Email 4-2-10

So this week was good. It was hard but good. I am still growing so much every day. My Spanish is getting better and better every day! I am missing all of you at home a lot though but the Lord helps me through it. Being here is just such a blessing. I am just happy all the time even when I get down or I am a little sad, I am still happy and that is because this gospel is really what makes us truly happy. I love it so much. So you were asking about my Sundays. Yes, we have sacrament meeting. All the talks are by are zone because it is a zone sacrament meeting. We all have to prepare talks and then when they get up to say what the program is, they say who is talking and so you just have to be ready. All the talks are in Spanish so ya, but last week we had fast Sunday so no talks, just fast and testimony which I was very happy about because that way I didn't have to prepare a talk for it. The first Sunday they did talks and it was hard to understand but I could understand a little and it was still really good. I am so excited for this weekend and conference. It is going to be awesome. I'm so so excited. But no, we don't have priesthood on normal Sunday. We just have a district class meeting and one of us has to teach the lesson. At night we have a fireside and then we watch a church movie like the Joseph Smith movie or the Testament or something. So that can be fun. You were asking about my daily plan. I will write that in a letter because it changes day to day and I only have 30min on here so it would be hard to put that all in. But, I will send it in a letter. I love being here. It's just so crazy how much I have grown. I don't feel like I have been here for two and a half weeks but I have been, and then again how much I have grown in my testimony and in the language that makes it feel like so much longer that I have been here. The food is starting to get old haha, but it gets us by and they feed us good for how many they have to serve every day. But mom, I miss your home cooking though a lot. The food doesn't really taste bad it is just the same things often so after 2 and a half weeks it is getting old haha. I got my package today. I loved it so much. Thank you! I just cant get over how much prayer is helping me here in the MTC. I have never prayed so often but I don't know why I haven't been because it's such a blessing.Ii have just been missing out on so many blessing by not praying this much because every time I pray I get blessed. So that has just been so amazing to me and I am so grateful for that. I don't know what I would do with out it. It is getting harder here though the days seem to be getting a little longer there is so much studying to do and just not enough time to do it. I never get done everything I want to but it makes for a long day being in the classroom all day haha. I have really been thankful for gym it is a nice break to be able to get out and run and be competitive. I think it helps to break all the stress that all the studying builds up. But even though it makes for a long day, I really love studying. I just get to study the scriptures so much and everything it is great! It is so crazy to me how much they don't tell you how to teach or anything because every person we teach will need something different. They don't really tell us how to teach, just to study and then let the spirit tell you what to teach so that has been crazy to me but really awesome. This week in the TRC where we teach investigators, we taught the first lesson of the restoration again but we did a lot better! When we got done teaching and the teachers or the fake investigators were telling us what we can do better, all of them said to me, "You did great. I learned something new from you and I really loved that I actually learned something new." So I don't know what I said, but I thought that was really cool because our whole purpose is to bring everyone, even members, closer to Christ and that made me have confidence that I am doing that. So, I really had a cool experience with that! And then also this week, we started doing the call center. You go and you call people that ordered stuff from the church and you ask if they got what they wanted and how they liked whatever it is they got. Then you get to share your testimony or whatever you want to say and invite them to have missionaries come visit them or stuff like that. So, that was scary but way cool. I found out that fear really is just the opposite of faith and really all you need to do is push the fear aside and have faith and it became easy. When I did that, the Lord blesses me with what I need to say and when to say it. I love this gospel. It really is amazing. It is blessing me so much and I just love it so much. The temple today was awesome like it always is and a great break and that was really nice to get to go to. I love you all so much! Tell Jayden that I loved his picture. It is hanging on my wall and all my companions and missionaries in the zone are jealous because it is so awesome. So tell him thank you. It was great. I will keep it up there until I leave! Thank you for all the letters. I love you guys and your support is amazing and helps me so much!

Love,

Elder Despain!!