Hey there Familia!!
Wow another week has already passed. :) How's it going?!! I loved getting all of your letters and treats. Thanks so much!!! We had an awesome week here and I have so much to share. :)
First to answer some questions, Alex, my favorite food so far was the guacamole burger with curly fries, which I washed down with my regular glass of chocolate milk. My companion is great and we are getting along just fine. My roommates are awesome too and luckily so is all of my district. My favorite parts of the day, well, is personal study time which we get a lot of everyday. Though I really love movie night on Sundays! The last three Sundays we've watched, Legacy, The Joseph Smith Movie, and last night was The Testaments. It's just a cool awesome spiritual experience!! Yes, I've seen Matt Haskell and I've taken a picture with him and I'm going today to pick up my pictures that I ordered a while ago so you should be getting some pictures from me within the week. :) And yes, I play basketball a lot--everyday almost--but I also love playing 4 square!! Oh and guess what?! On Saturday while playing basketball I was able to dunk it in a game, twice!! haha maybe it's because I've gained 10 pounds since I've gotten here. :) Don't worry though, I'm doing push-ups and sit-ups every night to counter all my eating. :)
Alright Mom, church starts at 1:45 for us and goes till 2:45. I played the piano again yesterday and without incident. Luckily I have not had to speak in church yet, but yes, everyone in the whole zone needs to prepare a talk each week just in case. It's been easy so far because I've been able to copy out of Preach My Gospel, until I know more Spanish then I'll write my own. :) Way to go Tanner and Alex for making the basketball teams this year!! I was surprised how early in the day the games were this year for Lehi. How did they do? How did Tanner play? And good luck to you, Alex, this week against Timpview.
Now from my last week:
Monday, I went and did initiatories at the Provo Temple, then wrote letters back to people that wrote to me and then did my laundry, which is a new experience. :) (meaning in a laundromat environment)
Tuesday was an awesome day!! I actually played some volleyball that morning, then the best part of all was we had an apostle come speak to us for our Tuesday night devotional!! Elder D. Todd Christofferson came and spoke to us about his mission in Argentina and some experiences that helped him as a missionary!! It was totally awesome because I was just sitting 10 yards or so away from the pulpit so we were really close! He mentioned how he had just gone to speak in Argentina, and then I remembered reading about how Elder Biggs said that he was excited for Elder Christofferson to come speak in their mission. So that was really cool!! Then afterwards we went as a District and discussed it and again really felt the spirit!!
Wednesday: This was a normal day for us. Started with personal study time. I'm starting to read Jesus the Christ and I'm loving it and already 200 pages in! I just love learning about our Savior's life and all the cool little neat things that we don't see while reading the scriptures. Then we had TALL time and I worked on grammar principles. Then we had gym time which is always fun now because I can relieve some stress. Then we had 6 hours of class with a 30 minute dinner break in the middle. We taught two investigators that night, Guadalupe and Juan Jose. This was our second time teaching Guadalupe and for both times we only had 10 minutes to teach them. So we are practicing how to begin teaching right now. :) This week we are starting TRC (Teacher Resource Center) where we get to teach a volunteer a first lesson all in Spanish again. :)
Thursday, Thanksgiving :) Well that day was a way different experience. I honestly missed home a lot and doing the normal day routine but it turned out to be good in the end. :) We started off the morning with a bang! Elder Russell M. Nelson came and spoke to us!! We had a morning devotional and the rumor was that it was going to be an apostle from the head of the missionary department, which is either Elder Nelson or Elder Holland. So again, we were sitting 7 rows back just right of the pulpit and it was a really neat experience!! He talked about how he was grateful for lots of things but especially how when he was a new apostle President Benson assigned him and another Seventy to be in charge of growing the Church in Europe especially advancing the Church in the communist countries, including trying to get into Russia. It was miraculous how the Lord prepared a way for His will to be accomplished. :) Eventually the Church was recognized in Russia. Then that day we did a service project for the Humanitarian division of the Church. We made in total 8000 injury kits for people in Sudan and that surrounding area! My job on my table was to put 2 band aids into a plastic bag that was being passed down the table. Just our table made 160 and we did this in about 30 minutes. :) Then that night we had kettle corn popcorn as we watched 17 Miracles, which was awesome with a bunch of missionaries.
Friday: There was no black Friday for us, the bookstore wasn't even open. haha We had 6:35am gym time, which usually means that I play 4 square cause it's too early in the morning for me. :) Then it was just a normal day after that where we ended again with teaching investigators at night--which are going really well. :) Now that Thanksgiving is over they turned on the Christmas lights in the main open foyer and I've taken pictures and will get you some of those asap.
Saturday, was our day of service which we basically cleaned bathrooms in building 11M starting at 6:30am until we were done. :) Then we had class again for 6 hours at night with the 30 minute dinner break. Wednesday and Friday nights are the hardest but it's all good because me and Elder DeFriez taught a really good first lesson to our teacher, Juan.
Sunday: day of the big surprise! So yesterday we had interviews with the branch presidency like scheduled. And I got a big surprise when I was asked to be Zone Leader along with Elder DeFriez!! This came as a blessing and as a humbling calling. haha So yeah, now I'm Zone Leader. It's nothing big in the MTC, but just thought you should know. We were announced in Sacrament meeting and then right afterwards we got some overall training. We were trained with another 40 or so new ZL's, which I guess isn't surprising, seeing that there are 57 zones in the MTC. :) Our basic responsibility is to watch over the new missionaries that come in and then prepare sacrament meeting every week. :)
So that is that and I hope everyone has a great week this next week!! Please let me know how everything is going!! I just know that what I'm doing is the right thing!! Thanks for all of your support and I love you!! The Church is true and my message is true and this work is the work of God and Jesus Christ.
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
Oh and Go BYU!!!
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