MTC Mailbox #91
ARG-MEN 0414
2005 N 900 E
Provo, Utah 84604-1793
3-11-08
Dear Family,
The MTC is still doing great this week. Actually, I even ran into Joel today while he was looking for a classroom to do interviews in. Poor Elder Earl's passport got lost between the Dominican Republic and Salt Lake so he's going to be here for another week and a half. At least we get to hold on to him for a while longer so hopefully he doesn't mind. He was warned they'd speak all Spanish there so I think he's fine. [Lawrence has two companions right now because one of them is supposed to go to another MTC in the Dominican Republic. He is having passport troubles, so he will stay in Provo longer than planned] Speaking of Spanish, one of the districts in my branch had a funeral for English a few days ago. Maybe our district will have one of those soon too. Lisa and Julie are indeed sending a bunch of packages and I'm really grateful for the wash rags, they're amazing :). Thanks for putting my address in the Ward Program but please ask to take out my e-mail. Even if it was right, they don't want me to e-mail anyone outside of my immediate family. Maybe for those who do want to e-mail they could use Dear Elder. [Everyone, send my brother a letter through DearElder.com! It's free!] Thanks for doing that for me by the way. Yay for the Camry! Hopefully you've already gotten it back by the time you read this letter. [My mom was in a minor car accident about three months ago, and the mechanic fiddled and played so that it's taken them this long to finally get the car back to them! My dad finally gets a new car, and something like this happens. Of course!] I assume the Nissan and Tercel are still chugging along so remind them to be there when I get back. That's awesome that the temple record databases are public now, or at least more so. [Many genealogy records that the church has had are now open to public use. I believe you can access them through LDS.org] High Priest work should definitely be fun with Brother Tolman, Dad. [My dad has just begun working with a new member of the ward in his church calling] You've got to tell me who replaced Brother Tolman as Ward Clerk though. Oh and please don't kill yourself over band Dad. It's not worth it. [My dad is working as the treasurer for the high school band that my sister is involved in. He's ending up doing a lot more work than he originally thought he'd have to. They have something like a $675,000 budget for the year. A high school band! Can you believe that?? ]
Well now I'm in the travel office with Elder Earl and they found his passport, but now he has to cancel his application for a new passport. Anywho, on to Mom's letters: I've been trying out the Shea Butter you sent and it seems pretty good so far. Thank you! Maybe I'll overcome this dry Utah weather after all. A little of that goes a long way so you shouldn't have to send more any time soon. My other companion is pointing to Cordoba and his name is Elder Widdison. [He's referring to the picture he sent home with the three missionaries pointing to their missions on a giant map. My mother served in the Cordoba mission] He seems to be doing alright and he's also a Star Wars fan which is nice. Thanks for your hug and testimony. This gospel really is amazing. Silly 99¢ store and their lack of raspberry chips. Oh well, the cookies and chocolates are amazing so I'm alright. [My mom makes these raspberry chocolate chip cookies, and she gets the raspberry chips from the local 99¢ store. Last time she tried to get them, they weren't there. That was a jump in subject matter, huh?] Isn't 12 hours on a Saturday against the Fair Labor Standards Act or something? You should protest. [A couple of weekends ago, the band had some kind of event that my parents helped out at. They both worked a good portion of that Friday and Saturday] That's hilarious that Sean loves you even if he can't remember your name. [A little boy at the preschool my mom works at told her that he loved her, but that he couldn't remember her name] Elder Earl is from Northern Utah and he went to BYU Idaho before his mission. Maybe I can convert him to the true BYU after his mission. I am currently wearing the BYU shirt you sent me. It smelled [I can't read this. Can you tell what it says?] when I first opened the package. It'll be especially great when I see all my BYU friends in the MTC. I swear I've run into half my ward. If they aren't serving missions they're working somewhere at the MTC. I can't wait to get to Argentina either. It's going to be so weird using Spanish with actual Spanish-speakers and I can't wait to feel their spirits in Argentina. It's going to be exciting.
