Hello, my wonderful family! November 22, 2013
Alright. Let me try to remember what all went down this week. I'll try to answer some of the questions you've had. I have seen some people I know from Bingham, a kid I went to EFY with, Justin Collins, and Jordan Preciado. I saw Justin at the devotional on Tuesday. I was so excited! I love ol' Johnny Snipes. Hahaha oh my gooooooodness, funniest thing EVER happened on Sunday. So we have a Sunday night devotional, right? Well, not everyone from the west campus gets to go up to main campus to watch. So a lot of the west campus watches it in the Wyview chapel. They have a camera set up so that they can be like "We're glad to have the west campus joining us, let's check in on them." So a bunch of the elders from our zone got in the front row right in front of the camera. President Hacking was giving introductions and shoutsouts to people who were there. So when the time comes for him to check in with the west campus, we all pull the sleeper. So right before the camera turns on, we all slouch down and let our heads roll back like we're just totally passed out hahaha. So the camera comes on (we have a screen to watch on, obviously) and everyone starts busting up laughing! Even President Hacking was laughing way hard. It was soooo classic!! Then, the speaker, Mary Ellen Edmonds, got up to speak. After a couple minutes, she was like "Let's check in with the west campus." ROUND 2 SLEEPER!!! Straight up classic. She was suuuuper funny and was laughing way hard. Then she was like, "Oops, forgot my talk," and just walked off hahahaha. She came right back, though. It was so dang hilarious. She was so awesome, though. Super good talk about teaching with the Spirit and letting the Spirit work through you. She was one of the first two sister missionaries in the Philippines, and they only taught in English. But she said she could feel the Spirit when they would teach people. Even though they didn't really understand a lot of what was being said, they understood the Spirit. I loved that.
So this week, we had a tie-trading convention. I came away with a couple sweet ties, so that's exciting. And I have another funny story. So there's this Elder Taysom. He's from St. George, super hilarious, about six feet tall, and has gained about 25 lbs. in the MTC hahaha. He has gained about 50 since graduation. He's got these long, skinny-ish legs and then an apple torso. Also, his voice is pretty high. He's so dang funny. He gained the weight in the MTC because of a competition with another elder. I believe he is now in the "cutting" phase of the competition. Anyway. Their whole apartment has these hard foam mattresses. Ours has regular mattresses, and we have about eight extra. He lives at the other end of Raintree, so we decided to do a top-secret mission. We grabbed his mattress, ran it across the campus, put it in my apartment, grabbed one of our mattresses, and ran it back to his apartment. It was suuuuper funny. Ahhhhh so much fun. I love my zone. I seriously love the elders. It's crazy how close we've gotten.
The food is alright! But it toooooooootally gives you crazy gas. Constant fluffing here in the MTC. So wild. Don't bring an open flame into the classrooms.
That's so cool that Jake (Siaosi) saw me! I had crazy good screen time. We really only see the other MTC kids when we go up for devotional. Today was our last time going to the temple. :/ They are closing it for the rest of the year. But it was awesome! I sent you a picture of us at the temple last week, mom. It's so cool to be there with all of the elders and hermanas. My P-day schedule is pretty much wake up and catch the temple bus at 7:05, get back around 10 or 10:30, study for like 20 minutes, go back and get laundry and take it to the laundry room and start your loads, go to lunch around 11:10 (we go to Burgers Supreme, which is pretty much Astro Burger. Soooo good), grab a Jamba, head back, change, put laundry in the dryer, email until it's done, then take it back, then email more. I normally start emailing around 12:30 or 12:45 and I have an hour. Then we have down time until class a little later. It's pretty nice.
Mom and Dad -
I go to the Wyview Creamery every now and then. They sometimes have Graham Canyon in the cafeteria, and everyone goes nuts. Hands DOWN my favorite ice cream. If I go to the Creamery, it's normally at night around 9:30 or so. I bought a loaf of cheap white bread, some processed American cheese, and some ham haha. I'm normally starving when I get back to my apartment at night. But thank you for the snacks and treats. and that Mountain Dew is highly coveted. THANK YOU. Thanks for the clothes, too. I'll definitely be leaving some stuff for you guys to pick up when I leave the MTC, so don't worry about space. I don't think I need pajamas...I just wear shorts. That Plan of Salvation puzzle will be suuuuper helpful. Thank you so much! It'll be good to teach investigators with.
INVESTIGATORS. We have just been teaching our teachers until yesterday. The teacher one is way hard because you know it isn't real, so it's hard to make it Spiritual and act normal. But we had TRC yesterday which is where a volunteer (usually a member, but can be a less-active or inactive member) comes in and you teach them. So we did that yesterday. We were speaking really well! They guy we were teaching (we pretty much just got to know him) said we were speaking well. Then we met with a girl from Georgia who is going to BYU. She is a convert of two years. Super cool story. I loved talking with them in Spanish and testing my knowledge.
The camera is working great! I really like it. It dies kinda quick, though. But that's probably normal...maybe haha. I can't think of other things I need right now...but if I do, I'll have to let you know next week.
I am absolutely loving learning and teaching the Gospel. I love the peace that it brings to me. I'm glad I've had times in my life where I haven't had the Spirit with me, because the MTC is the complete opposite. I feel so happy. I miss you guys, but I don't feel an empty space in my heart. I feel glad knowing that I am serving the Lord and doing His work. I still can't believe I'll be gone for two years haha. So wild. It'll be awesome though. My testimony has grown so much here. I know that the Spirit helps us in so many different aspects of our lives, but we have to be worthy to have it with us. We have to invite it to be in our lives. We shouldn't strive to receive blessings, we should strive to be worthy to receive those blessings. It's been pretty humbling here. It's hard to teach an investigator who has a lot of issues and is really sad. The language barrier is also another big challenge. But the Spirit can and has helped us so much. I'm so grateful to finally have the opportunity to serve the Lord. I'm so grateful to be here where the Spirit resides. I'm so grateful to have been born into a family with an honorable Priesthood holder and a wonderful mother who helps him uphold that Priesthood. I know that I am so incredibly blessed. I'm grateful for the love and support that I have felt from all of you. I'm grateful to be able to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Argentina. I can't wait to meet all of these people who are waiting for our message. There is seriously nothing better than helping someone understand their purpose here and that God loves them and has a plan for them. Mom and Dad, thank you so much for doing your best to raise us in the Gospel. I would be nowhere without you two. It obviously took me a while to figure things out, but I am grateful for my challenges. They've made me who I am and have become the base of my testimony. Ally, your letter was so, so sweet. I'm tearing up just thinking about it right now. I'll write you a response, hopefully today. Kyle, I love you so much! Please watch out for Ally. I know how the youths are in high school haha. Those pictures of Coco on my camera are soooo cute haha. I miss him! Grandma, thank you for your sweet letter. I'll also hopefully get a response out to you. I love you all so so so so much and I pray for you every day. I want you to know that through what I have felt and am currently feeling, I know I'm here for a reason. I know I'm in the right place.
Love,
Elder Sipple
P.S. I'll try to send pictures next week...it takes forever and I'm already over on my email time haha. Oops! OH also, Tessa Lund's (Lauren's friend) husband is a teacher here haha. Super odd. He said hi to me and that Lauren or Tessa told him I'd be in here. Also, Hannah Romney's brother-in-law is one of my new zone leaders. Elder Angus O'Barr. Such a cool kid. I have to go! Love you!
