June 23, 2011

Salutations friends, family, and complete strangers! Elder Yates here telling everyone that I got my travel plans! So exciting! The UNexciting part is that my flight leaves on tuesday the 28th at 10:00 PM. AT NIGHT! I'm going to have a long flight ahead of me. but it's okay. I'm excited. anyways. I scheduled for a layover in Los Angeles and then I'm supposed to land in Guatemala City at 6:30 in the morning. I can't wait. I can't believe it's already been almost 3 weeks. There is only one other elder in my district going to Guatemala the same day (but different mission) and another leaving that day too to go to the Madrid, Spain MTC. There is another elder who is supposed to go to Spain but his visa hasn't come yet so he has to stay a little bit longer. Actually, he has a meeting with the Spain Consolate on monday so let's hope everything goes smoothly and he gets to leave soon. Anyways, this week is so busy! First of all, one of the highest recorded number of missionaries entered yesterday. There were about 600 missionaries that entered yesterday! There were only about 400 when I came in. The 'population' here so to speak, jumped from about 2100 missionaries to about 2700 almost 2800 missionaries. So needless to say it's busy right now. And on top of that, all of the new mission presidents are here this week and it's customary for general authorities to speak to the mission presidents during this week so many parts of the buildings are closed off for safety reasons. In fact, about 10 minutes ago when me and a couple of elders from my district were leaving lunch, we saw Elder Christofferson in the hallway and he waved to us. Apparently about 2 minutes after we left he came over and shook some missionaries hands, looks like we should have stayed a little longer. oh well.

Oh and just so everyone knows, every week we have to wake up early and go do service and last week we had to clean one of the study buildings.  Guess what job me and Elder Peterson got? That's right, toilet duty. So there you go. The universe does have a sense of humor. Karma i guess. Thankfully this week we had to sweep but just thought it was funny that last week I got stuck with toilet duty. Oh well it wasn't THAT bad.

Well tonight Elder Peterson and I are teaching our first lesson entirely in Spanish. I'm very nervous but I'm hoping everything goes good. I'm hoping the spirit, as well as the gift of tongues, helps us out. It should be fine, but pray for us anyway! :)

I saw Tyler Hubbard today. I didn't get a chance to talk to him because he was on his way to class. But yeah he's here. I'm still looking for Kevin and Jack and President Weed. They should be around here somewhere. I see Mitchell Leblanc pretty much everyday because we have class in the same building and he said he hasn't seen any of them. I'll keep looking though.

I also got to go to the temple again today! I love the temple. It's the best.

Thank you everyone for the letters! I really appreciate them! They are great. But please no more goodies/snacks/treats/cookies/brownies/anything edible. I promise they aren't starving me here and I really can't eat all the food. But the gesture is appreciated I promise. When I get out into the mission field please feel free to send me whatever your heart desires or what you think my heart will desire, but as for right now, nada mas por favor :)

Morgan Howard, if you're reading this. I got you dearelder but I don't have your address so please send it to me so I can write you back! As for everyone else who wrote me, thank you! I'm working very hard to write all of you back :) so expect a letter sometime soon!

Well everyone, my time is coming to a close for this week. I need to go get my hair cut soon. It's a rule that you have to get it cut at least 5 days before you leave. So even though I don't need one, I have to get one. Before I leave, I want to share a scripture with all of you. Please go read Mosiah 4:30 and apply it to your lives! It's a great scripture and on top of that, keep reading your scriptures everyday! They will bring you peace and blessings and plus Jesus loves it when you read them, trust me. =) Well my time is up. The timer is flashing. I'm going to send some pictures home soon so hopefully you can see me here and my big smiles! I love you all with all my heart and hopefully when you hear from me next, I will be in Guatemala. =D (and hopefully I'll see Thomas S Monson!)

Love,

Elder Yates