Speaking of exciting, Jennifer's letters: All I can say is that is absolutely not fair. Why are they going to let you drive the company Porsche?!? I never got to drive nice cars when I was learning how to drive, although the van is indeed a nice tank...I mean car. [At the driving school my sister is currently attending, the owner owns a Porsche. At the end of training, they can drive it for 15 bucks. Not a bad deal, huh? Apparently most everyone takes him up on the offer.] Oh, Elder Barnes liked your letter but I can't get him to write back, he thinks it's weird. He has been getting mail from his family finally though. [Previously, Lawrence mentioned an Elder in his district who wasn't getting any letters from his family. Jenny decided to write to him] I'm very sad to hear I've been replaced in tech support but it's probably for the best since I can't really help much from this end anyways. [Lawrence is absolutely the tech support guy in our family. I'm not sure who replaced him] I'm glad to hear you're using Mikogo though. It's definitely helpful. [Look up Mikogo online. It's a very cool thing] Devin Miller might be of some help too if you need it. Power Point is very picky software. The Linux might have another alternative to Open Office but I'm not sure. [My sister had to do a Power Point presentation in one of her classes. Apparently the family computer doesn't have Power Point. She used Open Office as an alternative, but it gave her quite a few problems.] It was crazy seeing Christopher here, I ran into him all the time. It'll be cool, though, because we'll get home around the same time. [Our cousin Chris is serving in New Zealand. He reported to the MTC a week after Lawrence did, but because he didn't have to learn a language, he's already out in the field. ] Section leader is much cooler than AP but AP might be cheaper. [I'm not quite sure what he's referring to here, but perhaps Jenny wants to be section leader? Or she is the section leader? And perhaps he's referring to the $675,000 band budget??!?!?] Whatever works. If ya'll get a Wii while I'm gone I just might say "Not cool" but I don't know if I'll go that far.
So this week, my teacher Hermana Higginson asked me to teach about the Atonement in Spanish. It was a little out of the blue because I forgot she'd mentioned it a few days earlier. It was really interesting because the message hit me a lot harder in Spanish and I got a little choked up. I think I was forced to use a bit more of my own words while trying to translate in my head. It really personalized the Atonement for me. Christ suffered for my sins and did it out of love for me. Everyone abandoned Christ during the time of the Atonement so we must not and cannot abandon Him now. As Elder Holland said, "Don't you dare turn your back on Him." He bore a powerful testimony.[Both Lawrence and our cousin Chris got to hear a talk from member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. Both of them were deeply affected by his words. You get many spiritually uplifting opportunities in the MTC]
Love,
Elder Williams
Ok, I'm never doing that again. Just let me know if you're curious about something in a future Lawrence letter :)
ARG-MEN 0414
2005 N 900 E
Provo, Utah 84604-1793
3-11-08
Dear Family,
The MTC is still doing great this week. Actually, I even ran into Joel today while he was looking for a classroom to do interviews in. Poor Elder Earl's passport got lost between the Dominican Republic and Salt Lake so he's going to be here for another week and a half. At least we get to hold on to him for a while longer so hopefully he doesn't mind. He was warned they'd speak all Spanish there so I think he's fine. [Lawrence has two companions right now because one of them is supposed to go to another MTC in the Dominican Republic. He is having passport troubles, so he will stay in Provo longer than planned] Speaking of Spanish, one of the districts in my branch had a funeral for English a few days ago. Maybe our district will have one of those soon too. Lisa and Julie are indeed sending a bunch of packages and I'm really grateful for the wash rags, they're amazing :). Thanks for putting my address in the Ward Program but please ask to take out my e-mail. Even if it was right, they don't want me to e-mail anyone outside of my immediate family. Maybe for those who do want to e-mail they could use Dear Elder. [Everyone, send my brother a letter through DearElder.com! It's free!] Thanks for doing that for me by the way. Yay for the Camry! Hopefully you've already gotten it back by the time you read this letter. [My mom was in a minor car accident about three months ago, and the mechanic fiddled and played so that it's taken them this long to finally get the car back to them! My dad finally gets a new car, and something like this happens. Of course!] I assume the Nissan and Tercel are still chugging along so remind them to be there when I get back. That's awesome that the temple record databases are public now, or at least more so. [Many genealogy records that the church has had are now open to public use. I believe you can access them through LDS.org] High Priest work should definitely be fun with Brother Tolman, Dad. [My dad has just begun working with a new member of the ward in his church calling] You've got to tell me who replaced Brother Tolman as Ward Clerk though. Oh and please don't kill yourself over band Dad. It's not worth it. [My dad is working as the treasurer for the high school band that my sister is involved in. He's ending up doing a lot more work than he originally thought he'd have to. They have something like a $675,000 budget for the year. A high school band! Can you believe that?? ]
