Week 3

So third week and I'm still loving the MTC. Last week a group of the older guys left and it made me realize how bad I want to get out and serve but also how much I don't want to leave this safe little MTC haha. We had a fireside about how unhealthy Central America is and how we are all probably going to die from some disease haha. Apparently all of the missions have medicines for the diseases though....except Honduras Tegucigalpa. All of the rest have them just not mine. So, I will need some serious bug spray and a mosquito net the second I get to Tegucigalpa. Also another cool thing is that my teacher said he wants me to live with the Latinos instead of the Americans because my Spanish is too strong haha. It made me feel good but i doubt it would happen because you have to get special permission to do that from the president. I really need to do that though because I cannot understand anything but I can speak it pretty well. Like pretty pretty well. Last night I had a dream that we were dancing like we used to in the kitchen and I started crying because i wasn't ready to be an adult yet and that I don't want to leave my family and go off to some random country. It was super sad, I don't feel like I am ready to do that yet but I know that Heavenly Father will mold me into whatever he needs me to be so I'm not too worried at all. Also, Jefferson is here now. I keep accidentally calling him Jefferson instead of Elder Ostler. It is ridiculously nice to have a familiar face around. He came up to me and asked if I have cried yet and I said only in the shower so other people don't judge me haha. I'm surprisingly not as home sick as I thought I would be. It's only been three weeks but that is three times as long as the longest I was away before my mission. We were able to talk to some real missionaries today on the way back from the temple and I felt like a toddler compared to them lol I'm so jacked to go out there and start contacting people. This is such a cool opportunity and I'm grateful for every second of it. Also, it seems like everyone is receiving letters in the mail except for me.... I see how it is. I love you guys so much. I am so excited to here from you guys next week. The church is true and the book is blue.

Week 2

The MTC is so baller no lie. There are days when I get sad because I miss mommy and poppa smurf but other than that, my district is my family so it helps me out so much. Let me tell you, as a missionary, I feel the spirit so much that I sometimes don't even realize it's with me because I'm so used to it. Last p-day, was the most I have probably ever felt it. We had a district meeting after watching an Elder Holland talk and we weren't even very sure what to say and after like 30 minutes, Elder Johnson, who is from Preston Idaho where Napoleon Dynamite was filmed, started to give his testimony, then Elder Larimer from Texas, then I did it and I was crying. I was talking about how I felt so out of place because everyone was so excited to be off on a mission and how they cant wait to get in the field but I wanted to be with my mommy watching a movie or cuddled up with Xena getting her dog hair all over me. I was saying how scared I was to be off in a random country where more likely than not, I will get some deadly disease and be in the hospital at least one time in my mission, but I know that the work I am doing is what is right and that Heavenly Father will bless my life and my families if I do the work. It was the most powerful testimony I have probably ever given. Then my buddy Elder Smith who is the tough football player gave his testimony because he said mine inspired him. His was so powerful and just, as Alison says, "retweeted" my testimony about how he is also so scared but he knows that when he is down, the Savior is there to catch him and help him up. The spirit was so overwhelming. Anyways, it's been way cool. I'm struggling with Spanish like crazy. I feel like I've hit a wall. But I'm praying so hard to be better and during a lesson that my companion and were teaching, the gift of tongues went into full affect. Ii bore my testimony of the libro de mormon and I did it perfectly in the best Spanish I have ever given. It was way cool. Let's see. My teachers love me and ask me to translate when people don't understand. I've been balling every day during exercise and that is so fun. I've been doing some sick tie trading. I've only got like 3 ties that i came here with and the rest I've traded. I'm wearing this awesome red tie I traded for. Also, that Elder I gave a tie to, I may or may not have bought him like 30 dollars worth of stuff because I knew he didn't have any money to buy garments or a book of mormon that wasn't a crappy give out one. I wouldn't have done it if the spirit didn't prompt me to. It was the right thing. Anyways, send my love to the family. I miss you guys so much. I started crying during a Joseph Smith movie just because the mom was holding a kid hahaha I'm a mommas boy for sure.

