Hey Family,

This week was alright. The days did seem really long but the week does seem like it went by really fast. The days are pretty much the same still. 

Another district left this week, which sucks because they had a couple good vball players. Plus we only have three districts in our zone now. The first day after they left I didn't play vball because there was no good people playing. Instead I played 4 square for the first time here and bump. There is no ultimate frisbee because that is only outside in the field and that is closed in the winter. It was alright but it wasn't vball. Yesterday I got one of the really good elders to play again and one of the gym teachers played. It was really fun, we had two good full teams. Hopefully that will happen again. 

Oh, I saw Tori Thornton yesterday. I had no clue that she was going to be in here while I was. She seems to be doing really well. 

I don't know what else has happened this week.

We had TRC yesterday. It was good. The first person we taught was just a teacher here so it was a little different. The second was a lady named Teresa. She was baptized just a year ago. Our lesson was on Revelation through church attendance and it went pretty smoothly. We shared some personal experiences about us recieving our own revelation while at church and it was really cool. We have been teaching our progressing investigators still. They are just our teachers but act as someone that they taught in their mission, I don't know if I already told you that or not. We finally got Yasmin to pray and I think understand how God can love 7 billion people individually. 

I'm really struggling with what else happened this week. It wasn't too exciting. 

Oh, Lanham hurt his knee pretty bad during volleyball. He is a 6'5" texan that sings and was in theatre. Not what you would expect. Well in the new district there is a 6'5" football player, Brooksby. Gym had just ended but the ball was in the air and Brooksby went up to spike it but at the last second just grabbed the ball and went under the net right into Lanhams knee. He felt pretty terrible about it. I guess he was bawling when they got back to the dorms. He said that he has destroyed two other's ACL's. Lanham is walking pretty gingerly on it and is going to get an MRI. Hopefully it will be fine and heal on its own. 

Well, I can't think of anything else. I'll handwrite if I do think of something.

I love and miss you all,

Aaron

Here are some questions mom had sent to Aaron and his answers.!

I was wondering how your feet are doing where the warts were?? Do they look any better than they have over the last couple of years? Did they grow back or did they finally go away?

Not much time left. I think my warts are gone. I'm not positive yet but I have taken off the top callus twice and I can't really see any wart looking things.

I have 2 Hacky Sacks do you just want the BSU one? Or do you want me to send both of them?

I think the BSU one will be just fine, THANKS! 

What is better about where you are living now? You said you liked it better but didn't say why!

Uhh, the showers are way better than the last building and Its not as loud as the other one. However the wall next to my bed had a ton of nasty boogers that I have had to scrub off. It was disgusting. People are disgusting. 

The other mom that I have been chatting with, her son should be there on the 29th, next Wednesday!!!! His name is Tyler Turner! She said he isn't real tall but he does play volleyball and he is very athletic! Maybe you will run into him somewhere there or on the volleyball court!!!! He is going to your same mission but just a little later than you! Do you always meet the new guys going to your same mission? Or not?

 We haven't seen any other missionaries going to our mission yet so I don't know if he will be in the same Zone or not. Hopefully, atleast so we can have another vball player.

Does Ciana still remember me? She had better. I don't want her to wonder who I am when I get back! Hug her and Sadie for me again. Ok I have to go.  I Love you!!!

Aaron

(In case anyone has been wondering... Sadie is Aaron's dog and Ciana is the cutest little girl that my mom nannies.)

February 17, 2012 (Handwritten)

Hey mom & dad!


It’s really hard for me to remember what happened this week. I’ll look through my journal to see what has happened.


I would like it if you could send me my ankle brace. I’ll check how much they are here. I went up to block a spike last week & came down on someone’s foot & rolled it pretty good. I took a lap around the gym & it was fine after that. It was pretty bad at 1st though. Oh, and in case you were wondering, I blocked it & got the point. It was against the 6’5” zone leader who’s good, so it made it that much more worth it.


I would also like to have a hacky sack sent. It would help to have something like that. I am going to need a portable USB charger so if you could talk to Michael about that. Sorry I’m asking you to send all of this.


