September 25th, 2008 (Email)

Hey I have an email account now!

My P-Day is on Thursdays. It looks like I'm going to be in the missionary choir for the Priesthood Session of Conference so look out for me! I missed the chance to take the survey for the choir but Elder Tate made it and he'd already had the opportunity to be in the choir and he wanted to give someone else the opportunity so I jumped on that and now it seems very likely that i'm going to be able to be a part of that so that's awesome! Elder Tate's a really nice guy. I feel kind of guilty but hey if he's willing to give that up i'm willing to take it. I had to miss the temple today so that i could attend choir practice. Sacrifice. It'll be worth it though. It's a once in a lifetime sorta deal.
I got a Dear Elder from Justin a few days ago. He told me that when he left the "Empty Sea" he felt like he didn't know any Romanian but within a month he was speaking fluently. Spanish isn't wearing me down to bad. I feel like i'm learning it at a sufficient pace. The R.C. (Referral Center) is probably my new favorite thing at the MTC. It's where the missionaries get to take orders for free Book of Mormons (NOT Books of Mormon!) and Bibles and church DVDs and follow up and see if people have received their orders and ask their opinions and challenge them to pray and all that fun stuff. We tend to get lots of calls from people from the South. That's always fun.
Elder Kemp and I are teaching the 2nd lesson at the TRC now. I don't remember what TRC stands for but it's the place where we go to practice teaching the lessons to volunteers. First we have to contact the people in Spanish and say stuff like "Como esta? Tenemos un mensaje acerca de la iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los ultimos dias! Se que la iglesia es verdadera y Jose Smith fue un profeta moderna y tambien Thomas S Monson es un profeta moderna hoy. Cree en Dios? Yo tambien! Se que Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial y somos El hijos." Anyway... Yeah then after that we teach the people in English cuz we don't know the lessons in Spanish well enough to sound intelligent. Well Elder Kemp probably does. He took 4 years of Spanish before he came here. But I don't. Yet. It'll come.
Well the Devotionals here are amazing. First Pres. Uchtdorf, then Elder Hinckley, then Elder Jensen from the Presidency of the 70. All the talks were amazing. After Devotionals on Sundays we get to watch movies. Last Sunday I watched the Joseph Smith movie. That's the 2nd time I've seen that. I love it. Yesterday a bunch of new Elders came into our zone and I saw in their faces an all too familiar expression. Deer in the headlights sorta thing. I'm used to the MTC now. I'm going with the flow of things. Six more weeks until i REALLY get to start! I can't wait.
Well I hope all's well at home. Please keep updating me on what's going on I LOVE hearing about what you've been doing! And yes I do miss mowing the lawn. Going from 5 lawns a week to none ever is really a drastic lifestyle change. I still haven't gained any weight. None at all. I am a rare case here. I don't remember anybody's email adresses so feel free to forward this or post it on the blog or whatever! Tell the grandparents I'd love to hear from them!

Much love!
Elder Tyler Lewis