"When The Sun Goes Down..."

Monday, April 9, 2012


Oh my....Just to let you know this email probably won't be too long! Busy day ahead! :)


Hola everyone!


It is hard to believe that my time at the MTC is up and that the sun is going down on this part of my adventure and that tomorrow I will begin a new adventure, in a new country, with a new language, and a new culture! Thoughts at the current moment: So excited, yet scared and freaking out and nervous, and ecstatic and ready to baptize and work so hard that I will be exhausted but it will be with it and eat some Mexican food and learn some spanish and work hard and change lives and....yeah! ;)


My inbox was bursting with emails this morning! Thanks everyone! It was nice to hear from Lindsey, Jordan Richey, Terri, Stephanie, and Mom and Dad today! Plus a nice little delivery from Holly and Aunt Glenda this week!


So my week....as we found out last email I was going to the Mexican Consulate (I learned how to spell it!) in SLC yeah? So we board a bus with the 6 of us in our district who are going to Mexico with about 12 others or so. When we get there we do a lot of just waiting around and finally some church travel people show up and we begin the process of doing...stuff? Haha! They take our picture and fingerprints and then we just sat and waited for a while, while they were on the phone with Mexico City fixing a problem. After about almost an hour of waiting we begin signing papers and then we board the bus and back to P-town. It was kind of weird being there....I sort of felt like I was already in Mexico kind of...it was a little scary...All in all the day was full of waiting around a lot. We left Provo at 12 noon and didn't get back till 5PM! What a long day! But Hey! We have our visas and are leaving TOMORROW!!!!


So the next day (Wednesday) we played hosts for the new Elders again and that was fun! Afterwards my comp and I decided to go to the travel office to see about travel plans since everyone in our district got them except for us. We got them! So yeah, we are leaving tomorrow morning! We have to be at the travel office at 4AM (yuck!) which means I will probably be waking up at 2:30ish AM...not fun! We have a layover in Phoenix before heading to Mexico. Here are the times again, mom, just in case you didn't catch them. We leave SLC around 7:10AM arrive in Phoenix at 7:48AM. We leave Phoenix for Hermosillo at 9:45AM and should arrive in Hermosillo at 11:38AM. So there will be a nice long layover for me to call! So that day after we got our travel plans, they gave us a phone pass to call our parents to tell them about receiving visas and travel plans, ect. Unfortunately we only got 5 min. and had to use our own money for pay phones. I was upset because I used a dollar and right after I got off the phone I remembered my calling card! Blast! I should have used it! Oh well! I think mom was a little surprised and in shock when she answered! Haha! It was great! Sorry it was so short. Tomorrow will be longer!
What else happened this week...we had a fantastic last TRC lesson with our member! The subject was receiving revelation through the Book of Mormon! The Spirit was strong and I loved it! The spanish was fantastic as well!


On Friday, we had In-Field orientation where we don't go to our normal classes, but go to a bunch a workshops. It was actually a lot of fun and good stuff! Since in class we focus on teaching and the language, so these workshops focused of finding people, goals and planning, exercising faith, working with members and a few other subjects! It was great!


Saturday was a pretty chill day! It was our last day of classes and we basically just did interviews with our teachers and chilled! It was fun!


Sunday, yesterday was fantastic! So you remember I mentioned the special sacrament meeting...well it was special! So we had an MTC wide sacrament meeting with the whole MTC (hence MTC wide...I don't know why I'm repeating myself...) and 3 General Authorities came! It was especially special because it was Easter. We had sacrament passed to all of us and they used like 5 sacrament tables and 20-35 Elders to pass to everyone. The choir Sang a beautiful piece entitled "Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer". We then heard from President Boyd K. Packer and his son Elder Allan F. Packer. And then Elder David F. Evans from the seventy was in attendance also, but he gave us a devotional a few weeks back and didn't speak. I thought that when they said 3 General Authorities and it was Easter Sunday, I thought for sure it would be 3 or the 12, and maybe one of them being the prophet, but no. That's okay! Pres. Packer was still fantastic! It was said that he doesn't get out much at all anymore and that he wanted to come to the MTC, he wasn't asked, so that was special to hear him.


Before fireside, we had a departing devotional with all those departing this week and the MTC presidency! It was quite nice! For Sunday night fireside, the BYU Men's Chorus came to perform! That was quite great! One of our teachers, the one who was also my RA last semester, was in it so it was great to see him one last time. Easter Sunday was really great! My testimony deepened of the Savior and his amazing, infinite, eternal Sacrifice! I am so grateful to him and for what he did for me and all of us! It is incomprehensible the sacrifice he made, but I am thankful for it!
Afterwards ours distirct just came back and packed. We also wrote in each others journals and just spent time with one another. It was sad.


So this morning we woke up at 2:30AM to see our district off (I don't know if you remember but everyone was leaving today except for us 2). It was really sad to see them go and say goodbye. Now we are all lonely there by our lonesomes. Thankfully today is P-day and we won't have to sit in an empty class without them. We do have class tonight, but our teacher said he would cut it short so we could go sleep! So yeah, my day will just be full of laundry, temple, packing, weighing, packing some more, last minute bookstore essentials, ect. I'm a little worried....it is had to leave the MTC with more things that you brought it. Especially with all of our books we received. Oh well! I will make it work!


This short email turned into a long one. I can't never limit myself! Temple time! Thanks for all of your prayers and support! I love you all and can't wait to talk to you tomorrow! What time will you be awake? To all of those who have sent me an email or letter, I will try and write some today, but bear with me. It may be a while before I figure out what the postage is like in Mexico. But responses are coming!


Love you all!!!
¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor!
Con Mucho Amor,
Elder Joyner! :)