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) =)