Gringo in Nashville

February 2, 2019

Once again, we found ourselves waiting anxiously to hear how he was doing.  His email came through in the morning.  He left us tearfully speechless...

Whaddup everybody,

The mtc has been actually pretty fun! The weather is cold but we aren't outside that much, the food here is actually way good they have so many things you can pick from. If you want you could cereal every meal and I know this surprises you mom but I hardly ever have cereal here hahaha. 

DOMINGO

sacrament was different but good it's just our zone and they have all of us write a talk and then that day choose two people to talk and the talks have to be in spanish hahaha luckily I didn't get picked. All the songs we sing are in spanish and then at the end our zone presidency talks about whatever the weekly topic for sacrament meeting is this sundays topic was charity and love. The rest of Sunday consisted of class, choir practice (way awesome), Sunday devotional which is when everybody in the mtc gathers in the gym to hear a guest speaker who was some film guy that I fell asleep during hahaha then ended with a gospel movie that was when David a bednar addressed the mtc a couple years ago I really liked 

LUNES y MARTES

monday and tuesday were just normal days of class and attempting to learn spanish and also saucing broke boys up in volleyball. tuesday night we have another devotional the guest speaker was elder godoy (presidency of the 70) he talked about his conversion story he did really good after the devotional we have a district meeting and me and my companion were told that a kid that had left the mtc in the summer and went home is coming back and he will joining our companionship so now I'm in a trio. The kids name is elder Richins. He's from California serving in the salt lake city west mission. He's cool and really funny. I really like my companions we keeping each busy and working hard. 

MIERCOLES y JUEVES y VIERNES

wednesday is when elder richins got here and we moved rooms to the one next to our old one, the rest of the week we just been grindin in learning spanish and we are preparing for TRCs which are next week. TRC is when they set you up with a volunteer for the mtc and they have members and nonmembers that are volunteers but they dont tell you if yours is a member or not, then we teach the volunteers in a role play situation in spanish then they fill out a survey telling us what we did that was good and bad. Im super excited for it but also kinda nervous because my spanish is still beginner level hahah but its chill. the spirit here is so strong and i love it. class is hard but good and then getting a break everyday with exercise time is nice, i love teaching cats the gospel in volleyball (destroying/spiking it on them) hahahah *sarcasm implied* i also love hearing from all of you thank you so much for your kinda messages i would mind getting a picture every once in a while to see all of your beautiful faces. i can only reply back on saturdays (today/ my pday) so if you have any questions you want answered hit my line today

Elder Israelsen's dad sent me this one.  They had to run their son to a Dr appointment and he got to meet Drew and Elder Richins. Lucky guy. 

The cereal section in the MTC cafeteria.

Missionaries at the MTC from our stake!!
 Sister Pike, Sister Killian, Elder Wiser, Elder Harr

The infamous MTC pic.

January sunset at the MTC

Elder Romero: one of Drew's good buddies in his zone.

Elder Evans: another buddy from Drew's zone.

His room at the MTC.  His is the bottom bunk.

His desk.  I was impressed he's so organized.  

WOW!!  This one was impressive!  I asked him if he split his pants. 

It has been amazing to hear of his incredible experiences.  He is such an example to our family.  We put the connection together not to long after he first emailed us the first time that his companions dad (Burns Israelsen) dated my oldest sister Marci back in the day.  We  reached out to them and have kept in touch.  They have forwarded their sons emails to us.  It has been fun seeing the MTC through his eyes.  What is it about going through similar experiences that makes you feel a little bond with people.  These last 2 weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions.  You find yourself missing them and a bit sad but yet you wouldn't want them anywhere else.  It's the happiest sad I've ever felt but I'm grateful I get to experience it.    I'm so grateful Drew is loving it and soaking it all in.