Elder M is gone. Our substitute PM teacher was nice and she let us go outside to Elder M off. He and a few others just loaded up in a van, and then off they went to the airport. Elder M is an awesome missionary. His testimony is like a mountain, but unshakable. He’ll be awesome in Hamburg. Hopefully I’ll be able to see him a few times, at least, while in Hamburg, mission. It would be totally awesome if we could be companions. I would finally understand anything he would like to say. And I’d be able to reply auf Deutsch.

Elder S and his district left this morning, also, at 3:00 am. He was the most awesomest Elder I have yet to meet. He set such a great example. He was A.P. the whole time he was here that I was also. Rather, he was A.P. when I got here. Anyhow, he was always happy and always greeted everyone. He also shared his great testimony with us often. He will be a great man in the Church one of these days. He would also tell us that we were awesome and that he loved us. He truly followed Christ’s example. He and Elder M are two more people I can look up to for examples on how to live happy and righteously. I hope I can live up to the examples of all these great men that I have as role models and heroes. Most of all I hope and pray to be able to live as my greatest hero did, perfectly. Christ is my ultimate example and friend. I love him tons, and he loves me more. May we all strive to live as he did!

Today went well. I think it was because we didn’t learn any German today. In all three classes we did Spiritual things. We had an LGM this morning also. It was all about getting the members participation in teaching and finding new investigators. The whole day seemed to stress how important members are to missionary work. We had Sister D for our afternoon teacher. She is so awesome. We’re trying to get her for our evening teacher since we don’t have one. We’d have the awesomest line up of teachers if we could get her. In the morning we have Brother S. He’s a great German teacher. He also does well in the Spiritual Department. Brother C is our afternoon teacher. He is about the awesomest at bringing the Spirit to our class. I like him and Brother S a lot. We did have Brother K for our evening teacher, but he got a job with the FBI for the summer, so he won’t be our teacher anymore. But he was cool when he was our teacher. Like I said before, hopefully we’ll get Sister D as our evening teacher. We haven’t met the guy who is supposed to be. The “General” was our teacher again tonight. It seemed a lot better tonight. I don’t think I would mind all that much if he became our evening teacher. It would set some order to our district. We tend no to mess around in his class. I think it would balance all the messing around that we do in all the other classes.

Also today we did follow up from the first discussion from last week. Elder R and I did terrible. At least I thought so. We’ll get better though. Elder S and his band and Elder M leave tomorrow. More on next page…

Today went well. I played the opening song in priesthood. We didn’t have a closing song or else I would have played it. We went to all our meetings and one of us was always late. Not for all of them, just most of them. We had an awesome fireside. President B spoke about having our own personal Liahona. It was really good, especially because of the stories he tells. Sister B’s talk was about prayer. It was good also. I think as a district, the Elders mostly, we need to work on punctuality. Yesterday we were all late for evening class, the Elders that is. And the teacher, he was substituting, was a real jerk to us. After he finished lecturing us though, we had a pretty good class. I wish the Elders would act a little more mature. It seems that every conversation turns to girls and the kissing and what not of them. Maybe they’ll grow out of it.

Elder J and Elder K got Elder S and his comp Elder P back today. They short sheeted them and wetted their sheets during Personal study time tonight. They also put paper towels in their suit coats. That probably threw them off the track, because, as of now we don’t know if it worked or not. They found out about the paper towels quick, but didn’t say anything about the sheets, so we don’t know. The whole of today went pretty well. Elder M finally got two letters today. One from his parents, the other from his girlfriend.

This morning we went to the Temple at 5:30 in the morning. It was hard to stay awake, but was a neat experience. Right after that, 8:00, we had a song practice for the Conference. We were there till 12:30. It was so awesome. There were 3 Apostles there, with Pres. Hinckley in his office. Our song, “The Spirit of God”, was awesome. I could really feel the power of the Spirit during the song. After that we had lunch and then we did some sleeping and stuff. I also got a letter from A and H. That really made me happy. After Elder R and I got our heads shaved, not really but almost, we ate a quick dinner. Then we were off to class, where we just screwed around, because there was no teacher. But worst of all, Elder G left for home.

