Getting closer

Hola familia!

From this Monday, I only have one week left in the United States! I'm freaking out so bad, I have never been so excited/nervous before. We are supposed to get our travel plans later today, Me and Elder Wheeler and Elder Schicker fasted that they would get here on time and that we won't have any visa problems, so I am confident that we should for sure be leaving next monday! This has been an incredible week, alot of great things have happened so hopefully I can remember them all by the time I'm done with this email.

Yesterday was cool, the new missionaries all came in and my companions and I had the opoportunity to demonstrate the first parts of a discussion for them. We got picked last week along with a bunch of other companionships to demonstrate, it was really cool. When they bring the new missionaries in, after dinner they have them all go into all these different rooms, there ends up being about 40 in a room, and they have an investigator come in and sit on a couch in front of every one. Then a companionship comes in (knocks on the door) and starts to talk to the investigator about their live and religion. As soon as we get a good bit of information out of the investigator, they send us out and the missionaries in the room procede to finish trying to teach the investigator as one giant companionship, it's really cool. I still remember when we did ours the first day, and everyone was just trying to shove as much information as possibel down the investigators throat. We got to watch for a little bit after we did our job and it was so funny because the misionaries were doing the exact same thing, just trying to try to give as much info as possible without testimony, scripture or trying to apply stuff to the investigator. It was really an eye opener to see how much we have learned here at the MTC, in only 8 weeks. Don't get me wrong, we still have soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much to learn and have like nada experiencia but we have definitely learned that as missionaries, the last thing we want to do is shove info down peoples throats. Starting the discussion went perfectly, although I will admit, It was ten times scarier to do it in English. I couldn't tell you why, but I was so nervous to do it in my native language... I know kinda stupid huh, but it was funny. Before we started, I told my comps that "por cierto, alguien va a hablar un poco espanol durante la leccion..." (for sure someone is going to speak a little in Spanish during the lesson). Sure enough, at the very end when Elder Lee was trying to explain that God has a body, he started the sentence with "Padre Celestial tien..." It was great, classico!

I have gotten so close to my companions this week, Elder Lee and I have really really started to click better, and it's great, we are all having so much fun. Our past couple of lessons have been incredible, we have three baptism dates set up for the 4th of February, so hopefully our investigadores will "follow through" with those. I realized the other day how much i'm going to miss having Elder Lee and Elder wheeler as companions, and it's going to be the weirdest thing in the world to only have one companion in the field. I'm praying that whoever my trainer is will be able to have patience with my inexperience and especially with my spanish.

I sang in church for the first time ever on Sunday! It went so good! I sang "Llevaremos al mundo su verdad" (we will bring the world his truth, but in spanish) I was really nervous but I think it went pretty well...ok I of course was singing with the whole District, did I get you all?? I bet you were thinking "Tyler, sang in church, by himself?? Did they kick him out??" Our district sang the song together in sacrament meeting, it was really neat. Some of the hymns I actually like way better in spanish. (ye elders of israel, battle Hymn of the Republic, and I need thee every hour are some of my favorite)

I have really gained a strong testimony of prayer while I have been here. Granted, I had one before, but I have learned that prayer just makes everything better. It gives me comfort when I need it, It helps me be more patient and have more charity, it helps me receive revelation and promptings, and find scriptures that I'm looking for, it lets me tell my Father in Heaven how grateful I am for all his blessings and his hands in my life, I don't know what I would do without it. I wouldn't be out here, that's for sure.

Pues, necesito ir, pero, enviare una carte esta tarde, cierto! Les amo mucho, gracias por todas las cartas y oraciones!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Eastmond