MTC Days Continued

Hey,

This past week went by really fast.  Every week goes by faster and faster.  This past tuesday for the devotional we heard from Per G. Malm for the second quorum of the 70.  He gave a great talk. He was a really funny guy as well.  He talked about how we are more prepared than we feel.  I sure hope he's right.  I guess we need to have faith as well, it will all work out though no matter.  He also talked about how its not a coincidence that you are on a mission right now.  There is a reason you're here now and not some other time.  That was right to me.  At the end of his talk he said "if we do the Lords work in the lords way....where are the limits?"  There aren't any if we do it that way. 

We get our temporary reassignments on Wednesday if we don't get our visas.  I get to call home then.  So if i get to choose the time when is the best and whose phone?  I don't think i get to talk long.  Maybe 5 minutes, so don't plan anything big.  The first two weeks i was here they got like 25 visas.  Since then there have been 5.  So they've slowed down a lot.  Who know's when they will come.  But I know i'll get it...its just a matter of when.  When we get our visas in the field we fly out as soon as possible.  We don't even wait for the next transfer.  I wouldn't be too disappointed to go stateside to see what a mission is like here and then go to Brasil.  It would be interesting to contrast.  I just hope i got to a warm spot because i don't want to get winter clothes for a short period of time.

It is really cold here.  There is hardly any snow.  They shut down BYU on Tuesday i think because there was suppose to be the worst storm in 65 years here.  There were maybe 12 MPH winds and a half a inch of snow.  Lamest storm ever.  I really wanted snow.  

My companion's back's been hurting him so we have been able to get off campus twice this last week and at least 2 more times this next week!  It felt so good to get out of the MTC grounds.  I was crazy to see the outside world again.  People that aren't always wearing suits and dresses.  But it was very liberating.  I can't wait to hit the field.  I'm nervous but I getting to comfortable here.  A mission is suppose to force you out of your comfort zone so i need to move on to the next step.  

Thanksgiving was surprisingly good.  It looked like it was going to be horrible at the beginning because of the schedule but at the morning fireside Elder Holland came and spoke with his family!  The first thing he said was we are going to be your family for the day.  That was pretty cool, if i can't be with my real family then being with an apostles family is a good second.  It was awesome to hear from him.   He is such a great speaker.  And his wife gave a really good talk as well.  He had his grandchildren sing a primary song to us it was really cute.  Made me think of Caiden and Bailey.  He had a lot of good things to say.  I wrote them down but i forgot to bring what he said.

- Elder Parsons

MTC Days Continued

Hey everyone,

It was a pretty decent week.  Every week is going faster and faster.  I got to host the new missionaries this week.  It was a good and bad experience.  The first car that pulled up the mom was crying her eyes out and looked mad that her kid was going on a mission and then his little brother got out and starting crying.  I almost quit right there.  I don't want to deal with that.  But the rest we got at our station were good.  We met some really cool people.  And the day went by so fast. 

   At TRC this week it was a interesting experience.  The kid we were teaching was like sleep deprived or something he couldn't stay awake.  But we kept asking him question to try and keep him awake and he'd answer right away so he must hear in his sleep.  At the end we almost started laughing because he almost fell over he was so tired.  Interesting experience.  We got a new teacher.  Irmao Paries is developing the new curriculum for the MTC.  The new teacher is way cool and he went to Brasil.  He has some way crazy stories.  Some are a little scary but good stories if you make it out of there fine.  He is also a lot easier to understand because he speaks Brasil portugues instead of crappy Portugal portugues.

  So we were getting lunch a couple days back and there are a lot of people in the cafeteria from Brasil, they were asking where we were going and when we said Salvador she replied, "Watch out for the naked women there."  That's going to be way awkward.  Hopefully it's not too bad.  But i guess it'll be an experience.  We also talked to this other kid from Brasil and he said Salvador was way pretty.  So hopefully its a nice place.

   Geez the weather is crazy there in Moscow.  We had a little breezy weather the other day but nothing too bad.  The temperature has been all over the place though.  One day its freezing cold and the next its warm.  The mountains are starting to get covered in snow here.  That is cool.  I'd rather have there be snow and cold instead of just cold.

  We had Brother Pearson from the first quorum of the 70 come this week.  He gave an excellent talk.  One of the most inspiration if not the most inspiration talk i've heard since being here.  He talked about finding out divine identity.  I've never heard about that in those terms.  It was awesome.  He talked about how if we loose ourselves in the mission and follow all the rules we will become what we are suppose to be...if we dont then we will stay at what we think we're suppose to be.  He also talked about how obedience strengthens our faith.  He talked about some other stuff but it was an amazing talk.  Our room has made a goal to be 100% obedient these last couple of weeks following all the rules even the really small rules that can be an annoyance.  And keep it throughout the mission. 

  If i get my visa before the 7th of december I'll go to the CTM first.  But we get reassignments week 8 which is coming up fast.  I hope i'll get a week or so in the CTM but whatever happens is suppose to happen. 

-Elder Parsons