stories they are about. Right now, my favorite is the one of Moses parting the Red Sea.

Wednesday was just a normal day. Oh wait. No it wasn't! My district and I got to be Hosts for the new missionaries that came in this week. It was actually really awesome and fun. I got to Host 4 different guys. They are going to Canada, Houston, Iowa, and France. It made me feel really old and experienced to tell them about the MTC and answer any questions they had. Our lesson with Mauricio that night went pretty well. We finished teaching him about the Plan of Salvation. He finally read the Book of Mormon. We had been asking him to read for the past few lessons, and he always said he would. But when we would follow up with him, he had never read. But he read the Introduction and came with a few questions that we answered pretty well. And since then, he had started to read in Nephi and is feeling the Spirit as he does so, even though he doesn't recognized it as the spirit. He just knows that he feels more peaceful and not at stressed when he reads and prays.

Thursday was a typical day in the MTC. During exercise time that day, I realized just how out of shape I was. As I played basketball, I was basically dying trying to play defense and run for loose balls. So I started to short workouts after exercise time. A few sit ups and push ups have really helped me feel better and not as slow throughout my entire day. Our lesson with Mauricio that night was on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We got through most of it, but he had a lot of questions that we got stuck on. Before our lesson though, I said a small prayer and asked for God to help me understand what Mauricio was saying and to know what to say to answer his questions. Our lesson really went away from our plans and I was having trouble answering questions the way I wanted. So afterwards, I said another small prayer and asked my Heavenly Father why I hadn't had the lesson I was expecting. I received a small but very true answer. I just haven't been working hard enough. God can only help me if I work as hard as I can first. He's not going to just give me what I want, because I ask for it. I have to work hard and deserve his help. So I've made a goal for this week to work harder and to study better and more focused than I ever have.

Friday was good. We had our first class with Hermano Agyin. He is a really cool guy and just got off his mission from Mendoza Argentina 6 months ago. I asked him if he knew an Elder Mitch Shields and he had a big laugh and said he did.

Two of our teachers left this week for Christmas and we probably won't be seeing them again. Hermano Dickey and Hermana Christensen. I have some pictures with them, but I'm having troubles getting them on an email. But I'll work on it.

Yo se que Jesucristo es mi Salvador y mi hermano y amigo. Yo tengo un testifimonio de Su Expiacion y arrepentimiento. En mi vida, estupidos decicions dio mi sentimientos de maul o culpa. Pero, porque la Expiacion y Jesucristo, yo puedo sentir mejor otra ves. En el nobre de Jesucristo, Amen.

I may have messed some of those words up, but I hope you guys get the general message of it.

I'll work on the pictures. We will talk on Christmas day at 10:30!

Love

Elder Haley