So week 2 has been great!
Remember how I said I was eating like crap just because I could? I learned a valuable lesson. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. After about three days I was taking a shower and I looked in the mirror and I almost screamed out loud. So now I am not eating any ice cream or any deserts I have completely cut out all soda and juice, I limit myself to one glass of chocolate milk a day. And I work out twice a day. Once during the appointed exercise time and again when we have personal time at night. I WILL NOT BE FLABBY. Luckily they have Watermelon strawberries and pineapple to eat every meal so I chow down on that. My stomach is now happy with me again.
Most days during open exercise time we go to the gym and play volleyball, and it is so much fun. Most of the time it is low key because most aren't that great at it. But every once in awhile there are some actually really good Elders and Sisters that play. I felt bad though because the other day I was frustrated until I finally got dished a good set and then I absolutely destroyed the ball, straight into some poor kid's chest! It flew off his chest and over the net and landed in on our court. It was hilarious but I felt kinda bad. Two days before that one of the guys in our branch and I were playing long toss with a baseball that we smuggled in and we were chastised for it. But the damage was done we already had got in a good long toss session in.
We have gotten to go to the temple twice now, once a week on P-day. I love the temple it is so peaceful inside. Although personally the Portland Temple is in my opinion way more gorgeous, and way bigger. However the I love the view of the mountains behind the temple here in Provo.
The days here consist of in excess of 12 solid hours of class room time where we study, read, speak, and write in Spanish. Our investigator from the first week turned into our teacher this week. So now we have two teachers. Most days start with an hour of exercise, followed by an hour and a half of breakfast and getting ready for the day, then class for four hours, then lunch for forty minutes, then another near four hours of class, then forty-five minutes of dinner then class til nine thirty then personal time to go to bed. Toss in a lesson or two to an investigator and an hour of service one day a week and that's about it. Everyday two of those class periods are filled with a teacher, and the other is personal and companion study. Except for Sunday, where we have Sunday school, sacrament, a devotional, and then a "film." Last Sunday we went to Ephraim's rescue and there is a scene where this dude kisses a girl, two thousand missionaries started cheering, they are deprived!! This week we watched a talk by Elder Bednar title "Character of Christ" it is only available to missionaries, which is a huge bummer because it was life altering! It is so good, we are going to watch it again this Sunday, they give you like four options each week to go watch I may try to watch that every week.
At the MTC they give us practice fake investigators. We started teaching 2 new "investigators" this week. The first one is Jose, he is from Guatemala and in our first lesson I was feeling it. It is super cool to feel how the spirit works and its power when you testify. My companion and I were pouring our hearts out and all of us could feel the spirit so strong that all of us were only slightly crying. However the other one is actually our normal teach Hermano Hicks. In class Hermano Hicks is amazing he is super cool! He is very powerful and has a true love for missionary work he is also huge, I found him on the BYU roster online he plays line. The new teacher and old investigator is Hermana Southard, and she is just as strong only she is about five feet tall! Although the other day Elder Nelson called her Hermana Hicks, I had to leave the room I was laughing so hard. It killed me! She turned bright red. It was during a prayer and after the prayer I exploded in laughter with two other of the Elders that picked up on it.
The Elders in my district are awesome we have grown super close, we also hang out a ton with the district next to us. It's nice to be able to mess around and unwind with them because it feels like prison in here sometimes. If it weren't for the spirit and the fact that we are employed in the Lord's work and the fact that I get to read at least an hour everyday from the Book of Mormon I would have run away.
Last Tuesday after I emailed I went to a devotional talk given by Elder Andersen, an apostle. So needless to say that was powerful! He had a simple and wonderful message. "Missionary Work is not complicated, but it's also not easy" It was super super cool to listen to him! All the devotionals have been pretty much legit, this one was especially so.
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