Week 2, August 6 - Out on the town, scoping some historical sights for a day.

Elder Martinez

Roomates

Hello Mom and all my family,

Things are going great out here in Preston. Time really does just fly by when you are working hard everyday. It feels like I am at church and school for 13 hours a day everyday when I am at the MTC. Its hard. You all said it would be and I didnt believe you, but I do know that is for sure now. From the emails that I read it seems like you have all seen me and all the other missionarys in the MTC in the padgent. Yes I do actually sing....very beautifully at that. But its a good morale boost after a long days study to walk into that stadium and have every person stand and cheer for you. It makes you feel like your doing whats right. The people here are very proud of there church history and the missionarys. After every show they all come up to us and shake our hands and tell us that we are all disciples and workers of our Heavenly Father and we are doing his work. They are right. The first wave of missionarys that came with us to the MTC are leaving tomorrow beacuse they are all speaking english. Its kind of sad because we have become really good freinds and its sad to see them go. But they will all be good missionarys

On a more personal note, i am doing great. I am already losing weight even in the MTC. Some of my pants I have to already double over because they are starting to get bigger. The chefs here are so funny, because there is only about 90 missionarys here right now they all know our names and they all love to talk to us and get to know us while we walk in the line and get our food. I am learning the language really well, at this point its just trying to memorize the vocab. and it is not very easy. The elders that are all going to the Alpine - German speaking mission are all really cool people, and they come from all over the world. Becuase we are all here for the same amount of time and we are all in the same area of the MTC. We have gotten to know each other very well and i have to tell you a story:

Tthere is a companionship of an elder from Great Britian and an elder from France. the elder form Great Britian can speak German ok, about like the rest of us. But the one from France cannot even speak English let alone German. and they told us that as they were giving a mock lesson they were teaching about the plan of salvation and that lead into the commandments. and remember they are all saying this in German and the investigators is speaking German as well. and the investigator asked what are the commandments, and before the elder from
great Gritian could say anything, the French elder said "no sex" in the best german accent he could muster up. and as we heard this we all started laughing so hard we were on the ground rolling around. The only thing that the Great Britian elder could say to us was "you dirty dirty fenchman". it was probably the highlight of my week.

This week on our pday we were also able to go see the the spots of where the first saints congrigated and met and we also saw some other church sites. it was really cool. Very beautiful. I will include some pictures.

well I have to go, more people to email.

Love you mom and all my family. Two weeks down, and 98 more to go. hahah. I'm looking forward to every one of them.

oh and p.s there is going to be five of the 12 apostales coming to see the padgent, and guess who gets to meet them.........this missionary does. hahahaha... I will send pictures if I can get them.