Almost 5 Weeks In 4-16-10

It is really crazy that it has been almost 5 weeks.  Things are still going good here this work is amazing.  This week we have been teaching alot in all Spanish because on Monday we have our first trc in all Spanish I am kinda nervous but I know that I can do it and what I can't do I know the Lord will help me to do.  The temple was amazing today.  I really look forward to going every week it is always so great and always just brings the best spirit.  I miss everyone at home a lot.  I feel like I have been gone for like years but at the same time it feels like I got here yesterday.  One Tuesday we had a devotional by Glenn L. Pace.  He is a 70 (Quorum of the 70).  It was so amazing.  I think it was the most spiritual meeting I have ever been in.  He spoke on God's love for us.  He asked that it not even be recorded like it normally is because the things he had to share were very personal and sacred to him, so just that made the meeting really special.  The spirit was so strong and I loved the whole talk.   I got so much out of it and it was just amazing.

I had to spend some money off my debit card because they closed the gym and now we have outside gym. It is still super cold here when you have gym at 6:35 in the morning, so I had to buy a sweat shirt so that I wouldnt freeze.  The first day we had outside gym it was so, so cold, so I decided to buy one so sorry haha. But other than the outside gym, the week was great.  I have never worked so hard.  I think that I worked the hardest this week that I ever have.  I think that it is because of the lessons in spanish haha so I really am trying to get prepared but it is hard. Although every time I start to get discouraged, I just think of dad and I am so grateful that I am not learning Korean haha.  I feel like Spanish is hard but I dont think it even compares to some of the things I could be learning so I keep pushing through. Sometimes I feel like my head just doesn't work in Spanish but the Lord is blessing me a ton and I have learned so much.  Every time I feel like I'm not good at Spanish I just think back to the first day and how much I knew then, haha.  Nothing, so just the fact that I can understand people and teach a lesson in Spanish is really amazing.  For the last like week and a half, Hermano Dubois, my teacher, has been only speaking Spanish and all his lessons and everything are in Spanish.  When I came into the MTC, if someone taught in Spanish I wouldn't get even one word but suprisingly I get almost everthing he teaches.  It is amazing and I know that that is only possible because of the Lord.  He blesses us all so much in all that we do here.  It's so amazing.  

I just got my package.  It was great.  Thank you so much Mom and the pictures were so amazing.  Tell all the kids thank you and I will hang them all up in my room!!!  Thank you so much for the letter Dad, it was great to get a letter from you and it helped me alot! Tell Julie thank you for the package. Also, tell Kimi thank you for everything she sent.  I can't wear tie tacks at all so don't send any more of them.  I wish I could wear them, but they don't like us to so I don't.  And about the ties, really any ugly tie or weird tie at like DI would be great haha.  There is lots of tie trading so that's always fun.  But you know me, I really just like weird ugly stuff so if you run into any please send them. 

It's so great being here and growing so much every day.  It is so weird, I haven't slept in or even had trouble getting up once here.  It is really amazing because I don't think I have ever went 5 weeks getting up on time every day haha.  But the Lord blesses me and I get up right on time every day.  Lots of days I feel tired but I always get through them and I know that is because the Lord blesses me to get through them and stay awake. 

Elder Grow isn't in my district.  He is in my zone so that's a little different.  In your letter you said district.  But ya, it has been great just to have someone I knew from home. But ya, everything is just going really good.  I can't wait to have the trc on Monday just to get it over with and see if  I  can do it haha, which I know I can because the Lord will make sure I do make it.  But that will just be a big relief to get through my first all Spanish trc.  It's so get to have such a great family and always get letters.  I love hearing from everyone and its is always great to hear from all the kids.  It always brings me a laugh and smile.  Make sure to let them all know that I love them and that I am so thankful for their prayers, they help me a ton.  Also, tell them I am praying for them.  Also, I love everyone else back at home.  I miss you all and I can also feel your prayers and they help me out so much.  If it wasn't for prayer, there is no way that I could do this and get through it.  It's so weird, the days go by slow but the weeks fly by.  I feel like yesterday was p-day but it has been a week.  I guess when we are all working hard it just flys by and you dont realize it.  My testimony is growing so much every day.  I am just so grateful for this wonderful gospel.  I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to grow up in such a wonderful and great family that had the gospel.  I am so pumped and ready to go and take this great gospel to those who are waiting for me in Mexico.  I know that this is where I need to be.  I know that there are people in Mexico that are waiting for me to come and share this message with them.  I know that there are people that need to hear it form me and only me.  I love you all and I miss you so much but this gospel is true and it is amazing!!!!