The hermana’s in our zone are being interviewed today by some Muslim guy. He’s from an international T V station called “Algizera”-something close to that. I don’t really know why they are but I think it’s just about the church & learning a new language & about mission. Some people are all nervous about them talking to a Muslim, but I'm not worried at all. People just hear Muslim and automatically think extremist.


How is Dean doing? Hopefully everything is OK.


Tell me anything that is going on over there. I need Michael’s e-mail now also.


The new district is pretty good at Spanish, better than us & it’s only their 1st week. Which kind of annoys me.


Thank you for the packages. I have been sharing with the others.


In the new building I am at the bed farthest from the door & still on the bottom bunk. It pays off to be big! Both Ngatu & I are on the bottom. We don’t have to jump to the top. I figured I have done that enough the last how ever many years!


Well, I can’t think of much else, most of the time it’s pretty boring here. I’ll try to remember more next week.


I love you!!!


-Aaron


(Hug Ciana for me & Sadie)


I’ll send the SD card soon but I’ll take more pics before then…hopefully.


PS (I am already forgetting how to spell!—I do it all the time!) (I’m not even sure if I spelt “forgetting” right!)

Hey family,

 We got a new district in last wednesday. I don't know if I told you. There is only a couple of them that we kind of like. Two people from the old district left today. They're going to Indiana until they can get their visa's. The rest of the district will be leaving through out the week. Everything is going alright over here. We do the same stuff every week. We had TRC yesterday. TRC is where you go and give lessons to members in Spanish. I can understand a lot of what they say but not all. I can also talk back but its still pretty basic Spanish. I just can't get all of the conjugations down. There's a ton of them and they are all pretty similar. That is what I am going to be focusing on the next few weeks. 

Oh, I just found out that they are turning the 9 week MTC program to 6 weeks. I just barely missed it. It's probably best that its 9 for us. But I am getting pretty sick of this place. 

The food is getting pretty old. It feels like they serve the same stuff every three days.

 I saw Weston yesterday. We didn't talk too much but he seems to be doing good. It's weird that he will leave before me. I am really hoping that all of our visa's will be good to go when its time for us to get out of this place. I might head to Boise again before I leave. There have been a few that have had to go there to finish everything up. That would be really weird. 

I'm still playing volleyball. It is getting worse because a lot of good people are leaving and some bad people have joined in. Luckily theres a couple in the new group that are good. Its hard for me to play when they just hit it over the net as soon as possible.

Our lessons have been going alright. We go in to a room and teach our teachers. They act as one of the investigators that they had on their missions. Its pretty fun. I like it a lot better when they take our lesson plan and look at it for awhile and then throw it out the window. For some reason I do a lot better when they completely turn us around. Udall gets pretty frustrated when that happens though and has shown that in a couple of the lessons but he is getting better at not doing that. . I just don't like it when they say ok to everything. Udall has had some good days this last week. It was really weird to see him joking around and actually having some fun. . The important thing is that when it comes to the lesson it goes pretty well.

I am trying to think of more stuff to write about but this place makes you forget what you have done. All of the days and weeks just merge into one jumbled mess. 

We had some good talks this week. One guy, something Heaton, came in and gave a pretty good one. He had the most recent converts in the crowd stand up and a few come and talk about their conversion. It was nice to have someone switch it up and do something different. Then we watched the Christmas talk from Elder Bednar. His was really good, of course. It was all about personal conversions and to look outward towards others instead of inward to yourself. He actually impersonated the Cookie Monster at the pulpit. Relating that to us and how we look at ourselves first before others. He told a story of a lady that was on the phone with him and said her daughter and two of her friends just got injured in a car crash and one was dead. They weren't sure which one was dead though. She was on two phones, the other one was with the nurse and found out that it was her daughter. The first thing she told Elder Bednar, right after she found this out, was that he needed to get ahold of the other moms and make sure they are ok. She was only looking at other people and making sure they were ok. The day of the funeral she got a call from a relief society lady that had a cold. She complained that she had been sick and no one came and gave her some food. The mom, instead of yelling and saying how rude she was being, made something and went over and took it to her. I don't know if any of us would have done that.

