Over 6 Weeks - 4-30-10

So this week has been great! Elder Gibson and two other elders in my district got their visas this morning, so I am hoping that means mine won't be far behind. Maybe, just maybe, I will get mine by the end of the day today because they said they got a lot of them in from Mexico and they are still searching through them, so I am praying. And if I don't get it today, I will just keep praying because my time here in the MTC is getting short! I am going to fast for it(my visa) on Sunday! It is so crazy how much I have grown. My Spanish is getting so much better. I am getting to the point where I feel like I can say almost anything I want. Some times, well lots of times, it takes me a second or two to think of a different way to say what I want to so that I can say it in Spanish, but in all I feel like I can get across what I want to. We have started teaching the second lesson, The Plan of Salvation, a lot because that is what we are teaching in TRC on Monday. This lesson was the hardest in English for me because it is really easy to go to deep because growing up in the church I know a lot about it, but I have had to learn to tell it very simply so that it can be understood. So this lesson has been hard in Spanish but I have been putting in a lot of hard work and when we taught it this morning it went very good.

So something really great happened on Tuesday. We had our Tuesday night devotional like always, but this week the speaker was L Tom Perry!!!!!!!!! It was amazing. Let me tell you, when he walked in the door we all stood and he just brought with him such a great spirit. I feel like in the MTC the spirit is already really strong, but when he walked in it just went out the roof. It was amazing. His talk and testimony was so great. He pretty much gave the first lesson of the restoration but in an amazing way with amazing spirit. He told about how Joseph Smith is a true prophet and that The Book of Mormon is true and just so much my testimony grew so much. It was just such a great talk. I wish I could just read the whole thing to you because it was amazing. I know that he is a disciple of Jesus Christ and you can feel that in the spirit he brings with him. It was really so great. And also he is so tall. I knew he was tall, but wow, he is really tall haha.

We had our new teacher for the first time this week. Her name is Hermana Bingham. She is a great teacher and I have already learned a lot from her. Her dad is Elder Nash of the 70. He is an area president in Peru, so that is kinda cool. But this week has just been very good and I have just grown so much I feel like I have gotten to a point were every day I like double in what I know and how big my testimony gets. I just am trying to work my hardest in here because I know that if I slack of in here, I will regret it so much in the field and for the rest of my life. I will never get this time back and I will never have such a great opportunity to grow so much daily. I love this work and I can feel the blessings that I receive from this work. This gospel is truly amazing and is really the only thing that can make people truly happy. Without this gospel, you will always be searching to fill a hole inside you. Tell Lee that I loved her letter and that it helped me to get that. Tell her thanks for writing me.

About the pants, the color that we ordered was not navy, it was gray, I am pretty sure. So maybe that is why they didn't know but ya I think it was a gray pair. I don't know of any place here to buy any and so ya. I don't really know what size but Pomeroy's should have it??

Ya a couple weeks ago, we were all at dinner and I was talking to Hermana Whipple and that she was from AZ. And that she knew Robert and Nanette and so we were just talking about it, and so we found out that we are second cousins, haha, which was funny but cool. She is not in my district, she is in my Zone, which is a little different. My district is the 7 missionaries (two companion-ships and then my 3 some) and then the Zone is made up of 4 or 5 districts so ya that is how that works. She is in the district that leaves really soon. Some leave on Sunday night, some leave Monday and a few leave Tuesday. Which is sad to lose them. My like best friend that I have made here in the MTC is in that district, elder Adams, so that kinda stinks, that he and all of the rest are leaving but I'm pumped for them to get out there! I am so pumped to get out into the field and serve in Mexico. Up until this week I felt so unprepared because I felt like my Spanish couldn't even get me by. But after this week, I feel so much better about it and I have come to rely on the spirit a lot more. So now I just feel so pumped to go out and serve! I know that this message will bring the people of Mexico so much happiness. It is really crazy. I really have been feeling the gift of tongues. When I get into lessons it just comes and I can speak so much easier and I remember so much more. I have started speaking in like only Spanish all day and it has been helping me so much to learn and grow! When I write in my journal, it is really funny as I write every word I know in Spanish, as I write the English word the Spanish word for it come into my head it is weird but cool. Well, I love you all. Tell the kids thanks for the pictures. I love them and thanks for the letters. Keep writing me. I love you all so much and miss you all a lot!

Love,
Elder Despain