Love,

Elder Despain

Letter To Kimi 4-9-10

Dear Kimi,
  Well, Hello sister :)  Thanks for the mail, postcards, letters it's great, so thanks! :)  Sorry I didn't write last week.  It just is crazy.  There is no time!  Well I wish you luck on the house thing  ( Kimi's note:  We are trying to find a house to rent to get out of our apartment)  I hope you get one you like.  General Conference was so amazing.  It made me miss you all because it was all centered on families but it was still amazing!  My favorite talk was in the Priesthood session by President Uchtdorf.  It was on learning a language and patience.  He talked about him learning English and then a lot about patience.  It was so great and so perfect.  All the talks on teaching as parents made me realize that here at the MTC I am not only learning for my investigators in Mexico, I am learning to be a good teacher to myself, my future family, in my future ward callings and so much more.  Th eMTC is preparing me to be a great teacher for the rest of my life.  Ya sure the short term is for the people of Mexico, but it will be a blessing for the rest of my life.  But ya conference was great!!  I love what you said about scripture reading.  I encourage you to try and read in the morning which is very hard, but I promise that if you pray before reading, have a question or problem in mind when reading and then give yourself 5 minutes to think after reading.  I can promise you that you will receive those blessings from our Heavenly Father and you will get answers to those questions or problems that you had in mind when you read!  I know that this will happen through reading the scriptures.  I know for a fact that it will bless your lives and make each day better!  I love you and I know the only way for you to be truly happy is through this gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We can receive Heavenly Father and Jesus' help through prayer and scripture study!  We just have to do those things and be diligent in doing them if we want their help.  In 1 Nephi 10:19 it talks about being diligent in seeking.  Then again in 1 Nephi 16:28 but in that we can relate the pointer to the Holy Ghost in our lives.  It guides us according to our faith and diligence and then not only to that but to what we do when we get those promptings we must follow then and then we will get more and more as we follow them more.  So we need to have faith and diligence to receive the pointing or the Holy Ghost's promptings then we must act on the promptings then if we do we will receive more and more, more often!  So I promise if you read daily and seek with diligence you will receive answers, promptings and blessings!  So read!  The Gospel is true!  The Church is true!  The blessings we get from it are real!  I love you!

Love your little bro,
Elder Despain

P.S. Tell Zane that I loved his picture.  It is on the wall next to Jayden's and all the Elderslove it and the saying "me and you are alien missionaries  I have been watching Monsters vs. Aliens a lot"  "(CAN YOU TELL I AM)"  Ha Ha Love it!  (Kimi's note:  The picture Zane sent was the first picture of a person he had ever drawn and it really looked like an alien with three eyes, but we were all proud of it!)

Love you all

Letter April 10

Dear Mom & Dad, (y = and)

I love you! Tell everyone that I love them y that I love hearing from them y I can feel their prayers!. Tell the grand kids that I love them y that I love that they pray for me! Tell them to listen to their mom's. This week was great and Conference was amazing. I loved it all! I realized that the MTC isn't just teaching me to be a better teacher for my investigator in Mexico. After conference, I realized it is much more than that. They are preparing me to be a better teacher throughout my whole like, a better Sunday School teacher, and to be a better teacher as a parent and much, much more. Can you send me some more stamps? I have used a lot of them! Also, if you ever go to like DI or a thrift store, would you look for and old plaid tie or two haha? I would love an old plaid tie or two like that one I got at DI that was a clip on, but I want regular tie ones, haha. Just if you ever see one:). I got a CD made of my pictures that I have taken here. It was only like 2 dollars, so I will send that to you when they finish making it, probably like Monday. This week has just been so great! I am still doing good. The Spanish is still every hard y I'm not ready to teach in all Spanish, but the Lord will help me if I keep giving it my all! I love this work & I love the Atonement. I'm so grateful for it y it's amazing how much I use it. We watched a talk from Elder Holland and it was on the Atonement in Missionary work. It was so great y it really struck me how true it is. Even since I have been here the Atonement has meant so much more to me. We teach by the Spirit so much y we need every little bit of that in our lessons. Every rule, every min. we are late going to bed takes away from that Spirit so to get that back we must use the Atonement so that we can teach with that full power again. Ever since watching that talk, I have been thinking about it and that is what I thought of (see above example) and that I really use it so much more, like daily! Since realizing that our lesson on the Plan of Salvation has meant so much more, and to my companions also. Without even talking about it our lessons on the Plan of Salvation just became centered on the Atonement in every part. And by doing that, it has become so much more powerful. We taught it twice, both times to missionaries in our zone this week after watching that talk. We taught them as missionaries not as investigators like we normally do. So since they are missionaries it is usually hard to teach them the lesson because they already know it. But by centering it on the Atonement, the lesson became so powerful and during those two lessons, I don't think I have ever taught by the Spirit y felt the Spirit so strong! It was just so amazing. I am growing so much. I'm just grateful so much for the opportunity I have to use the Atonement daily in my life. I'm so grateful for this Gospel! Thank you so much for raising me in a home with this wonderful Gospel! I know that this is the only thing that can make us truly happy! Thanks for everything. I a great parents and a wonderful family. You are all so amazing to me and I am so very lucky. I'm sorry my letter isn't long today but I hope the email answered some questions that you had. I love you so much y I'm so grateful for all of you! Thank you for your letters y your prayers. The prayers really help y I really can feel them. I love you y miss you all.
Love,
Elder Despain

