La canción de los justos es una oración para mí

Buenos Dias!

How is everyone doing?! Things are going very well here at the MTC! Time is flying by that is for sure. My dad has been getting on my case for leaving out details of what we do here so here's a little run through: Our average day consists of 6 hours of class, 1 hour of gym, 3 meals, and 3 hours of studying. We get up at 6:15 and go to bed at 10:30. I am usually tired throughout the day with a little headache because we are constantly learning and studying, pero está bien! The food is pretty good and they have a great variety. My favorite meal we have had would probably have to be the navajo taco we had a few days ago. The rooms are small but it is not too bad because I have two companions so it is just us three instead of the usual 4 per room. The beds are not temporpedic or anything obviously but we are so tired at night that it doesn't really matter. We like the rooms because ours is nice and clean and organized, we don't like how hard the ground is though because it hurts the knees when companionship prayer comes around every night, but its all good we use our pillows. I just recently met one elder, Elder Forrester, going to my mission and he leaves Monday. I know him from my leadership class at BYU so it was nice to finally meet someone else going to my mission. I sleep well at night but it usually takes me awhile to fall asleep because I got spanish floating around in my mind and my brain wants to try to translate everything I think. The clothes are comfortable but I do not like the collar rash I get everyday on my neck from my collar. The shoes are comfortable but we do not walk much so its hard to tell. We get gym time everyday and I appreciate that because I can play basketball, and the competition in our zone is pretty good. We also try to do sit-ups and pull-ups as a district every night. Classes are the same everyday: 3 hours long, 1 hour of language, 1 hour of doctrine, and 1 hour of teaching. We love the two teachers we have. They both got off their missions recently from Uruguay and Chile. Sorry for that random list of stuff, I was answering a list of questions from my dad.

Great news! I am actually headed to the consolate in Salt Lake in a few minutes to meet with them and be granted permission to go to Mexico! I will let you know how it goes next email. Our district continues to learn so much everyday and we try to implement everything we learn throughout the day, such as vocabulary words and teaching strategies. Our district loves singing los himnos (hymns). We are singing about 10 hymns a day and we are planning on performing in sacrament meeting in a couple weeks. Yep you heard correctly, I will be singing in public. I am still just as bad as I was but everyone else in the district is pretty good so I'm excited. We will be singing "Yo sé que vive mi Señor" or "I Know My redeemer Lives". It is a powerful song, and for us, even more so in spanish. Everything is great between my companions and I. We get to be better friends everyday. We are all different but it creates a perfect balance between us. We were able to attend the temple for the first time today so that was very enjoyable. My companions and I taught the first lesson in spanish in the TRC for the first time on Monday. We were expected to teach in english but we felt the spirit and just started going in spanish. I was blessed to be able to express everything I needed to, meet the needs of our investigator, and teach her about the restoration all in spanish! We were so excited and felt the Spirit so strong. Elder Marcel is fluent in portugese so he is making the transition to spanish really fast so he helps Elder Sawyer and I. Elder Sawyer is doing great on his spanish too, he is just working on understanding others and having the confidence to speak up in the lessons. He gets better everyday and I am so impressed with the progression of mis compañeros. We heard from Elder Russell M Nelson of the quorum of the twelve apostles last week and he resolved so many of my fears and doubts, he has truly been called of God. I continue to recieve so many loving and encouraging letters from friends and family and I am so grateful for that!! They strengthen me so much and I love hearing about what is going on in everyone's life. My district leader, who picks up the mail everyday, always makes fun of me for having something everyday haha. What a blessing that is. Know that all is well and that I know that Christ's Gospel brings so much happiness into the lives of millions and that His Gospel is meant for all people, tongues, races, and nations. Love you all!

-Elder Stutz