WELL, Things I've discovered so far: Workout clothing is important. We get an hour to workout everyday and I only have 2 pairs of workout clothing. I've also discovered there are a few different kinds of missionaries here.
1: the type who follow every rule and shun you if you start singing a song or tell a joke,
2: the kind who don't study whatsoever because they say that "the Lord will bless me and I'll magically be able to speak spanish without doing my part" and
3: the kind of missionary who maybe doesn't follow every but still knows to study and get his work done.
Our teacher said last night and I paraphrase, "Don't get complacent. You can see the 4 or 5 week missionaries who think they know everything and that they don't need to study or whatever, but really, they are brand new missionaries just like you. They don't know ANYTHING. Follow the rules, but don't be sticklers on every little thing. On my mission, I followed every rule exactly, and I never had any fun. I was miserable for the first few months of my mission."
This last week has been pretty good. It's hard to remember every little thing that goes on, because there is so much that happens, and our days are so long. After the update last week, I went to the Provo Temple and it was GREAT. I love the temple so much, and its so much different going through for someone else.
That weekend, we had church and a devotional. TC CHRISTENSEN CAME TO GIVE THE DEVOTIONAL. Coolest thing ever. He talked a lot about certain scenes from the moves he has directed, and give insight about some of the behind-the-scenes. He said he didn't direct Testaments, but here is a story about it. He said Gordon B Hinkley told the director that he wanted ONLY worthy church members to be in the movie. and the director, of course, said ok. I'll do it. and he tried, and it was hard, because there are so few church members, who are active and worthy, who are also actors. but he did it. and he gave President Hinkley a showing of it, and at the end, he said, Pres Hinkley... I tried so hard... I found a worthy church member for every part but 1. He said " I just couldn't find an active, worthy church member who could play a part that evil and sinister" ....
If you sit down for more than 20 minutes here, it is a struggle not to fall asleep because WE ARE TIRED ALL THE TIME. La obra de misional. Not trabajo. La obra. Our teacher described the difference but I didn't quite get it. Trabajo is like... manual labor work and obra is more like... like missionary work. I love love love church. The way they do talks is EVERYBODY writes a talk and you don't know who is going to speak until they announce it in sacrament meeting. Two missionaries give 5 minute talks in spanish and then one of the church presidency members give a talk to fill the rest of the time. One of the other branch presidents gave a talk about missionary work and he put it into such easy terms. I wish I had my notes with me, because it was a great talk. He essentially broke down every lesson into this "1. everybody has the knowledge of right and wrong. YES EVERYONE. 2: Everybody must repent. EVERYONE. 3: EVERYONE must be baptized 4. Everyone must receive the gift of the holy ghost and 5. YOU ARE CONDEMNED IF YOU DON'T DO THESE THINGS. But we don't teach the last point. The spirit teaches it." His words are obviously more eloquent than mine.
Monday was just another long day. When you go back to school, you get those "mondays" that are so horrible, but here there is no such thing. Everyday is the same, except sunday. Eat, class, study, eat, class, study, eat, class, study, daily planning, go to bed. And we throw a game of uno in there sometimes before bed.
Yesterday, we talked a lot about what kind of misisonaries we wanted to be. It was very spiritual and I loved it.
Elder Bradburn
