MTC Week 2

12/19/2012

Hola familia!

So Christmas is next Tuesday, so Merry Christmas right now! Unfortunately I won't be able to call you, but you all know that.

This week was crazy stupid awesome! I've learned so much in such a short time. I started out teaching lessons last week reading straight from a script I had written, and now I'm teaching lessons striaght from the heart, no notes. It's amazing how far my spanish has come in such a short period of time! Such a massive blessing from Heavenly Father. I really want to be the best missionary I possibly can, and I guess He  does too because the blessings are just flowing without stopping! Grandpa Pier sent me a letter last week with a formula for success as a missionary. Faith + Exact Obedience + Hard Work = Miracles. I've been trying my hardest to follow that formula, and I can testify that it works. There'd be now way taht I could do this without the help of my Father in Heaven.

So I was supposed to fly to the Spain MTC a week from today, but that won't be happening now. My visa didn't clear, (no one going to Spain has their visa) so I will continue my training here in Provo until it does clear. However, I'm sure you're all aware of how many fumors fly around in here, and the big rumor for us is that between the 1st and 5th of January, visas will be handed out. So! That means, if that rumor is true, I still could be leaving pretty soon. Either way I'll be happy. I love it here so much, and I'm learning so much that I don't want to leave yet! But going to Spain would be amazing. That's a no brainer right there. So don't worry about me if you think I'm all busted up over not leaving. The scriptures mom had me read helped a lot too.

Next Tuesday is Christmas and it's going to awesome!!! Tons of musical numbers by missionaries, and a devotional by a member of the 12. Not sure who, but every Christmas before this it has been a member of the 12. I wanted audition for a musical number in the devotional, but I didn't have any musci to audition with! I thought you had packed the 'How Great Thou Art' that I sang at my farewell, but I couldn't find it anywhere. It's all good though. I think it would be a totally amazing memory to be a part of that and perform, but I also think that it will be just as an amazing memory to watch and take part that way. I'm really excited for it, the devotionals have been one of my favorite parts here, and hearing one from a member of the 12, here in person, it's going to put me on a spiritual overload! Probably not though, I don't think there is anyway I could get overloaded by the Spirit.

So something funny that happened this week. My disctirct and a couple other companionships from our zone decided to participate in what is called the "Cereal Challenge'. I'm not sure if they did this when you served, but apparently it's a really big thing here. They have tons of cereal here and they keep them in these really tall towers. There's seriously like 10 to 15 bags of cereal in these towers. So yeah. They're really big. So the challenge is your whole district has to eat one full tower in one sitting. My district has 12 guys, we're a big disctrict, and add on the missionaries from the other disctrict and we're up to about 20 missionaries total. We all grabbed 4 bowls of Frosted Flakes each and absolutely pounded through that tower. All of us had 4 bowls, and the tower was gone by the time the last missionary had gotten his 4 bowls. So we're looking at how easy this was, (before we started eating) and decide that one was too easy, and that we need to go for 2 towers! So I pound through my first 4 bowls easy, piece of cake. We then moved on to a ceral called "Blueberry Muffin Toppers" and we all grab another 4 bowls. These next four are really slow. We grabbed some paper lunch sacks because some guys were feeling like they were about to blow chunks everywhere. I manage to get through those last 4, but I'm starting to feel it hurt. Most everybody has slowed waaaay down and can barely get through another 6. So then they start recruting help from me and other missionaries that have finished. And I wans't about to let this tower dominate us, so of course I took they're remaining bowls. So in total, I ate 10 and half bowls of cereal, and I felt like crap. Seriously I think I've gained like 4 pounds and it's all in my waist haha. I have some nice love handles that I didn't have before, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was all because of that stinking cereal challenge. But we did it, we finished 2 towers of cereal in one sitting. I'll send some pcitures later today when I do my laundry.

The MTC is really crazy, lots of fun, and lots of spirit. I love it here, but I definitely want to be out in the field more than I want to be here. But not until I'm ready. I'm not sure I'll every feel fully ready though, but I'm confident that the MTC will teach me all that I need to be succesful. I love you all and I hope you have a merry Christmas! I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Con amor,

Elder Webb