August 27, 2010

Hey Family!
These are my notes from Elder Holland's talk. I'm just going to write here what I want to say for my letter as well. (Elder Holland came and spoke to the missionaries at the MTC this week! Mason sent us all of the notes that he took. They are really cool! However, I did not include them in this posting.) This talk was really cool! Ever since I heard that one talk from him I have always wanted to hear him again. So I got the chance and I wrote down as much as I could. One of my favorite parts is when he said, "It wasn't easy for Jesus when he was in the Garden to pay for our sins, but God provided a way for him. So it's not going to be easy, but the Lord will help us through it. He will ease our burdens as it says in Mosiah 24:14." So that was cool. Then one more part that I didn't write down is he said, "This (meaning the Gospel) isn't Burger King. We don't hold the pickles. The is the Lord's Gospel and church. We need to do everything the Lord asks us to receive the blessings." Plus on Tuesday I got a package from mom so it was awesome. Tuesday was really good. Then last night we taught our first lesson in the TRC in Spanish with a lady from Honduras. It was cool, but really tough. But I could say everything I wanted to, so it was cool. I could understand about 3/5 of what she said-haha. That's not too bad if you ask me! So how are things going back at home? My bike is gone, so that's cool. Dads getting better it sounds like so that's good, too. Here, some missionaries are still struggling speaking Spanish. We have pretty much switched almost everything to Spanish now. So it's tough but we are making it through. To answer some of your questions, Rod has 3 kids. Elder Hille is from Salt Lake and went to Olympus (he is one of Mason's buddies there in the MTC). All of the missionaries in our district are going MCN. Elder Marsh is from Payson and went to Salem Hills (another buddy). And the temple is the house of the Lord fo sho! Our visas, no word on them. Our district leader is Elder Hopper from Phoenix, AZ. So it's all good. Thanks for all the support and prayers. It's awesome.
Les amo mucho!
Elder Malan

(pride is the universal sin, so stay humble) =)

August 19, 2010

Hey mom! Here is all good so far. That's cool those homies got home. Give them the what up for me when you see them. And ya this week did go by really quick huh? Already a month now! So that's pretty cool. But Elder Talbot is in the couple pictures where its just me and him. He went to Peru MTC a week ago. In my district everyone is going Mexico City North. In my zone there are about 20 missionaries going to Mexico. 5 got their visas a couple days ago and they still have a week or 2 left here. So there is hope for me! But the district before them got temporary assignments in Ogden, Oakland, Salt Lake, places like that so I know I should be outta here on time but to where not sure. And no I don't have a flash drive here. So thanks for the packages and stuff too. But i need my memory card back to take more pictures so that would be nice. We will take a picture by the map. I want to take one with Taylor Tabile but I don't have my memory card!haha all good. How are things at home? Thanks for all the prayers. My spanish is coming along, I'm just trying to remember more words. I can conjugate most of the irregular verbs correctly so now I just need to start learning more verbs and palabras. Are you guys partying it up or what in the O? I hope all is well. But time is of the essence so I need to hurry. My dang thing froze up on me so I had to exit out! But i just want to say thanks for being such good examples for me. I really appreciate it and thanks for the prayers. I'm trying to live the best I can so we can live forever with the Lord and Jesucristo! I know you are doing the same as well. Son siempre en mi oracions!
Elder Malan

August 12,2010

Hola familia! Como estan?
Estoy bien aqui. How is the family? This week went by quick. How are things at home? I heard that Makelle got sick. At least it's under control. What else is going on in the O? I don't hear about anything really, except from what you guys say. But here esta bien. I'm learning more about how to teach effectively and use the scriptures to show them then ask questions that makes them bear their testimony and see where the investigator is at . It's crazy how much you can learn when you're doing the Lord's work. Three weeks and I can almost do the first lesson in Spanish so it's pretty cool stuff! Still a lot to learn though about Spanish and everything. My teachers are really good. One - Hermano Zirkle - was BYU's Defensive End but quit to teach missionaries. I think that's crazy. He is huge and he is such a good guy. He has such a good spirit. I want to teach and preach like he does. He is so powerful. And my other teacher - Hermano Patterson - he's in one of the pictures. He is awesome, too. Funny and a really good guy. He has a bullet bike so that puts him up there also. I'm sending my memory card with this letter so hopefully it will be ok. Hopefully it gets there ok. Other than that this week has been decent. Hopefully it continues to get better and also my Spanish!
Love you all so much.
Mucho amor por mi familia,
Elder Malan

August 5, 2010

Wow! These last couple of days have been probably some of the best days of my life so far. Last Thursday, I was able to give my first priesthood blessing to my maestro. His back was hurting and he asked for a blessing. I hadn't given one before so he asked me to and it was so cool! Tuesday we had a fireside meeting. It was a really good message to soak up all the time you have on your mission. He said don't serve time, serve the Lord. I know that that is so true. After, we had a district meeting about the fireside and it was awesome. We each bore our testimonies of how we can each improve so we can work harder and be ready for the time we all go to Mexico City and bless the lives of the people there. I can't wait to do that. I just need to work more on my spanish, haha. We did contacting in spahish which went about a bazillion times better than last week. Then we taught in English and that went a bazillion times better also! We taught him the first lesson then we challenged him to pray and read a chapter in the BOM (2 NE 31) and ask if the Book of Mormon was true then we challenged him when he got his answer and he knew it was true to be baptised! He said if he felt like it was true he would do it! I'm not sureif he was a real investigator or practice but either way, it was awesome! Today we got back from the temple and it was the best session of my life for sure. I felt how the Lord has blessed me and my companion just this last week. We could of never have done as well as we did without the Lord helping us as much as he did. I thanked him so much for the blessing in my life. It took me 19 years to realize how great of a family I have.. which is really sad that it took that long to realize that my family is the best thing in the whole world. You guys send me a letter everyday and a package every week about! I'm so grateful for you mom and dad for the tremendous blessing you are in my life. I just want to tell you that now that you two are the reason of what I am today and why I'm on a mission serving the Lord. I love you so much! And another thing that was really cool is that the temple food is soooooooo much better than the dang mtc food. I wish I could eat the temple food for every meal! haha! But oh well, at least I get it once a week! Mom regarding that snake, I'm sorry that I am not there to take care of that problem for you. So get one of your other two men to go out there and take care of it ok? Bueno. I love you all so much thanks for being there for me everyday! I can feel your prayers :)
Elder Malan