Semana 3 - The Third Days at the MTC

Seth's Mom, here . . . just want you to know that Seth often quotes scriptures, many from the Book of Mormon.  You can find those verses to read online here: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm?lang=eng  or you can request a free hard copy at lds.org.

Hey everyone!

Thank you all so much for all the love and emails and DearElders and letters and support. It really means so much to me and I love y'all so MUCH and I'm so glad to have y'all in my life.

So This week has been really interesting. A good week but a long one at that.

So this week we started teaching people and real investigators in the Spanish Language and it is rough man let me tell ya. So Elder Moser and I have this investigator named Diana and she is from El Salvador and she currently works in the MTC in the custodial services and she is super riendly and nice and fun to be with. But we figured these things out the second time we taught her. The first time we were so nervous and we kinda paniced while teahing her. we tried to teach her about the restoration of the Gospel and it didnt go very well, to say the least. So we were super discouraged by that but I did some reading in the Book of Mormon and there is this one chpter in Jacob 4 that really hit home to me and helped me through a lot of the challenges that I was facing. Its Jacob 4: 7-10 if yall get the chance, look that up, its great. But we taught her the next day and it went so much better. We were able to talk to her about her life and her family and her joys and fears and laugh and feel the Spirit of the Lord to gether it really rocked. So that was a huge pick me up in the grand scheme of things.

So our room had four elders in it. and that was fine and dandy, but on wednesday, there was such an influx of Missionaries (i think it was 752 missionaries entered that day) that we had to give up those two extra beds and get two new elders in our room. I mean I was a little disappointed at first because six guys in a 15x30 foot room is kinda tight... but they are actually really cool guys and I think that they have made a great addition to our room in the grand scheme of things.

A couple of fun things from this week. So we started playing this Spanish Vocab training gmae in our dorm that is super intense and I am really good at. So there are two people at either end of the room and a thirs person yells out a word or phrase in English and the firstone to say it correctly in Spanish gets so shoot the other with this massive rubber band. I have only been shot a handful of times, while my opponents........ lets just say their Spanish is improving in both quality and speed. Its a super fun game that anyone can play. Also, Spanish is really messing with my English skills (I mean they weren't good to start but still) like grammar and sentence structure and like regular conversations are becoming spanglish and Spanish more and more. Which is a good thing, but it's still kinda spooky and funny. Also there's and Zone Leaders in our zone becaue enthe old ones went to the field, so the new guys are interesting... during volleyball one day our Zone Leader, Elder Lyons, was trying to hit a ball and he called it and then he tripped and landed face first in the Sand and then the ballnlanded like a foot from his head

We also got to go to the Provo Temple this morning realy early and it was SO MUCH AWESOME. The spirit you can feel as a missionary in the temple is so much stronger than I could feel before it rocked. I really love the temple and everything that happenns there. We then went to the Cafeteria in the Temple and it was awesome. We went with a bunch of people form our zone so it was really a great experience.

My Zone and district also got to help with the tours of the new MTC and it was really fun. I also saw elder HOLLAND LIKE WHAT THE HECK THAT WAS AWESOME. But we got to go around and testify and help people with their questions and other things as well. It rocked.

Also, My district did something that would make my brother in law Tyler so proud. We did a cereal challenge. We ate an entire container of cereal. 7 guys. About 5 bowls a piece. Thirty Minutes. Eternal Glory.

ALSO. I kinda feel bad about this, but one of the elders in our district, MCBEE, has a girl friend back home and all that he talks about is her a lot. So some of the guys wanted to Fake Dear John him and it was gonna be a good plan. So they recruited me to actually write the letter, they knew what they wanted to say, but I write in cursive and apparently my handwriting is pretty similar to that of a 18 year old girl so thats always fun... So but we wrote this beautiful, heart wrenching, letter to McBee, and then when he got his mail he was really excited because MAIL. But as he began to read it, his face went white. He skimmed the rest of the letter and quickly grabbed the envolope to check the return address. since we couldnt know where she was from, we didnt put one. As he discovers there is no address, he starts laughing and was really a good sport about the whole thing. He thought it was really convincing and really funny. He is going to keep it so that he can compare it to a real letter he may get from his girl friend hahaha

So but really everything is simply wonderful here.  I love yall and miss yall every day. I can feel the spirit of the Lord and I can feel the Gift of Tongues beginging to kick in for not only me, but also the entire district. Everything is possible here. I love this Gospel and I love the Church.

