Week Four - What a Week and Singing in Choirs!

Baseball buddies! David and Elder McCardle!

Epic missionary march to the devotional at The Marriott Center!

Elder Williams and Elder Powell - companions!

Elder Sorensen, Elder Adams and Elder Williams!

Elder Williams on the walk!

The twins!  Elder Lambert and Elder Williams.

Good friends!  Elder Lambert, Elder Williams and Elder Pinegar.

Texas or bust!  

Holy smokes!  What a week!!!

   I'm not positive, but i would imagine that before I left you had a favorite day of the week:  monday.  Now, you have two!  I have lots to tell you, so ima just type as rapido as i can.  Brace yourself. 

     I got your package yesterday.  Thanks for the mints, and those cookie bars are amazing!  Everyone else that has had one agrees. Thank you, it sure beats anything they serve for dessert here! 

  Elder Leavitt, the big guy, is going to Phili, sorry i thought i told you that already.   He got a way bad case of strep throat last week, and all three of them were quarantined to there room for two days!  So it was a little lonely in class for a bit.  But our district gave him a blessing.  I didn't say anything, but I got to participate and it was really neat!   So Monday, I started feeling a little something in the back of my throat at dinner.  I prayed i wasn't getting sick, but it got a lot worse, kept me up a lot with some weird half awake/half asleep dreams where i was worried about getting other people sick!  When I woke up, on a scale of 1-10 it was probably a 6.  So I went to the health clinic to get it checked out yesterday afternoon, more as a precautionary measure than anything.  They did a strep test on me, and it turns out.......no strep!  But i do have a mild infection that causes a soar throat and congestion.  It's more annoying than anything, and he told me there is nothing i can do for it other than baby it.  He gave me permission to sleep in and skip a class to take a nap if need be.  Haha!  but i haven't done either of those things.  That would be selfish of me.  Allergies have been acting up a wee bit as well. 

     Last night i got to participate in an MTC first:  we had a devotional at the Marriot Center, the byu basketball stadium.  We have it there now cuz there are too many missionaries to fit in the gym here at the MTC.  We walked there, and it was quite the sight to see 3-4000 missionaries walking the streets of Provo.  Actually, it was more like across one street and two parking lots, but it was loco!  I took some pics, I'll send if i have time.   Tuesday night devotiionals usually start with an MTC choir number, about 600 missionaires strong, first come first serve.  Last night, the choir at the marriot center was 1500 missionaries, and i was one of them!  it was neato, but I couldn't sing with all my heart like i wish i could because of my throat.  The devotional was given by Mervyn B. Arnold, a real sweetheart of the 70.  Gave us tips on how to serve with no regrets.

    The big event on the 23 is the WorlWideMissionBroadcast, or something like that.  It is going to be at the Marriot Center, and it is going to be huge!  Monson and all the rest of them are going to be there and speaking.  They want a choir of 1100 missionaries from the MTC, combined with 1100 members that are serious singers.  I'm going to be in it!  The mtc choir director is the most karismatic man i have ever met, he said any good camera man is going to get EVERYBODYs face on camera, and the video of us is going to be on the church website for eternity.  You should look into it and try to watch it!  it will be EPIC!

      On sunday we watched a video of a devotional given by David A. Bednar called The Character of Christ.  it was pretty much lige changing, but i forgot my notebook so i couldn't take notes.  He talked about how Jesus Christ turns outward, when the natural man would turn inward.  He decscribed the natural man as the Cookie Monster:  "I want cookie NOW!  ME ME ME!"   He does a great cookie monster impression.  But we need to develop the character of Christ to be good missionaries.  We won't find ourselves until we lose ourselves.  I'm going to watch it again this sunday when i have my notebook!

     Last night we got some big news:  we are moving to Y view, the west mtc campus, on tuesday.   At first i was mad, but i think it will be cool.  I will be one of the only missionaries to be able to say I stayed at both the mtc and the west campus mtc!  I look at it is one less week in the mtc, and one week experiencing something new.  We also get perks like access to jamba, great harvest and other food places over there.  It's just not going to be fun to have to pack up, un pack, and pack again sunday!  All is well though. 

     So my best friend, Elder Lambert got here last wednesday.  Before last night, i had only seen him twice, without having the chance to talk to him.  He is the first person i know here that i have such a hard time seeing!  Last night, I found him at the devotional.  Turns out, he has been living directly above me the entire time!   So i went and visited with him for a bit in his room.  He is going to be an awesome missionary if i ever did see one. 

Elder Pinegar didn't get his visa to Australia, and he got reassigned to San Antonio!  He left early early this morning. 

Elder Orgill is fine. He went to Las Vegas for a day to get his visa.  He said it was the worst and longest day of his life!  But he is loving it here probably more than me! 

I got an email from Elder Ostler.  He says he is in the hood, 3 people are killed a week in his mission, and he hasn't seen a white girl since he got there, with the exception of sister missionaries.  Haha!

While Elder Leavitt was sick, Elder Adams slept in our room for a few nights to avoid getting sick, or maybe just to hang out with us, idk.  But that was not a good idea.  We got hardly any sleep cuz we were talking all night!  But it was fun while it lasted and we made some good memories.  The trio(adams biggs leavitt) has been getting slightly discouraged lately.  They get special treatment and personal attention because apparently they aren't unified enough.  I didn't see it, but that's what our teachers think.  Our teachers keep asking us to help them and suggestions on how to help them like we are some great missionaries!?!  But i guess we are doing quite alright haha.  We got selected to teach an acting investigator in a roll play lesson infront of ALL the new missionaries  tonight.  Iyiyi...  I don't know how we got selected, but there are only like 10 companionships out of the whole mtc that got selected.  They do it every week, and choose missionaries that have been her a while.  I'm scared!  but it will be good for us, and weird too.  We aren't used to teaching in English! 

     In this last week I learned a valuable lesson.  When I am a good missionay, work hard, be obedient, and all that, my day goes mucho mejor.  I don't get tired, I am positive and upbeat and happy, and the day flies by.  When I am a bad missionary, it puts me in a blue mood, I'm tired all day long, and my day drags on like no other!  So I am trying to work with urgency and give it all i got.  It really makes a difference. 

I am also starting to see how big the atonement is.  The atonement is nearly everything!  and there is so much to it, i could study it my entire life and still not know it all.   It is more than just repentance, but an enabling power.  Through the atonement and Jesus Christ, we can do sooo much more.  My goal this week is to come to know the atonement and Jesuc Christ better, and gain a stronger testimony of it.  Feel free to look into it as well. 

well i thought my shoes just needed to be broken in, but there are just too small, the right one in particular.  I can't wear them anymore, so i am going to send them home soon.  Sorry!  Idk if i want new ones yet, I'll let you know next week.  Also, I could really use a bar of cetaphil soap, like tomorrow! 

Fill me in on the nba finals!  who is winning?  who are the game changers?  who is a bust?  I wanna know!

eso es todo.  love and miss you!  chow!

Elder D.C. Williams