Wow...week 3 already!!

Hello everyone!

So unfortunately.. This was a little bit of a bummer week.. We were all excited to be missionaries and we were expected to ship out to India on Monday! And then on Friday we had a super secret, India-only mission meeting and they told us that there were things that we had to memorize to tell the passport agents. We were supposed to take our tags off and tell them why we were there. We aren't allowed to say conversion or convert in India though because convert in India means to coerce or force someone to change their ways. They have a bunch of anti-conversion laws, which is weird. But we had that meeting and then we went off for In-Field Orientation where they review everything that we learned and then we broke up for lunch. At lunch, we got the news that all of us were dreading... Our visas didn't come! :( oh it was so sad. The rest of that day was just a drag. We were all sad because we were all pumped to go out and teach and then that dream was dashed.. Oh well. We watched a video on patience by President Uchtdorf and he told us that we must work harder now than ever before because this gives us an opportunity to work even more on becoming the best teachers we can be. So it looks as though we will be here another week.. Which makes me sad but I know that it happened for a reason and that I have some more time to work on being the best vessel for the Spirit ever!

  While it was a sad week, there were definitely some things that made the week better. First off, I got to talk to my wonderful mother on Friday to tell her the bad news! I mean it wasn't the most ideal situation to talk to her but its better than telling her I wanted to go home, right? But they let us call home and I got to hear her voice for the first time in almost three weeks and it was just amazing. I have the best mom in the whole world! I am so glad that she was there to pick up because there was only one other Elder in my district that connected with his parents so that was good.

  Also, I was able to give my first priesthood blessing on Monday night.. That was so crazy!! One of the Sisters in our zone was sick and she really wanted a blessing so my companion anointed the oil and then I gave the blessing. There is something so unnerving about placing my hands on someones head and being a vessel for the Spirit to tell this wonderful sister the things that the Lord wanted her to hear. I opened my mouth and for 5 seconds nothing would come out. And then wham! Words started coming out of my mouth. I don't remember what I said, but after the blessing, she told me that she immediately felt better and comforted by my words. Right after, I felt the Spirit so strongly and I felt the love of my Savior as I reflected on the blessing. The fact that we have the power to help perform miracles is amazing and I feel so lucky to be able to use the priesthood whenever I get the opportunity. It was just an amazing experience.

  Elder Averett, my favorite person in our district, and I have competitions to see who gets the most stuff everyday. We get the most letters and packages and lately, both sides have been slacking slightly as neither of us are getting a multitude of packages and/or letters.. So pick it up and make me the most popular Elder ever! Haha but I'm not promising I'll write everyone back.. I get so bored writing all my letters because I can only do it on P-Day and I do it all in one spurt and I get bored and distracted and yeah. But write and send packages :)

  Also, I get to see Elder Farnworth like everyday and it is so amazing. I love that guy so much! I am so glad that we are able to be here in the MTC and I get to see the changes! He is doing so amazing and he is picking up Spanish so well! Sometimes he forgets that I don't speak Spanish and he talks to me like I do so I just smile pretend like I know what he is saying. I'm pretty sure that this isn't on the DL but he just got made District Leader in his district! He is becoming quite the spiritual giant and its so cool to see!

  My teachers want to be on my email list or have my blog stuff so here are there email addresses: Brother Karsen Yack - karsen.yack@gmail.comand Sister Sili Latu - latu.sili@gmail.com. Sister Latu has a video that she took of us singing and if you ask her for it then she will send it to you and you can put it on the blog and then everyone can hear my amazing singing voice!

  Well, I'm running out of things to say.. The MTC gets pretty boring and all but I love and miss all of you and can't wait to hear from you!

Love,

Elder Head