Time Warp!!

Friday, January 4, 2013

Hey Mom!

Things are going well here at the MTC. It is crazy that I have been here for a month now! This place is like a time warp. I feel like I have been here my whole life, but at the same time the weeks are flying by. It feels like I was writing an email to you just yesterday. I will be headed down to Chile on February 4th, so in exactly one month. How crazy is that! Hopefully I will be ready to speak Spanish to those people.

I will try and address some things that you wrote in your letter. The food here is pretty good. It is all you can eat, but I don't let that get me. I eat healthy and so does my companion. I think it is a blessing that I have Elder Taylor as a companion, because otherwise I would be gaining weight here! They serve cake for breakfast every day! I don't eat it. I don't eat any sweets or any unhealthy food. All that candy you sent me? I pretty much have been slowly giving it away to my teachers and my fellow missionaries. I eat cracked wheat for breakfast, along with some fruit. For lunch I usually eat a salad or a wrap. For dinner I usually eat a plate full of vegetables and like a chicken salad.

As far as working out goes: We work out every day. We have gym 5 times a week for about 50 minutes. Elder Taylor and I also go to the gym during free time on Pday. I don't really do P90x that often. I have started doing a lot of running up on the track. I run about 4 miles every single day. Sometimes I only run three, and then I go whoop on some punks playing basketball. Haha. Basketball at the MTC is fun, but they get really mad when I dunk the basketball. But the whole working out and eating healthy thing pays off. I entered the MTC at about 216 pounds, and I am down to 204. So.... Life is good when your pants are all too big. :)

I am glad that you are being a grandma! Those little boys are cute! I feel bad that I can't write very long handwritten letters here. P days are so busy that there isn't a lot of time to write letters, and we aren't allowed to write letters on any day but P days. I hope that they are doing well. I have their drawings hanging up above my desk! Tell Adrienne that we are almost half way through the Pistachios.

As far as the sending things home goes: I am not super concerned about it. I still have a month here, so we have time to figure something out. They have big hanging scales in the Residence Hall to weigh the suitcases. OH! I just thought of something... I believe that someone stole my alarm clock! How messed up is that! I keep it on my bed, and it is gone. I looked everywhere in the room! I think our roommates left the door open one day and someone took it. But why would they steal that? I mean... I have far more expensive things sitting in the room. Maybe someone is playing a joke on me and they think it is funny to watch me turn the room upside down looking for it. I don't need an alarm clock to wake up anymore, though. I wake up automatically at 6:20.

Also, big news, the MTC pretty much had an Epidemic going around. Overnight, over 300 missionaries became sick with something like the flu. And those 300 were just the ones that reported to the Health Center on the First day!!! How crazy is that. You would be in the bathroom and at least 4 elders in each one were throwing up. There were a bunch that went to the Emergency Room! Out of the 9 in our district, 6 of them got it. Elder Taylor and I didn't. It has been nuts! We can't touch anyone or shake hands or anything. They canceled the Devotional on Tuesday night because of it! Pretty crazy!!

Today was our first time at the Temple in three weeks because it has been closed for maintenance. We walk over there at 6:30 in the morning on P-days. It was good today, but it was FREEZING walking over there!! I had never been so cold in my entire life. It is kind of cool, in the Provo Temple there is a whole separate dressing rooms for missionaries. It is really neat to be there with all of the other Elders.

Yeah, hopefully you and Makayla can figure out the pictures. The picture of me and nick on Christmas might not work. I will get another picture with him though. I seem him every single day! I heard about her friend's mom. That is such a hard thing to go through! I am glad that Makayla is being a good friend to her. Makayla is a good girl.

Well, I have three minutes left on the computer. I want to share I guess a bit of a spiritual thought, because it is my duty to invite all people to come unto Christ, not just investigators. So that means you, Mom.

Here it is:

I finished the Book of Mormon this morning. I have never read it so consistently as I have been here in the MTC. I read the entire thing in four weeks. Guess what I did when I finished? I wrote about it in my study journal and then I went straight back to 1 Nephi and started over. I have read the Book of Mormon every single day on my mission. I will read it for the rest of my mission. I will also read it every day for the rest of my life. I hope you will do the same. The Book of Mormon is a lifetime pursuit, not something you read once. Read it. Power will flow into your life, I promise. The book of Mormon contains the fullness of the gospel, and you will come to know your Savior better as you read it. I know that I have.

Well, I gotta go!

Love Elder Warren

P.S. Our investigators are our teachers, but sometimes we teach real people.