Here's My Number, So Call Me Haiti

Hope you enjoyed that Haiti pun, courtesy of Elder Duffin and Elder Firth. This week was kinda boring to be honest. There were some high points though. Sunday was good. It was fast Sunday so we had a mission conference where President Burgess spoke to us. Our devotional that night was Chad Lewis, a former BYU football player. Everyone seemed to like his talk, it was pretty motivational, but I couldn't really relate to him and his stories.The best part though was when we watched "Missions are Forever" by Elder Holland for our movie. It was a talk where he came to the MTC without notes or anything and just talked about missions. It was really good. He talked about how you shouldn't waste any time as a missionary and how your mission should extend into the rest of your life. I took lots of notes.

These two of the board are an overview of
pretty much everything we've learned so far.

Monday Elder King's back was hurting after playing basketball, so he and I went back to the room during our last class time to rest. It was nice, not gonna lie, just to lie down in quiet. He's feeling better now though, just has a cold or something. We call it MTC Sickness because everyone's pretty much just in a constant state of sickness here. I haven't really gotten sick though, just a headache and stuffed nose here and there.

For our Tuesday devotional, Elder D. Todd Christofferson came and spoke to us. That was a cool experience, and he gave a good talk. He talked about repentance mostly, and at the end he quoted David O. McKay and said "It is better to be trusted than to be loved. The Lord will love you no matter what, but can he trust you?" That was probably one of my favorite lines from the MTC so far.

Wednesday was pretty normal, I stayed in with Elder King during exercise time and took a nap. That was nice.

Yesterday was different, we had a day long conference called In-Field Training. It was good, they have the best teachers here teach it. It talked about all the different aspects of missionary work in the field, like finding, teaching, working with members, etc. It was a good change, the day went by pretty quick because of it too.

Cousin letters plus my scriptures and "Jesus the Christ"
(which I've started reading and boy let me tell ya, it's a head-full)
Makes me remember the song:
"Wish I could turn back time, to the good 'ol days"

I got a fun letter from the Indiana Nicolaysens this week, I took a picture of it because I thought it was so fun. I love getting pictures from the cousins, they brighten my day. If you can't see, in the one David [age 5] drew there's descriptions of what everything is, there's "Elder Stevenson and his companion" and "Someone crying because they don't know the gospel." So fun. 

Elder King, Elder Duffin and Elder Firth leave on Monday. That'll be kinda sad- they're the people I'm closest to here I'd say. Especially Elder King, he's kinda my companion. I don't know how that's gonna work once he leaves, I'll probably be a trio with somebody.

I just checked the mail and nothing so far- packages or flight plans. Just a letter to Elder Firth from his girlfriend (oooOOOOOoooohhh!) I'll let you all know what the plan is. I can call home from the airport, either before the flight leaves or on layover. Some missionaries are having a throw away phone, like tracfone or something mailed to them before hand. Depending on how many missionaries are in my travel group and how many phones they've got that might be safer, and probably more reliable. We'll see once I get my plans.

Frè Augustin looking fly

With everyone getting ready to leave it makes me excited to leave, but I still have a week. We're getting new missionaries next week, so those of us who stay it will be mostly review. We'll probably be teaching some of the lessons ourselves even. It'll be an interesting week either way.

Keep sending notes and pictures! I love hearing about everything going on back home and with the family. 

Here's my song for this week:

"Manman mwen pa renmen ou, epi li renmen tout moun."

Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson