Tuesday, April 29, 2014

 Brandon & his zone
Class time!!

Oi Amigos e Familia!  Tudo bem?  This week has been challenging but super awesome!!  Right after I emailed you all I went through the temple because it was P day and in the Celestial room I just got such a solid confirmation of the book of Mormon, the church and that am doing right now is exactly where I am supposed to be!  After the temple we heard from Elder Oaks of the twelve speak to us for our Tuesday night devotional.  And I found out for the next 8 weeks we are going to have an Elder from the quorum of the twelve for the next 8 weeks!!!  It is awesome that I get to be at the MTC right now!!  I would not rather be here at any other time!!  It is weird though here, some days all I feel like I do is eat, sit in class while feeling like Helen Keller, eat again, and then sleep haha.  So while here you teach investigators (actors) but they are legit, like they will take on a role of someone they taught in their mission and will pray as if they were in their place and the Spirit will answer them as if they were that person.  It is amazing how the Spirit can work that way.  Anyway me and Elder Casey were giving a lesson on the Atonement and we both bore our testimonies and the Spirit was incredibly strong with us.  I started to tear up as I finished my testimony and then Elder Casey bore his and The Spirit was so strong.  It was great!  Afterwards she became our teacher and gave us feedback and stuff and she said that she actually would study and pray as if she were the real investigator.  Such a great feeling and I cannot wait until I get to do that in the real world!!  It is awesome being an instrument in the Lord's hand, and the thing about instruments is that they do not think or know of themselves but do only what Master would have them do.  That is how I should be is a true and pure instrument, because you would never want to use a pencil that made it's own choices and did't do what you wanted.  Also we are all different instruments made for different purposes.  We truly cannot compare because the Lord is preparing and wants us for different purposes.  I say that because the other elders in our district are catching on to the language super fast because they studied a lot of Spanish but I learned that I cannot compare myself to them because like I said we are all different types of instruments made for different purposes.  Just a spiritual thought that I learned this week.  So any of you that are sending Dear Elders and things do not hesitate to send long letters.  I love getting long dear elders at dinner and the best part of the day sometimes is reading them at night and I love long letters!!  It is crazy Tyler Haws brother (the national champ from lone peak high ranked 20th in the nation) is in my same residence building I want to get a pic with him sometime because he already has a full ride to BYU for basketball after he gets back!  Super cool!  Oh and another experience I have gained so much testimony of the power of prayer.  Their have been so many times where I am praying and telling Heavenly Father that I am so inadequate for this and don't know if I am ready and things like that and while doing that I literally felt like someone wrapped their Heavenly arms around me and it is just so amazing, we as missionaries are truly guarded by angels, I love that feeling.  Oh yeah some pretty big news....  Me and Elder Casey got called to be Zone Leaders!!  I feel so inadequate for this because I have only been here two weeks, but I know that with the aid of the Lord and with my best efforts he will guide me.  So basically I just oversee our whole zone and see how everyone is doing and keep our branch president up to date with what is goin on and things so yeah pretty cool!!  But yeah that is pretty much this week!  Oh and at gym yesterday we got to go with the Mosambique serving elders (all brown) and play Bball and such and my team was down 6-0 (and you play to 7) and then I just stated feeling it and brought our team back to win it 8-6 and so yeah you could say that we are brothers now.  Haha everytime I see them they will be like yo whadup balla and they have been telling all their friends and stuff so it was pretty funny!  Haha they are way cool guys and it was fun to play with them!!  It has been crazy and I absolutely love P Day!!!   Eu todo muito amo!  Ciao Ciao!


Eu te amo Voces!

A couple of 'must have' MTC pictures :)



Monday, April 28, 2014

Info about his zone and such...

Oh I will tell you about my Zone and district.  So there are only 11 missionaries in my zone.  My zone leaders are Elder Price and Elder Alarcon,  both great missionaries and Elders, two other solo elders Elder Mason and Elder Hammond,  Elder Hammon lives in Georgia and was almost on the walking dead!!  Then three solo sisters,  Sister Fuertes (she is in my district), Sister Inhaghaki (japan) she is super nice and awesome, and Sister Miner.  Then in my district there are two other Elders,  Elder Mcghie (happy go lucky guy) and Elder Simpson ( both great Elders and I get along with them but we have different personality types so its a little different.)  And Elder Casey who is a great companion and missionary!  I is awesome to have him as meu companheiro!  But yeah, our branch Presidency is awesome and the coolest branch Presidency ever!  Don't be afraid to send me pictures through e-mail!  I would love to see what is going on!:)  As well as a few printed ones:)