Monday, July 22, 2013 9:02 AM (To Dad)

Holla,

Descriptions of my district are in my email to mom so make sure you read that. I sent you guys a letter on my second day I hope that it gets to you! The lord is trying to humble me for sure. My second day here they called me to be the district leader and so it added that to my already heaping amounts of responsibility and thing to do. And then come Sunday the branch president was interviewing me and asked me if I would accept the call with my companion to be a zone leader. So barely even knowing what being a district leader means after next Sunday I will become a zone leader with my companion with Elder McKean. The zone leaders I have now are awesome and I will definitely be looking to them for guidance and as good examples. Elder Pierce is from Huntington beach and is a muscular really polished elder that is very loving and you can tell is a natural leader he seems like he is about 20 years old and all the other elders seem older than me in the zone but the reality is that I’m just as old if not older than most of them. It just goes to show how much you can grow from a few weeks in the mtc. The other zone leader is Elder Melville a short bulky guy that is always laughing and maybe a little more "rough around the edges" he is also a great leader and I just think of him as a little ball of love. He wrestled is high school and was very excited when he found out that I am a wrestle. Thank you for your words of encouragement and strength I can use them. The spirit is strong here but I have been struggling to keep it with me lately I think it is just because I am feeling too overwhelmed and I need to focus on helping other people. The first few days were full but not too hard because I had the companionship of the spirit with me, when he isn't with me is when the work gets really hard I’m trying to re evaluate myself and what I’m doing and my prayers are very hard and I’m trying hopefully my next letter/ email will be more uplifting. So far in the MTC I have seen Elder Porter McClaws, Elder Chris Willis, Elder Austin Long, a couple elders from Aaron's ward in California, Elder Bradley (the asu wrestler guy from flagstaff), Elder Dylan Shaw, and it seems like maybe more but I can't think of anymore right now. Good job talking with those people at work! Thank you for taking the challenge and immediately acting on it! I am grateful that I am learning Spanish every time that I see and elder with weird symbols on their name tags. Tell Matthew Congratulations for me I am so happy for that guy! Well I hope that the Moonstruck lovers will find some time to write to me! An hour is hardly enough time to write even just two emails so maybe ill start writing letters to you guys on P-day because I have a lot more time to do that. The program of the MTC is inspired. Elder McKean and I have already taught two lessons to Javier our "investigator" in our first lesson we forgot to bring a Libro de Mormon so we had to bring it back for the second lesson and committed him to read and pray about it. The lessons are in Spanish so they are a bit slow and choppy but we are able to communicate which is the most important thing. It doesn’t matter if a person has perfect command of the language if they don’t have the spirit their teaching will be pointless, so I've been trying to focus on that but I have a feeling that maybe I should work a little harder at the language too haha. We watched "the character of Christ" by elder bednar last night and it was really good, I need to stop focusing on my own problems and short comings. We walked around the temple yesterday and as we went in the gates there were some guys with big crosses yelling at us trying to tell us we needed Jesus or something. Dude... He's on our nametag! And people say that Mormon missionaries are pushy! We live on the fourth floor of our residence hall and the 5th floor of our teaching building so the top of both buildings. I walk up and down the stairs several times each day so hopefully that will help to keep my weight in check. whenever we go back to our classroom I feel like Kung Fu Panda because I'm always a bit winded by the top of the stairs, (pretty sad huh). Tell Daniel that, I always think of him when I feel like Kung Fu panda. I Love you guys and send my love to Carolyn, Matthew, Daniel, Brenda and Levi. Send their mailing address please and if one of you sends me a letter can you also send me one of those address sheet I made before I left? The work is going and I’m sure things will only get better from here.

Mucho Amor, Elder Andrew