Musical reference in the Subject line anyone...!?! I
wouldn't execpt you all to get it, but it is fun coming up with musical
references that describe my week! :)
WHITNEY HOUSTON DIED!?!?! Why didn't anyone tell me? I
had to find out from somone else's mail! Not that I'm that big of a fan, but
you still need to keep me up to date on the big news and happenings of the
outside world!
Hola Mi Familia!
A week and a half down...7 1/2 to go! So, yeah mom, I've
heard a lot about visas! And not only to Mexico, but some to Argentina and
other places. And our teacher said lately more and more visus to Mexico are
getting delayed or whatever. So who knows! I could be reassigned for a few
weeks or months...we'll just have to wait and see...
So you know how it snowed last Sunday? Well, it did it
again THIS Sunday! However, it was nice enough to go on a temple walk so I was
able to take pictures. Unfortunatley I can't send pictures via email here. The
way they have the security on the computers doesn't allow it the computer to
recognize external devices, so I will just have to print them and send them.
Expect some soon!
Sounds like you all had a nice valentines day! How
thoughtful of Cole to spend so much time on all of you! Thanks Cole for my
valentine! Tell him to check his email; I'm sending him a note!
Congrats on your game Alex! And thanks for my little
note! :)
This week has been kind of a blur! It's true what they
said. Once you get past your 1st Sunday, time flies by! This week has gone by
so fast it's crazy! Tuesday we had a devotional by Don R. Clarke of the
Seventy. It was great! The choir sang the song we had practiced the sunday
before and it was powerful!
We continued to teach our "investigator" this
week. "As We Stumbled Along" (musical reference used! Ha!) we've all
come so far in learning spanish it is amazing! I can already feel the gift of
tongues beginning to work. Spanish and I have a love/hate relationship. I am
more advanced than everyone in my class so that makes it great and I can teach
fairly well, but sometimes I get frustrated and hate spanish with a passion!
Ha! It's all good! I just need to realize that It takes time and doesn't
all come at once. My comp still doesn't know anything though. I have to teach
most of the lesson myself because he doesn't know what to say and freaks out
and looks at me to give his part. So I feel like it is a one on one sometimes
with me and the investigator. We taught him how to pray and we committed
him...well more like asked him...to be baptized. He asked us why he had to be
baptized if he was already baptized as a baby and I tried to explain but was
not prepared with vocab so I just said we would come back later and explain it.
When we taught him again, I explained and I think he understood and said he
would be baptized but I couldn't completely understand since there was no
definte yes or no. Luckily that was our last lesson with him and we won't have
to struggle through that at the moment.
We got our 2nd teacher who come to find out was our
"investigator", so now my RA from last semester is our 2nd teacher.
It's really weird and I don't know how I feel with him being my teacher. So
from now on our investigators will be our teachers and we will just be teaching
them everyday. This past week I also auditioned to do a muscial number in the
devotial/fireside/or any other meeting. I sang "My Soul Hungered" and
when I was done, they said I had a beautiful voice and then asked if I had done
drama? I said yes, and apparently I was being too dramatic and theatrical! Ha!
Imgaine that! I guess I got carried away after just having my audition recently
and I guess I was still in the acting mode. Which is weird because I've never
done that when I sing in church...hmmm...They said I was a definite yes if I
didn't act so much and just let the spirit testify. However since I don't leave
till April, they said it may be a few weeks before they can get me into a
meeting. That's okay though! At least I will be doing it sometime! I recorded
one of my practices for you, mom, but seeing as how I can't send anything via
email right now, it will have to wait for a few months. Sorry :(
Speaking of drama and my audition....Any news!!?!?! I'm
starting to get ansy! I even dreamed about it last night :/ Don't forget to
check my email often in case something comes as well as the phone. Please let
me know ASAP no matter what happens! Dearelder is fastest so just paste the
email in the body or whatevs.
So I saw a few people this week! I saw Brother Dunford's
parents. I guess they are serving somewhere. You will have to ask about that. 105 to be mission presidents...I just don't remember where to though.
So Dad, since you wanted a routine, my schedule is
different everyday, but here is a rough schedule. We wake up about 6:05AM to
get showers before everyone else does at 6:30AM. We usually have personal study
from 7AM-8AM and then breakfast after that. After breakfast is usally more
personal study then classroom instruction for 3 hours. We break for lunch at
1PM then have Language Studay and computer lab time. We have Gym in there
sometime (depending on the day we have it in the afternoon or morning) and then
Dinner at 6PM. After dinner is 3 more hours of class and then back to the
Residence Halls. We have journal/prep for next day time till 10:30 then it's
sleep time! Our days are pretty busy and jam packed! We spend more time in our
classroom then we do in the Residence. Our "service" assignment is on
Saturday mornings and my comp and I clean bathrooms since it takes the least
amount of time than the other assignments.We usually get done within 15
minutes. So yeah...that's my day!
I'm pretty proud of myself! I go running during gym time
and use the machines as well. And for meals I usually always have salad with
the main course and drink only water. I can see myself getting tired of the food
pretty soon since It is cafeteria stuff, but not cheap stuff, pretty good.
I have been really tired during the day! I don't know
why! Sometimes it takes me a while to fall asleep and I constantly wake up in
the night for some reason. I bought ear plugs though which hep beautifully with
the roomates' snoring!
I have also gotten a few people loving essential oils!
(Thanks Grandma and Papa!) I've been using them for immunity and breathing
because everyone has been getting colds here. They seem to be working well! I
aslo gave my comp some to help with breathing and it reduced the snoring a bit!
They are fantastic!
Well, that's about all I have! I feel like this has
been quite a lengthy email! Hope you enjoy! Want to know anything else?
Thanks for the letters and words of encouragement this
week! Mailtime is my favorite time of the day! Keep em comin!
In closing I would like to ask for a few things. Mom and
Dad (and anyone else who reads this and would like to participate), could you
send me some of your experiences from you mission? I would really love to read
them!
Love and Miss you all tons!
Yo que sé vive mi Señor!
Con MUCHO Amor,
Elder Joyner! :)
