May 28, 2015 Another Week Down!

It's so great to hear news from home. Congrats Cole!!!! I never got to graduate from Elementary school, so that's such a cool experience. Its important to stay humble but at any time if you are the outright best at something, let that build your confidence. Confidence is one of the most important traits you can have in life, It's becoming super apparent here at the MTC. It paired with faith will set you apart from your peers in substantial way.

We did as a matter of fact have a really awesome speaker at the devotional this Tuesday. I think you'll be as jealous as a I am about U2.  Elder Holland spake for a full hour. He started by bringing his recently returned missionary grand-daughter up.  She was so nervous it took her a second to compose herself enough to tell us how important our time in the MTC is. He then proceeded to speak about the importance the power of words and how they are the only offensive weapon we of the church have against Satan.  It was a great talk.  He is an inspired man. You'll be proud to hear that I sung in the choir that day because I told myself before I got here that I will only sing if my companion wants to and we can't get a comp exchange approved, so 2 companionships could split, so 2 people that want to go can go, and 2 people that don't can stay and study, or if an apostle or the prophet speaks. We sang a really cool version of More Holiness Give Me, Elder Holland's favorite hymn.

Tell Ike Congrats I'm so excited for him.

Thank you for the story about The Garden, I'm so gonna use that as a metaphor in a talk someday.

Revelation is a really cool experience.  I've been getting a lot recently. My scripture study time is usually when I get it. I've been doing some pretty cool scripture study. I'm trying to read the BoM again all the way through before I get in the field while also reading books from the Old and New Testaments. I'm reading Isaiah and Acts respectively. I don't know why I started reading Isaiah but the day I did was the day I hit it in 2 Nephi, so now I'm basically re-reading the things I read in 2nd Nephi in Isaiah even though I'm reading Isaiah much slower because I'm trying to 'Translate' it into my own words line by line so I can understand what He's saying. It's while I'm slaving over Isaiah that I'll get distracted and either go off on a scripture tangent or I'll suddenly be compelled to write down some questions for our mock investigators we're teaching. It's a really cool experience. 

Just yesterday while I was trying to memorize the first vision in Spanish, I felt prompted to delve into the art of asking questions and found that depending on the word you use to start the question you can expect a specific type of answer and with a little practice or planning you can chain a What? to a How? to a Why? or some combination of those words and get either an experience or a specific piece of information out of someone. This skill is the exact thing we need to use on 2 of our current "Investigators".

Sorry for the preaching but as my companion puts it "I do this 16hrs a day and for the next 2 years I'll be a legally ordained minister for la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de Los Ultimos Dias. I love you all so much and pray about you all the time.

Con Amor,

Elder Sam McBride

P.S. Thank you so much for the care pack.  It made my day because even though I've had the slip saying I had a package since Saturday I couldn't pick it up till Tuesday so it was driving me nuts all weekend. I really appreciate it. Can you get me the date and time Larry and Jack are supposed to get here? I'm going to have some advice and some presents for them. Oh and can you send me my consecrated oil and vial. I had to use some of my companion's oil that was consecrated by his great grandpa on Tuesday to do an anointing for 1 of the 2 blessings of the sick I participated in after Elder Holland's talk. I'm Going to put some pictures in a different email don't worry Mom I got this.

These are the elders in our district.  From the left is Elder Jenks: he's kinda like the class clown but on the inside he really does care about the work. Next is Elder Canlass: He's a really good guy from long Beach Cali and he is our first district leader.  Next is Elder Porter, my Companion: He's cool super musical a great singer and pianist. He loves musicals and is kind of quirky. He's super well read in the BoM and both of his parents went to Spanish speaking missions and he took 4 years of Spanish in high school so he got a nice head start. I look like a dork because I just woke up.

​These are the rest of the elders in our zone.  From the left we have; Jenks (from Utah going to Raleigh), Palei (from Tonga going to Panama), (Clegg from Utah Going to Mexico), Lau (from Salt Lake going to Panama), Nelson (from Utah going to Panama), Porter (from Indiana going to LA), Canlass (from Cali going to Raleigh), and Senden (From Florida going to Panama)

​Our rooms are really spacious because its just one companionship per room in our entire district which means that  I get 3 closets to myself lol.  Oh and yes,  Mom, that is my bed made on the left.

May 21, 2015 First Letter from the MTC!!!

Whats up family? 

I was so bummed when I found out my P-Day was Thursday because I knew I would have to wait a week to email you guys. But other than that the weeks been pretty good. I don't have a ton of time because you only get an Hr and that includes the mandatory email to your branch president (basically like your mtc MP) but I'll try to answer all your Q's. I was really sad because I wasn't sure if you saw me wave good bye but I knew Grandma saw because she waved back. The first day was nuts because they tell you so little info but you have to do so much. 

My companion is Elder Porter from Indiana. He's 20 and went to BYU for a year then worked for a year leading up to his mission. He's already pretty good at spanish because he took 4 years of Spanish in high school and both of his parents went to Spanish speaking missions he's going to L.A. We were supposed to be a trio but our 3rd companion got sent to the Guatemalan MTC last minute.  We didnt know until we went to the front desk to see where he was until after dinner.  We got really lucky and got a whole 6 person room all to ourselves because its still really slow here at the MTC because the high school rush hasn't started yet. So our zone has 9 elders and 24 beds haha. 

There's 1 more companionship in our district They are Elder Canlass and Elder Jenks They're both going to Raleigh N.C. Canlass is from Long Beach Cali but he was born in the Philippines and moved to the U.S. when he was 8 but you would never know unless he told you.  Elder Jenks is from Utah and is a complete goofball. He has an entire notebook he has devoted to writing down the most random Spanish words he can find. They have their own room too which is kind of weird because we could have shared a room even if we had a trio.  I'm not complaining though.  I like having 3 closets. We have a pretty sweet district.  We're all trying really hard to learn Spanish. We have 5 Hermanas in our District.  2 of them are a little older and are both going to Nicaragua.  One of them has a specialty assignment because she's a certified nurse. Then we have a trio of 19 yr old hermanas, 1 going to Washington St. 1 going to LA with my companion, and I can't remember where the last 1 is going. 

I took some pictures but the computer i'm using isnt letting me do anything but email. I promise next week I'll send you a bunch of pics.

Learning a language is tough because we learn the language and regular missionary stuff at the same time so it feels like it would be so easy in English.

I dont really need too much right now but my wallet that I've been using for 2 years and has never shown any signs of wear did rip on Friday but I won't really need another one until I leave so don't sweat getting a new one to me right away. 

I Love you, Mom   Tell Cole and Ike I love them too.

Love,

Elder McBride