The FIRST Letter! "Estoy Viviendo"

Hola!!! I'm alive! hahaha

   So i only have like 25 minutes to do this... I think. We'll see. Anyway!

I am alive and very well. I am LOVING it here en el CCM! (in the MTC) I'm having a great time and just seriously love everything about it. I don't know exactly what to say... So i'll just start from day 1.

   So after I got dropped off an elder helped me take my bags and get my tags and all that good stuff. Then after I went through the building to get all that, I walk out the door to ACTUALLY enter the MTC for the first time... and who is the very first person I see? Elder Stoker! Seriously Stoker was the first person I saw when I got here. What a perfect way to start haha. So after extremely loud celebrating I went to my room. 4 to a room. Tell Sister Booth I'm living with Adrian Esparza. haha what a small world. So we did that, had a few firesides, ran into more friends, met my companion, I don't even remember. A bunch of things.

   So my companion is Elder Matthew Jones. He was born and raised in Provo, Utah haha. He's a total Provo kid (if you know what I mean) but I seriously love him. We work really well together and get along really well and lift eachother up so we're great companions. The Lord knew what He was doing pairing us up haha.

We also went to class the first day and la maestra spoke nothing but spanish the whole time. We hear nothing but spanish whenever we're in class. It's a lot of fun haha. i'm having SO much fun learning spanish and am doing really well! I'm actually kind of the best spanish speaker in the class. I had a head start with my 2 years in school and family who served spanish speaking! So it's been a huge blessing and I've been able to help teach others to help them improve as well!

Thursday was our first full day and it really wasn't that long... All the veteran kids tell us "Oh just wait til Sunday THEN everything will be a breeze. But until then it's gonna be so long". I really haven't had long days at all yet... And we made it to Sunday, so things should be good. Anyway we just had alot of class time and study time on thursday. Can't really remember anything super special.

Friday... Elder Jones and I taught our first "investigator"... Completely in Spanish hahaha. Oh it was an adventure. It actually didn't go terrible, but I wouldn't say he would be excited to join the church anytime soon haha. Nah it was really cool and an awesome experience. We loved it.

   Then on saturday we had a TON more study time... We do alot of sitting in a desk all day haha. We did alot of language study, and in the morning we taught our "investigator" Dominico again. This time we tried to teach him about Joseph Smith, but apparently he "lives with his Mormon aunt and uncle", so everything we would tell him he would just say "I knew that". So... it's just weird. But good practice. haha. We love it!

    Sunday was awesome, we had sacrament meeting, a fireside, watched a talk by Elder Bednar called Character of Christ which was seriously amazing. haha.

And now it's Monday! P-day! So I get to write and email on Mondays, so expect things then haha.

   So that's the basic run of how my first few days went. But so now some thoughts and facts and feelings haha.

   I seriously love my companion. He's the best. He's really enthusiastic and we get along so well and he learns the language so fast. I was really blessed to be with him. We have other companionships in our district that don't go so well... So we're lucky. I've seriously seen so many friends here and it's been the best thing ever. I've seen Stoker, Ryan Lavering, Josh Lee, Spencer Vernon, Will Davis, Tanner Barnette, Seth Hoyt, Grant Jones, Gavin Fowler... I can't even think of them all. Its the best feeling to see them though! Mom and Dad, it's mission president week this week :( So that's made me sad sometimes thinking of you guys haha. I love you and miss you! My branch president is the funniest guy ever. He's really awesome. Elder Esparza (the Booth's friend) was made District Leader! So that's really cool and good for him! The food is good. It's just the Cannon Center all over again. So it's whatever... hah. We stay SO busy it's really not hard to forget about friends and family and home so then I don't get all sad or what not. I've felt the spirit so strong while I've been here and it's such an awesome feeling! I got the opportunity to go through the Provo temple today! It was funnn. Uhh... I've gotten people's letters! Thank you so much! I've only been gone 5 days and I already understand why mail is the best feeling everrrr. Let me explain the mail thing actually...

   So there's a couple options: Email, Real mail, DearElder. Email is the worst. I only get to check once a week. Then real mail, which is cool cuz I can get that everyday. And then dearelder, which is SWEET because it's easy and I can get it that same day! So Jen, put those things on my FB please! Tell people to write me because it's just a grand feeling haha. Also Jen. And Macgyver. And jenny. and nieces and nephews etc... I've been finding those hidden notes all over. Thank you :) I love it! I've miraculously actually been writing in my journal everyday... and preplanning all my days... Basically being organized. A new concept for me haha. It helps though!

Oh, while I remember, Jen and/or Mom, did I get typhoid shots? If not I'll need to get them here. Also, I definitely need more socks and clothes for gym time. I'm wearing my friends mountain view shirt sometimes. DONT MAKE ME DO THAT. haha jk. But yeah I need more please.

My spanish is really coming along well. Yesterday (long story) but I talked to an Hermana for 5 minutes from Buenos Aires completely in spanish about all sorts of stuff! President and Sister Carter, Argentina's version of EFY etc... It was such a cool experience. So I was stoked about that. Then later that day met an Hermana from Santiago, Chile, and talked to her completely in spanish for 15 minutes!! I felt so cool and accomplished and it motivated me to work harder and get out there and do work. I'm getting the big message that we need to not be worrying about ourselves, but instead about the people we're teaching. Teach by the spirit, worry about them, and the Lord will bless us for our service and the language will come. First priority is the investigators!

I can't even think of what else to say... There's so much! But Thank you so much everyone for the words of encouragement and tips and tricks and everything. I love and appreciate it all! I know I'm doing the right thing! I'm doing AWESOME and have loved every minute of it. Seriously. I can't wait to be the old guy and have my friends start entering the MTC and giving them a hard time haha. I love this! I really do miss everyone A LOT though and think of everyone often. Jen, thanks again so much for your help! You're the best! And thank you to all the other siblings for everything you guys did for me as well. I love you guys so much. Mom and Dad, I love and miss you. I'll be thinking of you a lot this week during MP Week! Oh and dad we sang come thou fount at the start of a meeting last night... That was hard :/

But if there's anything else you want to know or I missed, write me! DearElder is best, then mail, then email haha. I'm sure this email will be forwarded as needed. I'm loving it here! Se que esta iglesia es verdadera! (I know this church is true!)

Love you.

Miss you.

Bye.

-Elder Heyman