Time Flies Here!

​Hey everybody!

I can't believe that I have been here almost 2 weeks! We are super busy here having classes all day which makes the days and weeks fly by! My Portuguese is progressing, the first few days were pretty rough, but now I am starting to get the hang of it and things are starting to somewhat click haha I have memorized so many words in Portuguese and am able to bear a short testimony and teach part of the discussions without reading off of anything! Elder Joder and I prepared really hard for our last lesson with our investigator and we even practiced the lesson with the Zone leaders, but it turns out he came and taught us rather than us teaching him, he came and gave us some feedback and is now our new teacher.

Last week we played the Russian and Korean Missionaries in soccer. The game started out with 26 people on like a half sized field and ended with 35 players! I scored a goal haha and we tied 5-5 it was crazy! One of the Russian speaking missionaries (many of them have been switched to Ukraine) played Rugby at UTAH before his mission! he is shorter than me but is super strong and fast! It was cool talking to him about it! Sister Smith's Dad is Mike Smith who played QB for BYU in the late 80s-early 90s then played in the NBA for 5 years and is now the announcer for the Clippers! Crazy! On Wednesday many new missionaries arrived here, 10 of them are now in our zone! They are all going to Brazil and are waiting on their visas. Elder Bradford who is one of the new ones was an Opera Singer at UCLA before his mission! He is really good at singing! 

We had an awesome devotional last night! The Managing Director of the missionary department spoke! He shared some stories from his mission and talked about working hard in the field so you can look back with no regrets! Sunday night is movie night, we have like 7 ​options of what to watch, most of them are talks from the Apostles, but there are also some church movies like 'Legacy' and 'The Restoration', we watched '17 Miracles'! It was awesome! It is amazing how hard it was for the pioneers but yet how they stayed faithful in the church and kept pressing towards Zion. 

 In front of the MTC

 Most of our Zone at the Temple Walk

 Our District!

 Elder Dallin Collins who left for Brazil last week!

Package arrived!

The First Few Days!

Hey everyone!

The past 5 days at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) have been awesome! I am really enjoying it here! My companion Elder Joder is from Switzerland and is 23. He is probably the oldest missionary here and I am the youngest haha. Him and his fiance wanted to both serve missions before they got married! What great idea! They both got called to the same mission in Greece reporting on the same day haha so he was switched to the Portugal Lisbon Mission! He was in the Swiss military for 10 months and worked at a Metal producing company and payed for his entire mission! He is mostly fluent in 4 languages German, Swiss-German, French and English he is like 70% fluent in He often asks me what different words mean haha and now he is learning Portuguese! He is also getting his name changed on his name tag because it is a bad word in Spanish haha

Thursday night we met and were interviewed by the Branch Presidency! I was then called as District Leader! Our District has 10 missionaries, 4 Elders all going to Lisbon! The other Elders in our district are Elder Martel who is from Canada and Elder Cortez who is from Washington State! We have 6 Sisters and one of them, Sister Jorgensen played soccer at UVU before her mission! They are all going to Cape Verde, some African islands near Portugal! Our Zone leaders are super cool! Elder Barnes and Elder Goes! they are both going to Boston speaking Portuguese! Yesterday our zone, 2 districts went on a temple walk! It was awesome! the Provo Temple grounds are amazing they are so big and beautiful! This morning we had an opportunity to go to the temple! We woke up at 5:45, skipped breakfast and went to the 7:00 session! It was sweet! The peace and Spirit that I feel there is amazing. 

I love walking around the MTC campus and just seeing so many missionaries here working hard and united in the same work! There are over 2000 missionaries here and 500 arrived on the 14th!! There are missionaries going all over the world and so many are learning new languages to preach the gospel in! The first night we had classes about loving those that we teach! The Brother teaching it returned from the Tennessee Knoxville mission 4 years ago, where my Dad served! I also met another Elder who is going to serve there speaking Spanish! Last night President and Sister Mehr spoke at the Devotional! They also attended our District meeting! Oh how lucky we were! The Spirit there was amazing! Then we watched Elder Bednar's the Character of Christ talk. It was great! He talked about how with just a testimony you aren't truly converted, but by developing the Character of Christ you will truly be converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ! 

Friday we taught the first discussion in Portuguese, it did not go very well...we knew what we wanted to say but did not know how to say it in Portuguese! Saturday we followed up with him and that went much better because we were much more prepared! Friday for exercise time we played basketball and 4 square, Saturday we played Spikeball and Soccer! It was so fun! there are some really good soccer players here! I try to take advantage of that hour because we sit down for 10+ hours a studying the gospel and Portuguese! I am working hard in the language and hope to memorize the 3 pages of basic core by the end of the week! I am very determined to learn Portuguese! The Spirit here at the MTC is incredible! I feel the Spirit so often and more than I have ever felt in my entire life! I love the MTC and am going to make the most of it!

 View from the temple!

 Studying

 My companion and I

 Thanks grandma A!

 Learning Portuguese

 The zone!

My desk

The MTC!

Hey Mom and Dad!

I am doing great at the MTC! My P-day is on Monday! My companion is 23 and from Switzerland and has a fiance! He was originally called to a mission in Greece but his fiance was called to the same mission so he was switched to the Portugal Lisbon mission! He is like 95% fluent in English and his speaks 5 languages. He has a thick Switz accent and we have a hard time understanding each other sometimes haha but I'm sure that our communication will improve! There ended up being no clothes hangers in the room so I will have to buy some of my own in the store! Can't wait for my first full day tomorrow!