week 1

Well i have made it through my first week. It’s so weird to think I’ve only been here for that short amount of time i feel like I’ve been here so long. New missionaries have arrived and among them were my friends Elder Jones and Elder Harding. Time is different in the MTC. After the first 4 days it just goes by a lot faster and days blend together. I have to read in my journal what i wrote the day before so i won’t repeat anything. So i apologize if I keep saying things throughout my emails that I’ve already said.

Being on a mission is hard. During different periods of time throughout the day I hit these walls where i just don’t want to do anything. We spend like 9 hours total in one room so our district just goes insane. We all get so tired and i feel so bad for our teacher, Hermano Bailey, He’s the best teacher here and he’s so funny and nice but we cannot stay awake when we realize after the first two hours we still have another hour till lunch. Then after that we have language study, some more personal study, and then class again. It is so long! I pray and pray and ask forgiveness from my unfocused mind. I do everything i can to stay awake. It’s just so long and with no DP to keep me up its awful! But none the less i am still learning Espanol little by little. The doctrine of Christ is becoming so much easier to understand. Our "investigator" agreed to be baptized but there is still something missing for his great desire; he said he has so much more he needs to learn before he will be ready. He speaks Espanol so fast and we can only get parts of his sentence. If we could only speak English to him we know he would be ready. It is tough.

Our district is great. I don’t doubt that we are probably the loudest district here. Our zone is easily the funniest, besides the Japanese/Korean kids. We all have to best time together and other missionaries often stare at us because we have so many inside jokes. Elder Wilkinson (The guy from England) and Hokafonu (a Tongan from Oakland) are the greatest. We laugh all the time. But when it times to be serious we are serious. The key to success is a happy medium between fun and serious. With that in mind i brought planking and unexpected trust falls to the MTC. So when you see my pictures a lot of them will be of our district planking. But trusts falls are the best. Our district will just be walking and someone will just yell, "Trust Fall!" and whoever they fall on has to catch them. It’s so much fun, especially when you do it to people who you don’t know and they are just like, "what is happening?" It’s the best. We all have a laugh about it. It is starting to get cold. Mornings are ridiculous. I’m okay with it but some missionaries can’t handle it and they are wearing heavy coats and scarves and hats. We all laugh at them cuz when we have gym time at 630 we are all wearing shorts and a t shirt. But ill admit being from AZ i am cold. I just can’t let my fellow district know that. I just want you all to know i rep the AZ. I wear my Wildcat shorts and shirt and DBacks shirt whenever i can. And on a little side note our zone taught us how to do PDays. So that’s why I’m on the email so early. I cannot disclose this information cuz it’s kind of on a low key, DL thing. But it’s gonna be a great day today. I get to go to the temple! I’m so excited. Everyone says the Sessions rooms are huge. Thank you for writing me and sending me that great package it is awesome. Oh i also wanted to let you know i have lost 5 pounds while being here. So I’m not a statistic! The food isn’t as bad as people say but some stuff is nasty! But the chocolate milk definitely lived up to the hype! But my favorite thing is Blueberry Muffin Top cereal. It’s the greatest cereal on earth! But I just wanted everyone whose reading this to know I am grateful to be out here. Yes it’s very hard but I can’t quit. On our district devotional night i was really tired and i got home sick, but our wonderful branch President felt this and knew what i needed to here. He said that in the 2000 when Gorgon B. gave his raising the missionary standards, talk there were like approximately 62,000 missionaries. Currently there are about 53,000. It is a sad sight but there is a good end to this story. Every 3 years 1 million people come into the church, by birth or baptism. So since 2000 about 4 million people have come to the church. Joseph Smith said it himself. "The Standard of Truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop this work from progressing. Persecussions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, and colomnly may defain. But the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent. Until it has penetrated every continent, visited every climb, swept every country, and sounded in every ear. Or until the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done." (I might a misspelled a lot) But I know this is true. And I can’t give up. There’s someone I need to find.

Mucho Amo,

Elder Julander.