Week #3

Hello Family!

Not quite sure where to start this week! 

It's interesting that you mentioned Elder Anderson's challenge, we actually just had him come give our tuesday night devotional! It was so cool when he walked in. Everyone went silent and stood up. It was a different feeling when he walked in. Really neat! His wife bore her testimony too, I have never met a more reserved lady in my life. She spoke so calmly, it was interesting!

For some reason I've started to enjoy ironing a lot hahaha. It is kind of my new thinking time like how my car used to be. I'm getting really good at getting a solid crease in my pants, everyone is kind of jealous. Elder Webster and I (he's part of the other district) started ironing everything we can think of! He is honestly hilarious, we try to iron whatever we can find. We started ironing our tee shirts and socks and money. And I heated up one of those cookies you sent me. We get pretty adventurous here.

Elder Webster is the one smiling.

This is a picture of Elder Kim and I at the fireworks. I can't remember if I told you about the Fourth of July! They canceled our last class and we had a devotional! It was super fun! This really good piano guy came and played for us and we had a lot of American songs that were played. Then they gave us ice cream bars and let us watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks! Cool stuff! 

Right here, we decided to build a basketball hoop out of our trashcan. There are things called "Narnia Holes" on top of the dresser that are behind the mirror. People hide stuff in them. We found some candybars in ours. But we decided to put the trash can in it, so now we just shoot our garbage up there!

Thank you for the package you sent me! That "magic button" saved my life. I can finally breathe now that my neck has a little space!

Good luck on your talk Hayden! You'll do a great job! Just remember that talking to a crowd doesn't have to be any scarier than talking to a single person. It's all in your head.

It was cool to see Brandon Shaffer! I recognized him when he came in and I got to "teach" him in the language. He told us all about the mission and stuff, which I think was not the purpose of us being there, but I loved hearing about it a ton! I'm getting excited for it, can't wait to get there!

I'm glad Ben met some girls at EFY haha. It sounds like he had fun! I remember that first year being the best!

Today we got to go clean the temple! So that's the answer to your question, mother. Instead of doing a session, we cleaned all sorts of stuff! We got to moved the altars into the sealing rooms because they had just been re-carpeted. I didn't realize they re-carpeted everything when they cleaned the temple! But the altars were SUPER heavy, it took about 5-8 of us to move them around. And then we had to ensure they were centered perfectly and everything. It was quite cool. And we got to go in to some of the "Staff Only" areas. It's cool to see all the things going on behind closed doors. The sisters got to clean one of the chandeliers(?) peace by peace. They loved it.

Our service project on Tuesday was cool! It was the same as last week. We basically show up at the back dock of the MTC where the food shipments show up. There is SO much food that we have to take to one of the 12 walk-in freezers, each one for a different type of food. And the fact that they are getting these type of shipments EVERY DAY is insane. It was interesting to see what had been used since the week before. So much eating here, it's kind of gross.

This is a picture of our little mini-mart, MTC Bookstore, thing. They have a lot of stuff here and we get a "missionary discount" which is actually quite substantial. It's really nice.

I've been studying the New Testament lately, specifically on the life of Christ. It has been kind of a goal to learn more about his life and the characteristics he had. I especially like the parts in John where Christ knows he's about to die soon and still turns outwards to those around him rather than worrying about himself. Even after suffering for our sins in Gethsemane and then being betrayed by Judas, he takes the time to heal the guard's ear that Peter cut off with a sword. I thought that was pretty cool. Also I thought it was cool that Peter had a sword, but I mostly I liked the love that Christ showed even in such a hard time for him.

I think that is probably about it for this week! I had a notebook I have been writing reminders down in that I usually have on me, but I couldn't find it today! I guess those will have to wait until next week!

Halong!

Elder Welton