#2 Hola Mi Familia

I can't believe it's already been a week since I last wrote an email! The time goes by so quickly here. I am loving it more and more each day. I have learned a lot this past week about my self. I have a testimony of how powerful the repentance process is. I never have felt the love so dearly from my Father in Heaven than when we go trough hard times and repent of them. I want you all to know that nothing in this world can't be forgiven. Jesus suffered in Gethsamene for each one of us, it's such a blessing to have that in our lives. The spanish is coming along pretty good. Yo estoy feliz hoy!! that mean's I am happy today! and I hope all of you are so happy as well. In class we are learning more about the gospel. It's crazy how deep we go into depth about certain things. I found out my purpose as a missionary. I always thought my purpose was just to convert people to our church. I soon found out I was wrong. My purpose as a missionary is to invite and to help others. If I dont do this the investigators wont come and recieve the gospel and the blessings that come from the covenants we make. It makes my brain hurt about all of this stuff. There is so much learning and growing that takes place in the MTC. Every monday we teach an investigator. This week we had to contact him in spanish for 7 minutes. It was so fun but also really hard to try and understand what he was saying. I didn't know what to say back most of the time. So I would just say Sí and bien. I probably answered most of the questions wrong but It was awesome. So we taught the first lesson again. It feels so comfortable teaching I love it. Even though they are just investigators I truly care for them and want their lives to be better. It´s so important to understand where they are coming from so you know exactly what to teach them and how. 1 Nephi 3:7. It's an amazing scripture. I read a talk a few days ago and it had a huge impact on my day. Life isn't easy, but the gospel is. The gospel never changes it should and is permanent in our lives. If your having a bad day turn to the scriptures and read. Or to your father in heaven he is always there listening to your prayers. Pray with real intent to learn and you will recieve an answer. Nothing has value in this life, that's easy. Thank you for all your support, I miss you all. We have a devotional tonight. I hope it's a general authority! There is a good chance that it could be. We had a fireside on sunday and we sung army of helaman and I started to ball. I cry more than some of the sisters, that's not good. haha. Have an amazing week. Love you,

Elder Payton

#1 hola familia

Hello,

The MTC is so much fun. I am enjoying every second of it in here. The first day was really hard, I didn't know what to do or what to say to anyone. That changed quickly. The love and kindness each Elder and Sister and everyone at the MTC shared was incredible. My companion names is Elder Conidaris. He is from South Jordan. We get along really well so it's good. We jumped right into work right when I got here. On the second day I learned how to say my prayers in spanish. It all is coming pretty easily to me so far. The next day we learned how to bear our testimony is spanish. That was a little harder. I'm still working on it. I am learning so much about myself that I never knew. I am forgetting about what I want/need and caring for others. Thats a huge change for me. I want to lose myself in the work and I know I already am. Studying the gospel each and everyday for hours has been such a blessing. I never have done this so it's a bit challenging for me to stay concentrating. Doing this though brightens my day so much and I can always go throughout a day happy. Yesterday we had our first real TRC. Which is a teaching lesson that you give to an investigator. It was really scary at first and me and my companion were quite nervous. We had to contact them in spanish and ask if we could come to their house and share a message to them. It was hard asking in spanish but the investigators were really nice and understood what we were trying to stay. We gave a lesson on the Restoration. Oh how God loves each and everyone of us, the blesses of family and how family is essential, the early dispensation, prophets, preisthood, Jesus Christ and the atonement, the apostasy, and restoration of the church through Joseph Smith.  It went really well. I memorized the first vison and stated it word by word and bore my testimony on it. Probably the most spiritual experience I have had so far. The food is pretty good. I can't sleep at all at night the AC doesn't work in my dorm room so it stays hot til about 1. So Im usually tired throughout the day. Somehow I stay awake. Today is my first P-day. Every tuesday. It's going well, we met with the Argentian consel and got finger printed for our visas. The MTC is truly a unique and amazing place to be. 2,000 missionaries going all over the world here to do one thing. Invite others to come unto Christ. Such a powerful statement that is. I am loving it here and am so grateful for the support everyone is giving me. It's been tough. So close to home but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I miss you all very much and hope everyone is striving daily to be better. Almost a week in and it went slow but time is going to fly by. It already has. You lose track of everything in here. How is the Champions League going? I miss soccer. Oh I do. Im going to try and break the MTC juggling record sometime this week. It's 1676. I think I can do it. I know you all were worried and freaking out because I hadn't written. Im doing amazing. No more worrying. Please. Read this scripture it has a powerful meaning. Mark 8:35.

Love you,

Elder Payton.