Today went pretty well. We, as a district, had a little bit of excitement. The Sisters planned out a little joke against us with Elder S. While we were showering Elder S and his comp. placed alarm clocks set for 3:00 am and 4:00 am, where we couldn’t see them. It would have been funny if it wasn’t done to us. We, of course, didn’t know who had done the dirty deed until lunchtime. We kind of got back at them by not talking to them, but Brother C told us not to do anything like that anymore because it was distracting our work in the classroom.

Just before 10:30, Elder R and I had a talk with Elder S about our district, and how can we get the guys to do what they’re supposed to. He gave us good advice that we’ve pretty much already followed.

Today went pretty awesome. The best thing about heute (today) was the P.M. class. Elder R and I gave the erste Lektion (first discussion) to zwei (two) other Elders. It was sehr Toll (very cool). Even though we were both nervous and didn’t know pas the zweite (second) principle, we did pretty well. We were able to bring in the Spirit and get lots of feedback on how to make our presentation better. What was also cool was Sister D was our Lehrerin für heute (teacher for today). Sie will in eine woche auch (she will in one week, too), for Brüder C while he is on his honeymoon. She is an awesome teacher. A lot of fun and easy to learn from. She’s only been back from her mission for four months. I also played sand volleyball. That was fun.

I sent a letter home telling them about the Missionary Broadcast on Friday. If I would have waited until later in the afternoon today I could have sent the copy of my mission call. Mom asked for it because she needs the proof so I can get off the insurance. It was a funny thing about me getting a copy of my call. All I had was a $20 bill with me and the copy was only four cents, and they didn’t have change enough for me. Luckily the Elder just before me had three cents change and the fellow working there had another penny. I felt pretty stupid. The dumb thing about it was that after that I went down to the Buchhandlung (bookstore) and bought two spiral notebook thingies and colored pencils. So then I had change. We had a Fireside tonight. It was pretty good. We, the choir, sang pretty well.

Heute war gut (today was good). Today went pretty plain. Nothing too exciting happened today. I got two packages from home. A big one, that had a flannel and a shirt and my lost sock. The second, smaller package had only three candy bars. The only reason there was two packages was because Mom forgot to put the candy bars in with the big one. I think she sent them at different times, but the Post office here is messed up so I got them both today. Elder G doesn’t have to leave now. His probation was over before he came. But at least now he’ll be able to focus on the work and be a great missionary. Today we had an LGM. The speaker was the same as last, he’s awesome. We learned, today, how to be affective missionaries, as we do everyday. Today was focused on applying our knowledge or something like that. The speaker was actually able to show how missionary work and the Karate Kid were the same. Danielson did stuff without knowing the reason, and so do we. He later understood why he “waxed on and off” etc, and we’ll learn later why we do stuff.

I forgot to write last night about our Book of Mormon class after the discussion. It really enlightened me of the importance and the power that the Book of Mormon can have on people. the speaker told of the Brazil mission that went from 100 baptisms a month to 700 a month only because they immersed themselves in the Book of Mormon. They were required to read at least one hour themselves and 1/2 with their comp, and 15 minutes every time they met with a gator, or member. I would like to try that out. I just need to find a quiet place to do so. Good luck to me!

Today was pretty good. I think I’m going to like Sundays a lot here at the MTC. For one, there is a lot of free time. I got a two hour nap today before sacrament meeting. What also made today swell was choir practice. We, the choir, found out that we are singing for the satellite broadcast on Friday. And that there will be three or four Apostles here and we’ll be hooked up by satellite with Pres. Hinckley. And best of all, the whole broadcast is going to be seen all over this side of the world, North and South America and all them islands. So if I can get word to home, they should be able to see it on Friday. The only thing is, is that it’s at 10:00 in the morning for us, I’m not sure what it will be for the rest of the country.

Our district finds out today if Elder G has to leave.