Alex's Mission Blog: Week 2! AND PICTURES!!

We opened up our mailbox today to find a few letters from Alex, one containing his memory card from his camera so we FINALLY got to see some pictures!!! He also sent us an email today so we got to learn a lot about his experiences during the last week! Here's his email from this week:

I just got back from a session at the temple, so I am riding on a total spiritual high right now!!! This morning we got up at 4:30 like we do every Tuesday morning to do our laundry... It's hard for me to believe that so many elders and sisters could be getting up much earlier than we are, but by the time we got there there were those who were already finished!! The cycles alone each take 35 minutes, so you can do the math yourselves... Luckily I had some mail to respond to and the morning flew by! (I even snuck in a quick nap... shhhhhh....) We then prepared ourselves for initiatory work at the temple. For some reason we were the first ones there, but the last ones to start. Afterwards we had a DELICIOUS breakfast which for me included biscuits and gravy which only reminded me of home. Not that they were anywhere near the quality of my mom's cooking!!! The whole morning went mostly without flaw... mostly... I found out halfway through my initiatory work that my left sock was inside out the whole time!! And then one of my names was (I kid you not) Hilarius Jochmans. I couldn't get the image of a Jamaican man telling me how funny sombody's joke just was... I may or may not have let out a few squeaky little giggles.

People still question about our mission call. A temple worker even commented on our name tags... he said "Well, congratulations, those name tags are the longest I've ever seen." I will now demonstrate to you just how long these name tags really are.......

Yexus Khetos Yaysoo kaytah
lub koom txoos loo kong tsong
ntawm tsoom indau jong
haiv neeg ntseeg high nang njeng
hauv hnub nyoog kawg how hnoo nyong gow

Yikes!! Lucky for me, I was able to memorize this without much difficulty... along with prayer (Txoj kev Thov Vajtsw, tsah kay toe vatjoo) and my testimony!!

We had a special Easter devotional this past Sunday where the Bishop of the presiding bishopric of the church, Bishop Causse, came to speak with us. We also had a first for the MTC... They blessed and passed the sacrament to nearly 4,000 missionaries all at once!! It was a truly spiritual experience that I am glad that I was blessed with. I don't think I will ever forget just how quiet a group of rowdy 18-21 year olds can be when the spirit is presiding over a meeting.

It's been raining all morning here, and we just absolutely love it!! This morning my companions, Elder Cook and Elder Mckay, talked about how lucky we are... For one, living in this time period is a huge blessing! I will never have to worry about the Lamanites trying to scalp me or anything.... We live in a great country, we have the best mission call in the MTC, we all love our families, and they love us, and standing in front of the Provo temple looking out over the valley this morning I felt extremely blessed to be a witness to God's handiwork... (Cougar stadium had almost nothing to do with that)

I love hearing from everybody, and I wish I had time to respond to every letter!! I'll do my best to get everybody at sometime or another... But just know how much I love each and every one of you, and how blessed I feel to have such a wonderful support group (cheerleaders as some refer to them as). Pray for me! I pray for you all daily!

Love,

Elder Lis Xeeb

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Now for my short time writing just my immediate family.....

Thank you all so much for sending all those great things in the packages and letters. In the many times that I've felt discouraged and a little bit lost here, reading over your letters again and again gives me the strength to go on!!

I'll try to answer as many questions in 3 minutes as I can...

Life here is great! we like how close we've gotten

I'm sending the SD card home with instructions and a list of all the pictures on it, I'll buy a new one here, but send back that one so we'll mail it back and forth and I'll always have one to take pictures with.

I'm not sure if any of my comps are cute... we call that a page 33 referring to pg 33 of our missionary guidebook saying no flirting... [This wasn't a question from Megan or me... but rather Dad asking if his companions were cute! HA!!]

That's the best I can do in my short time... But expect my letter in the next few days!!

P.S. Megan... you're cranky and you need a nap, so take a nap!! is on rugrats...... the grand canyon one.

P.P.S. Dad, out of all the things I got in my last package, the BYU box scores were the best... even better than the shorts!!

P.P.P.S Send me some AXE body spray... I stink!!

P.P.P.P.S....... Everyone here keeps singing Les Mis. There. Is. No. Escape...

LOVE Y'ALL!!!

P.P.P.P.P.S... post my e-mail and my MTC address if you haven't already... I love me some mail!!!