Week 2

Hola friends and family!

It´s been another good week here in the MTC! It´s starting to fly by now and it´s crazy. New missionaries come in just a week and then we will be the old missionaries here which is super weird to think about. This week flew by 10x faster compared to the first week. Looking back on it the first week was pretty bad, haha. I´m probably gonna be repetitive in this because I don't really remember what I said last week. I'm getting used to the food here, I don't know how they like to eat chicken and rice every meal every day but at least its not some weird food like duck feet or goat eyes or something. But they love sauce here and I'm way happy about that because as you know sauce is my favorite food. We saw the sun a couple times this week so that was pretty awesome. They say in September it starts to warm up and get sunnier and I'm looking forward to that. I have this cardigan that is tiny but I wear it anyways because its chilly and the Elders are hatin on it but I don't care. This next paragraph is gonna be stories and funny stuff here and the last one is going to be about all the cool experiences and spiritual matters.

My companion is a great guy like I told you last week. He has been homesick and stuff this week though so thats been tough for him but he is so smart and we get closer and closer every day. The Elders in my district are so fun and easy to get along with, I truly got so blessed because I am an impatient guy. One time this week Elder Varney was climbing into his bunk and the bed slats from his bunk fell and hit Elder King and it was one of the funniest experiences of my life, oh also they love my impressions so thats fun, haha. But some of the Elders here like to goof off too much and be kinda disobedient and that tests my patience a lot but last night we had a broadcast of Elder Neil L. Anderson and he talked about how important it is for missionaries to love everyone so I am working on that. OH, ALSO—I wreck everyone in ping pong here, I hold my title as the Forehand Hero. Also there was a earthquake this morning and it was super super tiny but it was cool to say that you've been in an earthquake. Also also we get to go to the Lima Temple on Wednesdays and that is such a great blessing and a cool experience. I love going to the Temple.

It is crazy how much I feel the spirit here and how much more my gospel knowledge has increased. To be honest when I came I thought I had a pretty good knowledge of the gospel, but it is a literal feast here and I LOVE it. I have grown a deeper love for my Savior and his perfect, selfless sacrifice. It is center of this Gospel and our whole role in life. I feel His love and support for me more and more each day. Sunday was another fantastic day, I never thought I'd say this but Sundays are way better than P-days.  We had a lot of talks this week about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Atonement and there have been very few days in my life where I've felt the Holy Ghost more. I love to read the Book of Mormon now. I'll be honest, back home there were times where I thought reading BoM was a chore but now it is all I want to do, haha. I am also reading Our Search For Happiness by M. Russell Ballard and it is one of the best book I've ever read. It describes our Church so well and has so many plain ad precious truths. Big testimony builder. ALSO, if any of you haven't listened to Safety for the Soul by Elder Holland I encourage you to do so. It is soooo good. We got to listen to that this week and I am so grateful. That was like the only conference talk I got to listen to in English though, haha. I miss listening to conference talks a lot. Here are some scriptures that I read this week and are awesome: 2 Nephi 2:8-9, D&C 138 is so cool, Mosiah chapter 27 and Alma chapter 5 is great too. My Spanish is getting a lot better! In our lessons with 'investigators' I have gotten to the point where I don't have to read anything in Spanish. I just bring my bullet points and I can give a good part of a lesson. I can understand a lot of what the natives say but I still have a looooong way to go. Also SORRY this email was so long.

Elder Hale

Lima, Peru Temple

Me and Elder Perkins

Me and my cardigan that everyone is hatin on.

This is me in my lounging position.