Well, I can't think of anything else. If I do I will hand write today.

I love and miss you all!

Aaron

Aaron and his friend Heath Morgan from church. They are at the MTC together. 

Hey family,

So this week we found out that we had to move to another residence hall. For some reason P. Shumway wanted us to be in the same one as the rest of our zone. I thought it was kind of dumb but oh well. He was also wanting us to try and get up at the top floor. We were on the first floor in the other building and I really liked it. Bartle was wanting to go to the 4th floor because he thought there was some special reason Shumway wanted us to be there. Well, Ngatu has been having trouble with his knee so I definitely didn't want to have him walking up there every day. So, we stayed on the 1st floor. We were in building 12m and have now moved to 13m. Our class is already on the 5th floor, the tallest building, and have to climb them 4-5 times a day. Luckily there is an elevator so Ngatu can use that. He is actually going to get an MRI done soon. Hopefully everything will check out ok. We did all of the moving last night. I think I will be sending some crap home. I don't know for sure what but it felt like I had way too much stuff. I guess I didn't really pack it all in my suit cases but still. When we got into our room we saw that the thermostat was broken. It is stuck at 75! We put in a work order so hopefully it will get fixed. Last night I woke up to some people standing in our room talking to Nelson and Ngatu. I was pretty confused for a second. They turned out to be the "cops". They said that we had left our other room open and with the light on. Nelson, Ngatu, and I had left some stuff over there thinking that we would go back over there last night. However, we got locked out after 1030 and couldn't go back. The cops were saying that people could have stolen some stuff. I definitely remembered closing the door. When they left we all checked our watches thinking it was about 6 and it was actually 2. It was really weird.

I did get my package, thank you for that. Ty is going to St. George for awhile. He left yesterday at 4 in the morning. We did get a pic by the map, finally. I have been taking pictures. Theres quite a bit, at least for having the same stuff to look at everyday. It is getting harder to take pics and to think about stuff to write about.

I can't get to my yahoo account because they block everything. So, if you should probably send it to this one. I have not sent the shoes back yet. I will be doing that today. I just need to polish them a little and find a box. 

Oh, Dad, I have been getting up at 6:30 every morning. We go to the temple every Friday too. I talked with some people that were going to Taiwan, but it was some other mission, Taijung maybe. There was a missionary that prayed at the fireside that was going to your mission. The temple there looks pretty much exactly like the Boise one. As do so many others.

Nelson just becomes more and more like Andy. He drinks rootbeer everytime we eat, sings a bunch of random songs, likes Weird Al, eats terribly but is somehow still skinny and tall, says a bunch of cheesy jokes, and many more things. Its pretty crazy. However he use to do bmx, skateboard, and snowboard.

Our oldest district is all leaving. One of them is going to Boise for awhile. Some are able to go straight to Mexico and some are still here. Oh, one thing I did here that was kind of funny. As I was passing a group of guys, one of them said "Well, that sucks. I'm going to Boise, Idaho for my mission."

Uh, I can't really think of anything else to say. If I do think of something I will write home. Thanks again for all of the letters. I will try again to write some of you but there just so little of time. 

Oh, Michael I need your new address and thanks for the letters and challenging me in Spanish. Just when I think I'm getting it ok, you send me a bunch of words that I've never seen before. Glad to hear your work isn't too bad. And if I translated correctly, you have to get up at 4? That sucks. Thanks for the package Cassie and Joel. Have you guys found a place to move yet? Oh, and mom Kayla didn't tell me where Brock was going. If she did tell me, I don't remember.

I love and miss you all,

Aaron

He sent us PROOF.

That he is writing in his journal.

Recent Pictures received from Elder Nelson's mom.

Elder Udall fourth in from the right. Aaron third in. Elder Ngatu and  Elder Nelson

Elder Ngatu and Aaron drawing! :)

Aaron... being Aaron!    02.02.2012

Aaron and Elder Udall

Hey everyone,

Pretty much the same stuff happened this week. Wake up, study, eat, study, class, eat, study, class, eat, gym, sleep. 

