September 20, 2012 (Week 5)

September 20, 2012

Hola! como estan? This week has gone by so fast but its getting more and more boring. Really not much to do and the journal entries are getting smaller and none of us can remember what happens every night. I'm staying in contact with an Elder Hal from my district that's in peru and he gets to play soccer under the lights as well as go tracting in the streets. i am really jealous. The MTC food really works you here and one or two elders smell like sin. We call elder Boyd the Father of all sin because 4 or 5 times a day he clears our classroom. Sometimes really wish we had hermanas (sisters) in our district... entonces... oh yeah. If you guys could print off my emails, cut out the business parts i guess but just print them out and put them in a binder. Our teachers said that was really cool to come home to. I can only hope I have more stories to tell you guys when i get in the field. I'M GOING CRAZY IN HERE. I really want to be in the field especially considering we are almost done with all the conjugations and now its a little review and then we sit around for 2 weeks like the old district that left 2 weeks ago did. That's going to be fun. I  can't even imagine being here for more than 9 weeks let alone 12. Ugh... i shiver. I get more and more excited for Mexico everytime it rains or we play soccer. Especially considering Utah and Idaho are burning we have the worst air here. We can not even see the Y somedays. Dad. thanks for the words of encouragement. I know i can't understand the natives so I'm enjoying being good at soccer here and understanding people here as well. SHEESH. chistes.

In terms of stories, not a whole lot of spirtitual, but a lot of dumb. Last p-day we shot a raquetball with excercise bands in the dorms and i volunteered to take a raquetball in the bare back for 15 bucks. I got hit on the hand, the butt, and then the last shot i allowed got me right in the back. Elder Beckert played baseball and estimated the raquetball at around 98-102 mph. So that was fun. The next day, Elder Boyd from pocatello (dad we probably drove past his house at the lacrosse tournament up there. He doensn't see why i love chubbuck so much. but yeah he showed us something that him and his friends got addicted to. Stapling his leg. so i decided to give it a try. Did it once, didn't hurt, then Elder Stahura did, and it gathered some attention and people started watching and wondering what you do. So i stapled my leg again, and then they asked, so now what? I said, you pull it out. Normally, you get two little red holes and thats it. I pulled out this staple and stared in disbelief as blood squirted out and started running down my leg in a nice flowing stream. Definetly hit a vein hahaha im fine though, got a napkin and washed it off then sat it out. I got a nice bruise from it! We really need to get out of the classroom more.

We are all heading to Veracruz except for Elder Beckert. He is going to Jalapa. It's a split off the mission, the northern half. They get the "fruit" persay, but we have the ocean and the green and the port and the mountain, whereas he has desertish spots haha. We all leave the same day. less than 4 weeks remaining.

Garrett: Take good care of the truck. I'll need it in one piece! But I'm serious about the spanish. Actually pay attention and then use it durante el verano y cada uno. It will help you alot and if you can get into the advanced class... more power to ya. haha tell Ri I say hi and for him Brad and Shay to write. those hosers havent written for 3 weeks! You have no idea how nice it is to get a letter here. Sounds like you and Ri are getting along. Take the truck and get out there and meet some new peeps. Have some fun and still enjoy being home, but also enjoy not being home and make some memories doing things all over. The memories you make are the memories you take.

Mom. love ya. Thanks for the piano songs and everything. We had a 70's general authority speakers wife talk about the stripilng warriors and how their mothers taught them. She challenged us to be the missionary our mothers raised us, and are praying for us to be. Really good talk. So on that note, thank you for raising me the way you did. You couldn't have done a better job and i hope through all my faults youre still proud of me.

Dad. I dont know what it is about actually being away from home and talking to you but i love it that much more now. Its really good to hear from you and I look forward to the dearelders and emails because I know the Lord is watching over me through you.

 On Sunday W. Tracy Watson talked to us about the BoM. at first he was animated and a upbeat and things, but then he showed us a clip from the broadway play: The book of mormon. It was the opening song in the Tony's and it was all about missionaries. It completely degraded and made fun of not only missionaries, but also the church, and they even had God's voice in it. I had nothing but disgust during the whole thing. The main actor is a returned missionary himself (inactive) and during the interview he even said this play should be rated R or above it is that bad. Watson then showed us how the church responded to this wildly popular breakout play. They put ads EVERYWHERE in NYC. on times square jumbotrons, on the subways, in the TV's in taxis, on top of the taxis, and best of all, in the Play Bill for the show, (the program) they had 4 full page ads saying: The book is better than the movie; you've seen the play, now read the book; the book is best, and so on all telling you to go to mormon.org and find out for yourself. Thats where the I'm a Mormon ads came from. Brilliant. It reminds me of the scripture in 3rd nephi i think 20;10. some chapter verses 9-10 that the lord promises to missionaries, and in it is says: I will protect them and show unto them that my power and knowledge is far greater than the cunning of the devil. It was the writers of south park that wrote the play, and im pretty sure he's the one that put the entire endowment session online as well. Best of all, i think he used to be mormon, and his wife is still active. Ironic right? But that scripture really testifies that its true. The devil put out a play putting a complete negative spin on the church, and now god gave revelation to do the mormon.org and now NYC missions cannot keep Book's of mormon in stock. The missionaries there are celebrities and people are wanting more and more books of mormon. Everyone started clapping in the devotional when W. Tracy Watson started showing us the comebacks the church did. He then went on to quote Holland's talk and said that "all throughout the history of the church from moses until joseph smith, the church has fleed from persecution. but now, we no longer flee from Babylon. We attack it."
Clearly a servent of the lord. I really hope he comes soon. That would be great.

Does Joleen live in texas again? She sent a package with that address so I was just wondering. I'll think about anything that I need you guys to throw in that package and hopefully shoot off a quick email during laundry.
The spanish is coming easier once again and i'm still doing 5/6 of the talking in lessions and half of it are random questions from investigators about stuff I've never even read in spanish but I can still get my point across which is a miracle to me. I can only hope I understand the people in mexico about half the time just enough to get the jist of it.

Stay classy san diego.

Quidense, con amor, Elder Mortensen