BIG NEWS

Howdy! Seems like forever ago since I last wrote... anyways, I'm sure you all want to hear about conference... so I'll leave that till the end. Hopefully it'll mean I have more time to talk about it. lol

 

Dad - Crasy that the guy you helped died... how wierd was that? lol. Thanks for not losing Toby, but sounds like you had a fun time searching. Maybe if you keep walking him like that he'll be a pro in no time. I guess we'll see. I wonder why they haven't given you a new companion. My guess is that they couldn't find anyone good enough to replace me... haha. Just kidding. No being prideful.

 

Grandma - That would be super cool if you learned Spanish. I personally like my Spanish podcasts if you wanted to do a little learning on the side. Maybe if you get pro enough we could chat it up when I get back. Sounds like thanksgiving was good. Sad I missed it. I realized today that I won't get to be around for either countries thanksgiving parties. Bummer.  Fun you got a dog. I think you should keep it. lol. And have a great trip. I'm super jealous. haha. Btw, is the trip just for fun, or some kind of like "pre-mission warm-up" thing?? haha. Just kiddin.

 

Mom - Thanks for the list of Canadian things. They tried to brush most of them off or dispute them somehow, but it was fun. Lo siento on the photos. I didn't take most of them, but I'll try and make sure that they work better if its a problem with the camera and not the printin machine or something. I write in my journal every day (except I forgot last night... ) and haven't missed writing in a day yet. Its not to bad when days are standard and you have a planner with everything you did in it. Thanks for sending Theo's letter. It was funny. The news on Adam was great too. We like to hear about what its like there in our district.  Sorry I forget to send inspirational stuff. The problem is is that about half of my notes are about spanish stuff, and the other half are about being a missionary and aren't very exciting to the outside world. I did find something tho. Hno. Coles told us that in a meeting he had, they taught that "You can't understand how the Lord is doing missionary work unless you understand how the new mormon.org works". I don't know who said it, but the point is that missionary work isn't so much centered on teaching doctrine anymore. The thing that the people of the world either want, or at least the Lord sees fit to give them is more centered on families, and the peace, joy and stability the gospel gives to families. Hope thats alright. I encourage you all to check it out. Its pretty cool.

 

Erica - Hope you're feeling better!  The food here is not always all that good, but I usually find something good to eat. They usually have about 3 different options of meals and so if you pick the best of the 3 you're usually okay.

 

Alrighty. So besides conference there isn't all that much to report. Elder Brett Payne left the other day. I missed the time I scheduled to get a pic with him, but caught him in the halway outside my class. So I don't have a pic myself with him, but he at least has one on his camera.  The general authority speaker this week was L. Whitney Clayton from the presidency of the 70. He talked about the stone cut out of the mountain without hands rolling forth. It was pretty good. Next week should be promising tho... they say (there's always rumors flying around about apostles coming mind you), that the week after conference they usually have somebody from the 12 or first presidency stop by. I'll let you know.

 

Ahhh! I forgot. Big news! Apparently our date of departure has moved up - 20th of October! Thats 5 days earlier than before. Doesn't seem like all that much, but now we realize that we only have like 2 weeks left (16 days i think), and just aren't ready at all! The spanish is coming along nicely, but when its that close your perspective changes. We're kicking our spanish into overdrive this week. My teacher noticed that I can decifer spanish well through context and so I plan on using my strengths as he suggested and do activities from that.

 

What else. Wednesday we were teaching machines. Taught like 5 lessons in just a couple of hours. I got ANOTHER haircut and will have to get another before I go. Good thing they're free. lol. Oh, and last but not least, it turns out that Elder Humphreys plays dirty soccer. Who knew that when they say "No hands", its not just no touching the ball with your hands... its like no touching people, or lifting your elbows, or getting in peoples way, or pushing or nothing. Ridiculous. lol. Good thing its just MTC soccer. I'm workin on that before someone tries to kill me. haha.

 

Alright. 8.5 minutes to talk of conference. Great experience! It was fun to bust out of the MTC, see things from a different angle etc. etc. We had a check up in the morning with the MTC president who approved our hair/tie. I passed. We watched conference at the MTC. I really like Elder Hollands talk actually. Probably my favorite talk in conference (oops. guess i should have planned more time for what I actually learned. i guess I'll talk about that next week.). Anyways, I like it cuz i just felt like I was in a very similar situation and owed a LOT to the people in my life that have blessed me. Thanks mom, dad, and everyone else for the things you did/do.  Anyways, it was fun to see the outside world. It was kinda depressing for some of the Utah people but I enjoyed it. We missed most of the afternoon session as we were on the bus and practicing in a smaller theatre in the Conference centre. We practiced, had a nasty snack for "dinner" and then once the place was empty we moved into the choir loft. I got lucky and got to sit by my comp on my right, and a friend from quarentine (elder litton) on my left. It was fun to see and be up there. Couldn't really see any General Authorities, just the tops of the heads of some of the 70. But we got a screen and we could read the teleprompter which was fun. The songs went really well in my opinion. It was a blast. Kinda disapointed in my screen apearances tho. I did a perfect job of watching the conductor/knowing all the words etc. until that stinkin intermediate hymn. Wow. When you sit up there you get some weird echo etc. so it was hard to remember the words, and so i kept peaking, forgot to look happy, and guess what. On the screen the whole time. What gives. lol. But whatever. I just hope I didn't distract anyone with my faces/peaking. Oops. Anyways, all in all a good experience. We weren't allowed to take any notes which was lame and not being able to see meant I had a hard time staying awake at the end but I fought it. Afterwards, no one really came to say hi, but Richard G. Scott came right up close which was cool. Gave us all a thumbs up. lol. Anyways, love to share more but out of time. It was great. Thanks for watching. Don't make too much fun of me. haha.

 

MTC is sweet. Trying my best to get the language. Keep it real. Love you all.

 

Elder Humphreys