Swine Flu!

Things are getting pretty weird down here. Swine flu is the biggest news. The latest udpate is that 5 people have been quarantined because they have swine flu. No one can leave the MTC. So no missionaries are leaving the MTC this week and we have 400 new missionaries coming in. So things are going to be crowded for a couple of weeks. All departures have been grounded tor two weeks. But don't be scared. The atmosphere here is still really positive and I am perfectly healthy which I am grateful for. But we would appreciate your prayers as this flu season unwinds.

In other news, I am doing great! My companions and I taught a rockin' lesson yesterday at the Teaching Resource Center. That is where people that speak Italian come in and they are volunteer investigators. So we have a 15 minute language scenario. Then we teach in English. We did a really goo job. The spirit was strong, the message was clear, and the investigators were involved. We have one more lesson in English and then we will teach only in Italian.

A cool thing from this week, Elder Nancollas ( my companion whose parents are mission presidsents) can speak English, of course, and also he is mostly fluent in Spanish. I say mostly becuase he is forgetting some words. But we were working at the referral center making outbound calls. I got a person that spoke Spanish and so I said, "Un momento por favor" and I was like, Nancollas take this! And he was scared, but he took it and was able to talk to someone over the phone in Spanish which blew my mind. He is really good with learning Italian, so we will look to him to help us learn.

Oh, we also taught each other the Joseph Smith story solo in Italiano. It was so cool! It is weird to think that I know so much Italian already, but I didn't know that I could speak it until last night! The gift of tongues is definitely at work here at the MTC.

Like I was saying last week, the Italians are king of the palla vollo court (volleyball). There have been a few different times that the Spaniards have tried to play us but we just destroy them. There really is not a match for us in our gym group of missionaries that can beat us. So we just play a lot by ourselves and just get a ton better than all of the rest of the people. I think what makes us better is we are willing to get dirty in the sand - to dive and fall all over the place to get the ball.

Oh yea that reminds me, because the swine flu but mostly the regular flu has been a problem, all contact sports that are allowed at the MTC - soccer, basketball, softball (cause of the gloves) things like that - have been banned until this flu thing is gone. So there are a lot more challengers to our volleyball court, but we dominate so it is all good.

The devotionals here are so wonderful. We have a general authority every Tuesday and someone from the Mission Department usually on Sundays. The talks are so good and messages so aligned with the spirit. Last Sunday, the President of the Missionary Department talked and his talk was great! Then we watched the movie, "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration." The spirit was a powerful thing here at the MTC that night.

Well family, that is about all I have to say. Things are really busy and these are mostly just the highlights. A half hour goes by really fast. That is all the time we have to use computers for email. I must apologize to Chris cause my letters probably reek with mispelled words and poorly constructed sentences but it is all good cause I think that has to do with getting things mixed up with Italian grammer and grammer rules. But anywho, live with it Chris.

I just want to close by saying that I love all of you and I appreciate your letters. Mail time at the MTC is really a bright time. One, cause it is out of the classroom, and two, it is our only link with the outside world. Which reminds me that we weren't going to be able to go to the temple today, but the Italians and one zone of Spanish speakers got cleared to go today which is a great blessing cause the Provo temple is going to close for cleaning in the middle of June, so after that it is bye bye temple for two years. :( But that comes with the territory, so I guess that just means more study time for us. Yay!

Well this time is really goodbye now, I will talk to you next week. I can't wait to get letters from you all. You all sound like you are doing so well. Keep up the good work!! Love you all!