We were smart this morning and got into the laundry room around 8:10 and there is way less people than if we go at our scheduled time. There is probably a third of the people. 

Lets see... Spanish is coming a little easier but there are so many words that I still don't know. 


I did get the package you sent me but I still don't know what all of the nuts are for. Are they just to mess with on the magnetic thing because that is what i have been using them for so far. Thank you for sending all of that. I did look at the shorts here and they are 22 dollars but there is the 40 percent discount so I will probably just buy a pair here. I had forgotten that I asked you to send the other pajama pants. I don't think I will ever have to use them. Udall turns the heat way up whenever he is in the room, to about 75, sometimes 80 and Ngatu gets cold at night but I am always pretty hot if its not at 55. I don't think its very accurate though. We have silently been fighting for the temperature.

I have been waking up at 6:30. Udall gets up at 6 or 6:15. 

Well, not much else has gone on this week. Well if anything did I don't really remember. Everyday is turning into one. We did have the 50th anniversary of the MTC on Tuesday. Everyone was all excited the few days before it because there was a rumor that one of the First Presidency was coming. I figured it probably wouldn't be one of them. Well the only guaranteed seat was if people did choir so our district went and stood in line for an hour just to get in then they ask if the people who did not do choir on Sunday would give up their seats for the people who did. So we stood up and Ngatu, Bartle, and Udall wanted to stay in line. So Nelson and I went and ate dinner. We went and got back in line about an hour before on the side of the building outside and still got better seats than Ngatu and them. We were in the front on the bleachers and Ngatu came and sat with us then we moved down to the floor seats because they are way more comfortable. The speakers ended up being Elder Nelson and Elder Holland (from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles). It was pretty cool, but they mostly just talked about the buildings and the history of the MTC. Elder Nelson gave a pretty good talk and a dedicatory prayer at the end, about ten minutes long.

I still play volleyball at gym but I think most of the good people will be leaving soon so I'm not sure what will happen then. I hadn't realized that yesterday was Groundhogs day but I am sure today is too. 


Thank you for all of the letters. Sorry if I am not writing many of you back, there just isn't much time to do that here. I will try to be better about it though. 


I have not gained any weight. I am pretty much staying the same. The food is not getting any better and I'm pretty sure its already gone through the cycle a few times. 


Oh, we had our first TRC (Teaching Resource Center) yesterday. It was alright. I went in thinking that we would actually try to help someone with their problems but all we really did was talk to them. Hopefully it helped them in some way that we didn't realize. Sara, the second person we talked to, had a little one year old baby. She was really funny and smart. She knew how to fold her arms already and she knew sign language. I thought it was pretty crazy. 

Well, I can't really think of anything else to write. 

Oh, YES I AM WRITING IN MY JOURNAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have written every night since I have been here and plan to do it the rest of my mission.

I love you all. I gotta go. 

Love you,

Aaron 

January 31st 2012 (Handwritten)

Hey Family,

First off I'm going to need deodorant pretty soon, I am running pretty low.  I don't know if I like the tie shoes yet or not. I know I like the slip-ons better though. I'll keep trying them for a little while but would we be able to switch them for another pair of slip-ons? Also, I would like another pair of basketball shorts. I'll see what they have here because I did see some. I just don't know how much they are. Oh, the shoes were the same price, right?

OK, the days here are all the same. Class all day long, eat a few times, and go to bed. I am glad that Ngatu & Nelson are here because if they weren't I would already have gone crazy. Udall is only speaking Spanish, so he doesn't talk much. 

Thanks for the pj's, the clock, & the money. I still had my emergency money though. Oh, what are all the nuts for. And the clock stands on the magnetic thing, right? What do we have to do now that I have my debit card?

I guess today was Gramma's funeral. I hope it went good. At least as good as it can be. I hope all of you are doing great. 


There's just not much that goes on here. Keep reminding Ciana about me & show pics so she doesn't forget about me & give her a hug for me. Also give Sadie one for me too. Keep her in shape. I love & miss you all. I can't wait to see you in two years.

Love,
Aaron

P.S. I did write grandpa & just so you know you put Dewey, UT on his address.