Email 4-9-10

So things here are still going good! I'll try to answer all your questions ha. About the cd player, no I haven't used it at all. We are not allowed to listen to any music because if every elder listened to music it would be way loud. So ya, I don't get to use that, but you could send me more cds so that I will have them in the field because it is much easier to ship them here than to Mexico. About my room, yes, we all sleep in the same room so there is 3 of us in there. There are normally 4 elders to a room but we only have 3 because of our tri-companionship. It is pretty cold, or it has been anyways. It has warmed up some. It has snowed probably 12 times at least since I've been here, but it hasn't been to bad. I am really glad for the sweaters they have been nice. About the suits, we had to wear them every day since I have been here, but on Monday after conference it went to summer dress. Now we can wear what we want as long as it is the same as what your companion is wearing. If he wants a suit, then we all have to wear a suit. If he wants long sleeves, no suit, we have to have the same. So ya, we just have to match. But even with summer dress, we still have to wear a suit on the temple grounds and to church, devotionals, and firesides. It has been nice being able to mix up what we wear this last week. Even though it is summer dress, it is still kinda chilly at times haha. The laundry room is pretty big and lots of washers and dryers but still sometimes it fills up and you have to wait to wash. The book store is in the middle of the MTC so we go there a lot. Sorry I had to use my debit card but I needed some things. I got a shirt that says Mexico and my mission so ya haha thanks. We get a little money on this little card so we can use that for little things we need from the book store. It's kinda cool going in there because it is the only thing like the real world haha. So sometimes we just go and walk through it and don't get anything ha, but it works out good. On Wednesday we had 2 elders from our district leave to Peru MTC so that was sad. Elder Wayne and Elder Borque. It was sad to lose them because now we only have 7 of us in the district, but it is still good and it will be awesome for them. Also on Wednesday we got a new district in a zone and one of the elders that came in with that district was Elder Grow from our Stake. I was good buddies with him in high school. I don't know if you remember but I went snowboarding with him or took him snowboarding one time so that is awesome. I'm sure it was nice for him also because the first day is crazy and it would have been nice for me to know someone so that is cool. The MTC is still so great. I am learning tons and tons every day. I finally got an answer in the RC. That is where you call people on the phone and ask if they got whatever thing they ordered from the church and you get to try and invite them to have the missionaries. Well anyways, you get a lot of answering machines so that can be frustrating but this week I got a woman that answered and although she didn't accept my offer, I still was able to bear my testimony and talk with her. It was great and it was a big boost for me because you know me, I hate talking on the phone even to people I know. I know you're all probably shocked I would even do that, let alone like it haha, but it was great to have the opportunity to bear my testimony. This week coming up on Monday, we teach our last lesson in English. The contact door approach and everything is in Spanish, then the lesson is in English on the plan of happiness. So that is all good and easy, but that means that next week on Monday in the TRC it is all in Spanish and that is not easy. I am very nervous about that. We have started practicing for it, but teaching a whole lesson in Spanish is crazy hard but I know if I keep doing everything I can, the Lord will make it possible. I got a letter from Lee it was really great and if you could please tell her thank you for her thoughts. I wish I had time to write her but there is just not enough time, so please tell her thank you for her thoughts and prayers. I hope Julie got my letter. Christi in her letter said Julie wanted me to write her and I had already sent a letter to her so I hope she had got it by now. If not, tell her I did send one. Tell all the grandkids thanks for their prayers and pictures. I hope you told Jayden that I absolutely loved his picture and that it is on the wall next to Zane's picture. I will leave it up. It's awesome. It's just really great here. I am just trying to work my hardest, use every moment I have, the best I can, and learn the most I can. I know this church is true and this gospel is so amazing! Conference was so great. I loved it so much. The spirit was so strong and all the talks were amazing. I really loved Elder Uchdorf's talk in Preisthood about learning English and patience. Both applied perfect. I loved so many more. They were all great and I missed you all a lot because the topic was on families. I know I need to be here and it is amazing. Well, got to go if I want to send this. I love you all so much. You're in my prayers and I can feel your prayers for me. Thank you,

