Elder Cade Mooney: Two More Weeks in the MTC

Wow. Time flies.
Another whole week down.

This week was really good! We had some big changes, and we've been super busy, but I honestly wouldn't have it any other way.

After emails last week we got a new companion, so now we're a Trio. Elder Shepherd, Elder Mena and I. The original Trio (Elder Nelson, Elder Chatterly, and Elder Mena) was having some trouble staying focused, and being on time to things. So the President moved Elder Mena in with us. At first I wasn't super thrilled about it, but it's actually been really great. Elder Mena has an awesome testimony, and he speaks the language really well. So he's been an awesome asset in our lessons and in contacting. Plus, the President called Elder Mena as a third AP. So we share the load even more now. :)

By the end of the day last Thursday ALL of the Latins had finally arrived. We have a total of 28 missionaries living and studying all day long on one floor of this building. Ha. It gets a little claustrophobic at times, but everyone is really chill and understanding. So I think we're gonna make it.

On Friday my companions and I had the assignment of picking the new District Leaders for the 3 new Latin districts. No pressure. Ha. We sat with different missionaries for every meal and then gave the President our final decisions at family prayer that night. I thought he would take our decisions into consideration and then just pick the ones he actually wanted, but he went around that night and called the 6 Elders we had chosen... But don't worry, cuz we made pretty good choices. Ha. I love them all.

In the afternoon on Friday we had contacting at the University again. It was really good. We only talked to two people, but the girl we talked to we talked with for over an hour. She was 18 and finishing up her first year of college. She spoke like 6 languages, so she was all for helping us with our Spanish. She was interested in the fact that the members of our church are so devoted, because her problem with religion (the reason she doesn't go to church) is that all the church members around here (mostly Catholics) call themselves church members but they don't live any of their church standards and they never go to church. She was amazed that we left our homes for 2 years to preach what we believe. We gave her a Restoration Pamphlet and a Book of Mormon. I really hope she calls the numbers on the back to get in touch with other missionaries, cuz it's killing me that I cant follow up with her, or make another appointment to keep teaching her! I can't wait to get to the field! They keep teasing us with these cool missionary experiences and then they put us back in this tiny room and tell us to study some more. haha.

On Saturday we spent 3 and a half hours training the new District leaders on how things run around here. Ha. It was humbling. The President handed the whole thing over to us and we had to explain everything in Spanish. It was a bit of a struggle, but we eventually got through everything. The new District leaders are awesome. All the Latins are awesome, but we spend a lot of time with the DL's cuz of meetings and stuff, so I know them the best. After we trained them and gave them a tour and stuff, we had class the rest of the day.

Sunday was good. We had our first leadership meeting, and anytime a problem or concern was brought up by one of the Latin DL's the President would just turn and look at the three of us to handle it. Ha. I'll just say I've definitely had my fair share of humble pie this week.

After meetings we watched the devotional with Elder Ballard (that we were present for at the Provo MTC) again, and had some more meetings. Then in the evening the President of the SD East mission came and spoke to us on the Christlike Attributes from Preach My Gospel. It was super good! and of course we followed it up with Yum-Yum (ice cream).

Monday we had class, all morning. Then in the afternoon we had service and we got to go pull weeds at the Temple. Ha. Even the weeds here are pretty. They are super green and look like plastic, and I honestly would have just thought they were pretty plants mixed in with the flowers, but apparently they're weeds here. Ha.

In the evening on Monday we had TRC again, but the Browns couldn't come because of elections (I guess it was pretty intense outside of these walls after the Elections on Sunday... Our teachers all slept here on Monday and Tuesday night cuz it was safer than going home.) so we taught the Bairs (the temple president and matron). It went really, really well! We taught on receiving revelation through reading the Book of Mormon, and they gave us some awesome insight and some good feedback!

On Tuesday morning, we watched another amazing devotional by Elder Holland. He is a powerful speaker. He talked about the coming about of Preach My Gospel and about the expectations the Brethren have for the missionaries. Ha. It definitely was a kick in the pants for all of us. He is a really straight forward dude. lol. Then we had classes for the rest of the day.

Yesterday was a normal day full of classes.

Over all the week was great. :)
Some great BoM chapters to check out this week: Alma 26, and 2 Nephi 2.

Love you all. Hope all is well back home.
I still miss you all! But I'm doing really good.
I love being a missionary!

Love,

Elder Cade Mooney