First Week

It's my first P-Day and I'm so excited to finally email you guys!! First off this keyboard is really weird. The symbols are different so I'm really struggling just trying to figure out where everything is at haha. The mtc or the ccm as they say here in Guatemala is actually way fun. From Tuesday to Wednesday was literally the longest day of my life. I didnt get to sleep for almost two days because of the plane and because they just started us off in classes on our first day here. It was really really long and tiring the first few days. Now the days fly by. Our classes are fun and our teachers are seriously the best. Our first one is Hermana Simon and she is so funny and likes to yell at us a little haha our other teacher, or maestro, is Hermano Vazquez and he was companions with Seths brother in Nicaragua!!!! It was seriously so crazy when we figured that out the first day. So my Spanish has literally gone to a whole new level in just a week. It's not like I've learned any new words but by just speaking it all of the time, I am so much better at the language. My companion and I have the best spanish for sure. He was friends with Joseph Bingham in Utah!! They were like best friends. It was reallly cool becuase we have a friend in common but we have never met before. His name is Elder Goodman or as the latinos call him, Elder buenhombre. I am enjoying it here no lie. The food is spectacular!! Every meal is like beans and tortillas and depending on if its breakfast lunch or dinner, we have a type of meat. Like breakfast is eggs, lunch is usually a chicken type of dealio, and then dinner is like a beef type of thing. The third day we had a hamburger and I about cried haha. Every night every missionary on our floor gets into some tie trading. It is so fun because my tie game is pretty strong and errrrr body wants to trade with ya boy. It is a good time. But yesterday we went to the floor with the latinos to do some tie trading and I realized that I am a spoiled brat. Those guys came from basically the poorest backgrounds and they have hardly anything and then me and everyone else goes down there to show off what we have in hopes they want to trade when they dont have anything to trade. I ended up giving away a tie to one of my friends se llama Elder Garcia. I asked why he wasnt doing any trades and he says "no tengo mucho. Solo tengo cuatro" which means I dont have much, I only have four. I almost started to cry because I felt like every bad word ever. How could I go down there with all of my ties around my neck when he and most of the other guys barely have enough to get by. I gave him that orange tie that you bought me a few years ago and he would have kissed my feet if I didnt stop him. It was so humbling and totally knocked me off of my high and mighty pedestal. I know know that I am so blessed to just have some ties. These people have nothing and yet they are still on a mission serving the lord. I am jealous of them! It was nice to realized all of that a week into my mission so that I dont have to realize it when I am in someones home eating and they are literally giving me the best they can afford. This church is definitley true. My testimony is so much larger now. When you dedicated your entire day and week and month and year to the work of the Lord, there's no way that you cant have a stronger testimony. yo se que esta iglesia es verdadero con todo mi corazon. yo se que Jesucrist es el salvador del mundo y me ama mucho. yo se que thomas s monson es un profeta de Dios y recibe revalacion por nuestro iglesia. y yo SE que estoy haciendo la trabaja de mi salvador Jesucristo y ustedes y yo recibirimos bendiones por mi trabaja. en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen

Day 1

They said i have 5 minutes to email you to say that I am alive lol also my P Days are random apparently so in order to make sure that I get your emails, email me on Sundays. If you could put that on my page that would be great. Also, they took all of our cameras, apparently we arent allowed to have them in the MTC. Weird. And people like to go full on crazy when they are driving. Almost died twice. It has been a very productive 24 hours. My companions name is Elder Goodwin. He seems cool. My roommates are all people that i knew from the flights I had so it should be fun. I'm way excited. It is going to be a good time.

Welcome

Hello everyone. We have created this blog for Jon's emails and updates. If you want to get updates please sign up in the bottom right corner. You can enter your email and be updated when new posts come through. Jon will be at the MTC in Guatemala for 6 weeks. This will unfortunately not be enough time to send a package. If you want to send an actual letter you can do what they call pouch mail. You can send two kinds of letter through the pouch: either a postcard or a letter on one side of a single sheet of paper. These are the only types of correspondence the pouch mail service will accept. The service does not accept envelopes or packages. If you are using a piece of paper, the sheet should be folded into three parts, as is commonly done to insert a letter into a business envelope. The top edge of the sheet should be fastened with tape on the top edge only, no closer than one inch to either side. They recommend a single 8 1/2-inch x 11-inch sheet of paper (the equivalent of paper used in most copiers). Write your return address in the top left corner. Apply a stamp to the top right corner of the tri-folded paper or post card, and mail it to Church headquarters at this address: Elder Garry Tegucigalpa Mission P.O. Box 30150 Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150 Otherwise the new thing kids are doing these days is called email. It's instant! His email address is jonothon.garry@myldsmail.net