Now the MTC has E-mail!!!

Hey everybody! It feels really good to be able to type something. I write so slow that it really hinders my ability to write a comprehensible letter. Anyway, here's the report (you could call it an epistle, is you so desired): Since the last letter, a lot of good things have happened. I'll outline it: Companion Church Temple Class Portuguese Reading the Book of Mormon Practicing teaching Elder Davis and I are getting along really well. On paper, we're polar opposites -- He's from the opposite side of the country, his life came from a completely different direction. He's a very good teacher, but has a hard time with the Portuguese. On the other hand, I have a hard time teaching well, but I the Portuguese is coming very quickly for me. Our district is really good. In our room, there's Elder Davis, Elder Velasquez (district leader), Elder Wallace, and me. We focus very well and we get a lot done. We wake up at 6:15 to beat people to the showers, we go to sleep right at 10:30, and we work really hard during personal and companion study. One thing we've learned is that the Spirit is very sensitive. I don't know if other people do, but I feel it all the time. Knowing this, I try to do as much as I can to keep it with me, obeying all the rules exactly and then some. I trimmed my sideburns this morning, for example, because they were more than halfway down my ear. I know it doesn't sound like much, but doing everything I can to defeat anything that could prevent me from feeling the Spirit does wonders. We're trying to be on time to everything, we're studying, we're staying on task, and we're trying to plan well. Every little thing helps. It's so important, because we can't learn effectively when the Spirit isn't there and we can't teach effectively if it isn't, either. We went to the Provo Temple today to do endowments. It was a really great experience. Elder Davis and I sat in the celestial room and just prayed for about 20 minutes, and I felt the Spirit so strongly. It was great. I even had a much easier time praying in Portuguese, even for that long. I was kinda worried about Elder Davis because he seemed like he was getting discouraged. He has a girlfriend back in Florida, and she sounds like a real keeper. During one of our companion study sessions I asked him about it, and we had a really good conversation and I know I am very blessed to have him as a companion. We keep each other in check really well and make sure we are each doing the things we should be doing. Class is great. We have Brother Christofferson (son of a presidency of the Q of 70) and Brother Hibbert, who is a first-time teacher. They're both really good. Brother Hibbert and I have a much better teacher-student relationship than I think I've ever had. Our class is just our district, so 10 elders only. When people are working on things or when Elder Davis and I finish working on something early, I ask him about Portuguese things I wonder about, like "Legao!" (which is only Brazilian) or which phrase is more common or about the people. I love learning Portuguese. It's coming so naturally and it seems like I remember a lot more than I ever knew. A couple days ago, I read 1 Nephi 8 through 1 Nephi 11/12 out loud in Portuguese while Elder Davis used the computer Portuguese learning program thingy. It was an incredible experience. I wasn't reading it to practice my Portuguese, entirely, but I wanted to know more about Lehi's dream and the interpretation. By the time I had finished reading it, I was losing my voice. However, I felt the Spirit so strongly. I felt like doing anything for anybody and being as patient and humble as possible. It's just like Galatians 5:22. Check that out. I always thought the Spirit was a burning in the bosom kind of thing, which I've had, but I recognize much more easily now that it's a calm sense of extroverted goodness, with a good share of pensive thought and pondering. We've been practicing teaching the first lesson, which talks about God, the Apostasy, the Restoration, the Book of Mormon, and praying to know truth. Elder Davis and I do pretty well, but I feel like we have a long way to go. It's really hard for me to explain something that is so dear to me, so all-encompassing, and so important. I know the Lord really has prepared me for my mission, and if not my mission, then He prepared me for the MTC. I feel like every day is a rough, humbling day, but it's always good. Most of my journal entries start out with something like, "today was a good, rough day." We work so hard and our brains are always so drained by the end of the day, but it's good. We stay so busy. When I'm not sure how I should go about learning how to teach or how to plan or how to study, I study the scriptures or think of my past experiences that the Lord has given me to use for my benefit. For example, my sales experience at StowAway2 was a tough development. For the first month or so, I dreaded every sales call. However, once I had incorporated the sales/teaching about the product into how I thought about it, it made it so much easier. That's what I have to do now. I already have the product knowledge, but I just need the practice of teaching and explaining it to somebody who knows nothing about it. There are volunteers that come in that we practice giving the lessons to, but that seems so artificial to me. As a missionary, it's important to show compassion, but in a practice session, it's impossible for me to fake compassion -- so in other words, I am terrible at practicing teaching. As for all the advice about being humble, I'm glad I got it. Being here, I have realized that everybody comes from different backgrounds, learns differently -- but more importantly, they have different purposes. From Preach My Gospel, I know that every missionary is meant to preach in a unique way, so I have to focus on improving myself and giving advice as charitably as possible. I know the teachers, leaders, and learning material is much more inspired than I am, and I need to build my foundation as a missionary on those things. D+C 11:21 -- definitely true. 1 Corinthians 13, Moroni 7:47. Charity. Thanks for all the letters! Keep sending them. DearElder is great. I'll send pictures today. Forward this to anybody you see fit. Tell the Bishop I'm really glad he's doing better and that our room is definitely Boomer Clean. Somos missionarios. (no accents or anything in the following section) Entao, Eu sou que A Igreja e verdadeiro. Eu sou que o Livro de Mormon e a palavra de Deus. Eu sou grato por tudo que facem voces. Abracos!!! Elder Lobo