Well now I'm in the travel office with Elder Earl and they found his passport, but now he has to cancel his application for a new passport. Anywho, on to Mom's letters: I've been trying out the Shea Butter you sent and it seems pretty good so far. Thank you! Maybe I'll overcome this dry Utah weather after all. A little of that goes a long way so you shouldn't have to send more any time soon. My other companion is pointing to Cordoba and his name is Elder Widdison. [He's referring to the picture he sent home with the three missionaries pointing to their missions on a giant map. My mother served in the Cordoba mission] He seems to be doing alright and he's also a Star Wars fan which is nice. Thanks for your hug and testimony. This gospel really is amazing. Silly 99¢ store and their lack of raspberry chips. Oh well, the cookies and chocolates are amazing so I'm alright. [My mom makes these raspberry chocolate chip cookies, and she gets the raspberry chips from the local 99¢ store. Last time she tried to get them, they weren't there. That was a jump in subject matter, huh?] Isn't 12 hours on a Saturday against the Fair Labor Standards Act or something? You should protest. [A couple of weekends ago, the band had some kind of event that my parents helped out at. They both worked a good portion of that Friday and Saturday] That's hilarious that Sean loves you even if he can't remember your name. [A little boy at the preschool my mom works at told her that he loved her, but that he couldn't remember her name] Elder Earl is from Northern Utah and he went to BYU Idaho before his mission. Maybe I can convert him to the true BYU after his mission. I am currently wearing the BYU shirt you sent me. It smelled [I can't read this. Can you tell what it says?] when I first opened the package. It'll be especially great when I see all my BYU friends in the MTC. I swear I've run into half my ward. If they aren't serving missions they're working somewhere at the MTC. I can't wait to get to Argentina either. It's going to be so weird using Spanish with actual Spanish-speakers and I can't wait to feel their spirits in Argentina. It's going to be exciting.
Speaking of exciting, Jennifer's letters: All I can say is that is absolutely not fair. Why are they going to let you drive the company Porsche?!? I never got to drive nice cars when I was learning how to drive, although the van is indeed a nice tank...I mean car. [At the driving school my sister is currently attending, the owner owns a Porsche. At the end of training, they can drive it for 15 bucks. Not a bad deal, huh? Apparently most everyone takes him up on the offer.] Oh, Elder Barnes liked your letter but I can't get him to write back, he thinks it's weird. He has been getting mail from his family finally though. [Previously, Lawrence mentioned an Elder in his district who wasn't getting any letters from his family. Jenny decided to write to him] I'm very sad to hear I've been replaced in tech support but it's probably for the best since I can't really help much from this end anyways. [Lawrence is absolutely the tech support guy in our family. I'm not sure who replaced him] I'm glad to hear you're using Mikogo though. It's definitely helpful. [Look up Mikogo online. It's a very cool thing] Devin Miller might be of some help too if you need it. Power Point is very picky software. The Linux might have another alternative to Open Office but I'm not sure. [My sister had to do a Power Point presentation in one of her classes. Apparently the family computer doesn't have Power Point. She used Open Office as an alternative, but it gave her quite a few problems.] It was crazy seeing Christopher here, I ran into him all the time. It'll be cool, though, because we'll get home around the same time. [Our cousin Chris is serving in New Zealand. He reported to the MTC a week after Lawrence did, but because he didn't have to learn a language, he's already out in the field. ] Section leader is much cooler than AP but AP might be cheaper. [I'm not quite sure what he's referring to here, but perhaps Jenny wants to be section leader? Or she is the section leader? And perhaps he's referring to the $675,000 band budget??!?!?] Whatever works. If ya'll get a Wii while I'm gone I just might say "Not cool" but I don't know if I'll go that far.
So this week, my teacher Hermana Higginson asked me to teach about the Atonement in Spanish. It was a little out of the blue because I forgot she'd mentioned it a few days earlier. It was really interesting because the message hit me a lot harder in Spanish and I got a little choked up. I think I was forced to use a bit more of my own words while trying to translate in my head. It really personalized the Atonement for me. Christ suffered for my sins and did it out of love for me. Everyone abandoned Christ during the time of the Atonement so we must not and cannot abandon Him now. As Elder Holland said, "Don't you dare turn your back on Him." He bore a powerful testimony.[Both Lawrence and our cousin Chris got to hear a talk from member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. Both of them were deeply affected by his words. You get many spiritually uplifting opportunities in the MTC]
Love,
Elder Williams
Ok, I'm never doing that again. Just let me know if you're curious about something in a future Lawrence letter :)
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