Love,

Elder Despain

I GOT MY FIRST LETTER!!! ~Julie

My Dearest sister Julie,
Hahaha did you like that ha! Thanks for the letter! I hope you have been reading the letters I sent to mom! Because I haven't written you any I feel bad but I am now so that is good right? I wanted to write you but it is crazy here there isn't enough time in the day they keep us so busy and we can only write letters on Pdays not that I would have time any other day even if they let us haha. But busy is good I really do love it here the spirit is in everything we do and it is amazing. Your always happy here even when you're sad you're still happy its so weird but so awesome. So you know how you were joking about Grandma sending me letters in cursive and then I can't read them haha! She did ha and she sent me a card and it was so hard to read but don't worry it gets better! My Branch President, President Loid writes in cursive ha and we have to write him a letter once a week and he writes us back so that is a challenge to read HAHA so I think you cursed it by joking with me about it! But I am getting better at reading it Ha. When I got Grandma's card today I didn't have as hard or a time reading it because I have been reading President Loids HA. So that story about Ayla's mission is so funny. I love her and her great imagination! Tell Bret that I have been having a hard time getting anywhere on Call of Duty without him too! Translation: I don't get to play it and I miss him also! That's awesome that you got to go to the Easter Pageant! And that is so great that so many people went with you! It was like I was telling mom it isn't about converting people it's about bringing them closer to Christ and going to the Pageant would definitely do that for everyone! So I am still not very good at Spanish but I have improved so much its so crazy. I never would have thought I could learn so fast but the Lord really does bless us here it's amazing! I can feel everyones prayers so much! They help me out so much! Thank you for your prayers and please keep praying for me and for my visa! It is so crazy to me that I have been her two and a half weeks and by the time you get this almost three weeks it's just crazy the time goes by slow but then I look back and yesterday seems like it was the day I came in it's just crazy! I have grown so much since I have been here though so many prayers have been answered and my testimony grows so much every day! This gospel is so truly amazing and it really is the only way to true happiness. I love you and miss you all a ton but i know I couldn't be any better place! Sorry I didn't write you sooner! I will try to be better! I am praying for you and I hope you don't feel too sick :( Well I got to go I love you! Bye
Love,
Elder Despain
P.S. I hope you found a new pickle runner (someone to get you your pickles that is)

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!!

Letter 3-30-10

Dear Mom y Dad,
Thanks for everything! I hope you got my emails this week! Sorry that I sent it to the wrong one last week. I resent that one so I hope you will get them both! Please don't email back, just write me back on Dear Elder if you could because 30 min goes by so quick! Plus if I get it through Dear Elder I can read it during the week y I don't have to wait till Friday to get my mail! I love you so much! The MTC is so great. I am growing so so much it's amazing! On Sunday at our devotional, we had Elder Robins of the quorum of the 70 speak to us. It was amazing. He spoke on the conversion power of the Book of Mormon. It was amazing! After that we had a district devotional and we all bore our testimonies. It was great! Sister Loid my Branch President's wife said "the greatest person you will convert on this mission will be yourself." It's so true and I am already seeing it is great! In PMG (Preach My Gospel) it says you can only convert people to the level of your conversion, so I'm just trying to build on what Sister Loid said and get myself converted to the highest level as possible so that I can be the most prepared as possible to serve the people of Mexico! I'm so excited to go down there and serve! The time here goes by so quickly! There is so much to do every day and not enough hours in the day to do it all! But I love this gospel and I know it's true! I know I couldn't be any better place right now! I love you so much! I hope you get the emails I miss you!
Love,
Elder Despain
P.S. The temple was great. I got to go today. It was awesome and a good break, but very spiritual.