MTC Week 5

Family!

Last week in the MTC!!!  To start off, let me tell you everything I know about my journey to Ohio next Wednesday...

My flight leaves Salt Lake City at 9:50 AM.  I have a direct flight to Cincinnati, and according to the info I have, I'll arrive there at about 3:11 in the afternoon.  I leave the MTC at 5:30 that morning, so if I do get the chance to call home, it'll most likely be sometime between 6:30 and 9:00 Wednesday morning.  Sorry that's so early!  And hopefully I'll actually be able to call home.  I imagine I'll get the chance, but just in case something happens, just know that because I have a direct flight and no layover, I won't have the same amount of time or opportunity to call home as other missionaries might.  But I have a phone card for the airport just in case... =)

I believe that's all the info that you'll need to know about travel!

As for this week, it has flown by!  First off, being a zone leader is quite a bit more time consuming than I thought it would be.  One of our responsibilities is to train the new districts that come into our zone during the week.  That's a really fun part, because it reminds me how far my district has come in the last few weeks.  We also go around and visit the entire zone in their apartments every night and check up on them.  That's really fun too, though it doesn't leave much time for journal writing or anything like that by the time we get back to our apartment.  It's a super fun calling though, and I have really enjoyed it.

The Spanish is actually starting to pick up!  Just a few days ago we had a day where it just clicked for our whole district and we spoke Spanish almost the entire day.  We also had the opportunity to teach a convert couple from Mexico, and we could understand almost everything they said!  Responding to them was a different story, but still!  But yeah, we only have two lessons left in Spanish before we have learned everything that they believe we need to know to effectively preach the Gospel in Spanish!

Even though the Spanish is coming, that doesn't end the adventures of trying to communicate our thoughts in Spanish during our lessons.  When I was being taught a few days ago, I was told that "God isn't literally here is this notebook, but he still cares about you" instead of "God isn't literally here in this room...”  It was kind of hard to keep character when that was said...  One of the Elders also told me that he was trying to "retirement home" during one of his lessons, but he couldn't think of how to say it, so he just said "place of the ancient people" instead. =)  So yeah, the adventures are still continuing...

As far as teaching has gone, things are going really well.  I feel a lot more confident about my teaching skills now, and I'm really ready to go out and start teaching investigators out in the real world.  We had some pretty good lessons this week, but the best one happened last Saturday.  Our investigator was going on vacation, so it was our last lesson with her for a while, and we decided to really try and help her feel the Spirit.  We had her kneel and pray with us for a confirmation of the things we had been teaching her, and afterwards we sat for a while and just felt the Spirit work.  We then started talking about how she was feeling, and we got into a long discussion about the Spirit and faith.  I was talking, and I didn't want to do anything to interrupt the Spirit in the room (plus I wasn't sure how to ask her to sit back on the couch), so I just kept on teaching while we were kneeling, and we ended up teaching her for about 10 minutes on our knees!  My knees hurt quite a bit after that...

I'm sorry that this isn't the most exciting email ever, but it is really hard to remember things here because time goes so fast.  I've had days this past week that seemed to go forever, but the minutes that I get back to the apartment, it feels like it never even happened.  I really can't even believe its Thursday again... 

Let's see...  Oh, I think Dad asked in one of his letters what kinds of games/pranks we play as missionaries, so I'll tell you one.  When we first moved into our apartment, I found a teddy bear that somebody had left under the bed.  I left it there for a few weeks, but a little while ago we decided we would hide it in the room of the other missionaries that live with us.  We have bunk beds in our apartments, so we decided we would try and scare Elder Bradford (who sleeps on the bottom bunk) with the bear.  When they weren't in the apartment, we tucked the bear into the springs of the top bunk bed so that is hanging down over the bottom bunk.  Everyone went to bed, and we just sat there, waiting to see if he would notice it.  A little while later, we heard a scream, then the door to their room opened and the bear was flung out the door!  I guess he had reached up to stretch his arms and found the bear just hanging above him in the air...  Anyways, I don't know if that's what you were looking for or if that even made sense, but there you go.

I really don't have a whole lot else to say, so I'll wrap this up.  Thanks so much for all of the packages!  They've been great, and it's been really nice to get things while here in the MTC!  If you could thank the Heer family and the Brown family for the packages they sent me that would be great!  I'll send them letters too, but if you see them, let them know that I really appreciate it.  I don't know what my mission home address is yet, but will for sure know by next Wednesday when I get there!  So if you're planning on sending me anything before then, just make sure that it can get to me by Monday preferably, but at the latest, Tuesday.

Thanks for all you've done for me, and for all you continue to do for me!  I hope I get to talk to you on Wednesday!  Love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Foote

It's a Jungle out there..

Elder Foote and Elder Maughan

Colby's district with one of their Spanish teachers