I want to end with something I said that was apearently very profound that I said just to be annoying (as many of you can attest, I often do). As we were walking back from the temple this morning, there was this bird that was walking on the sidewalk. It didnt fly away as we approached it and it just stood there. and then walked away. I was like "I can relate to the bird. I could fly away, but i am just gonna walk" and Elder Butler was just like that was deep man. I thought about it some and it was kinda profound. I could fly away from and escape my problems, but instead I choose to face my problems head on and stand strong.

As always,

Elder Tracy


PHOTOS:  Cereal Challenge
                   with Daniel Swingle

Semana 2 - The Second Days at the MTC

Hi - It's Seth's mom and I want you to know that I send Seth's emails as they come to me . . . no editing or spell checking, etc.  You may not know that Seth is a horrible speller and I know he is typing on a tablet, which makes it harder to type correctly.  So please forgive the grammatical errors.  You know with Seth, what you see is what you get!

Hey everyone!

This week was super long but also really short if you want the truth. Let's see. It was made known to me that I needed to give more details about my companion. Elder Moser is from Salem, UT, more specifically in woodland hills. He is a football player and he broke his back a couple if years ago in football. Needless to say, he's a trooper. He is coming along in Spanish really well and he is a hard worker (when we want to work hard). We 're able to laugh and have a good time but also feel the spirit and work hard. My room mates are Edlers Myatt and Torres. They re super fun guys. They are from Colorado and Alaska respectively.

But Spanish is coming along really well for the entire district. We can introduce our selves, ask questions about others and their beliefs, testify about thruths and pray in Spanjsh already. I have memorized a missionarys purpose, Joseph Smith's first Vision, Moroni 10:4-5, and the Invitation to baptism all in spanish as well! Anything is possible here when you have the Spirit with you it's crazy! We can speak to each other in the District very well in Spanish as well and it's really great! It's super fun to be able to have the option and ability to speak in another language to others, especially after only 9 days! As I said last week we are in a pilot program and so as a consequence, we have been speaking Spanish in the class and then just keep on speaking it in our lives. We are kinda on a self lead learning curve. We have to learn according to our own ability and desire. I've learned a bunch. We also were supposed to have this end on this Saturday actually, but due to its astounding success, the development group in the mtc over our program have decided to extend it to the full six weeks just to see what we are capable of. I'm super excited about it and in really pumped to see how far we can go.

In my personal study for the weeks here j have been reading the Book of Mormon over again. I made a goal to re-read the whole thing before I leave the MTC on the 21st of August. That means about 100 pages a week which is what I've been striving for. It's not that bad and I'm killing it haha. It really love it Book of Mormon. I know that it us really the work of God and I can see plainly and clearly how it is another testament of Jesus Christ. Something that really stood out to me in my reading is the faithfulness of Laban's servant Zoram. Despite the confusion and murmuring of all the others in their party, Zoram remained faithful and the Lord blessed home for his efforts. If you all haven't read or re-read the Book of Mormon, I would highly encourage it. It's the work of God and a great way to live your life during this summertime.

We have just been working like all the time everyday. We have about six to seven hours of language classes throughout any given week day, which can be really hard. But it's super great and I feel great during my classes I can feel the spirit so strongly here an d this place is a Sacred Place. The peace and comfort I have felt here is second only to the the Temple of the Lord. And then Saturday is preparation day and it rocks because I can finally do laundry (because I need to) and email (because I want to) and I want to let y'all know that I'm alive haha. We get our exercize time now and its the best. They took away volleyball because of the tours adn volleyball is my jam (eventhough Im terrible) and so we have been playing four square as a consquence and its been pretty good. Im pretty good because of all our family four square events.

Just to let y'all know, I can receive and read emails anytime of the week, but I can only respond on Saturday so I'm not ignoring y'all I'm just busy haha, also, I can recieve mail here too! Letters in the mail mean so much! let me know if you need my address while I am here in Utah!!

To conclude, I feel so very happy and I am not homesick or distracted by home or anything. This place is a sacred and loving place. I am so glad I have decided to serve a mission and serve not only the people of Chicago, but also the Lord and myself as well. I love everyone in my district and the love and peace here is incredible. I love all of you all and I hope that yall are all doing well! If you have the time or desire, shoot me an email telling me about your life right now! I would love to continue to hear about you all and the adventures yall are going on!

Something funny I just overheard while doing Laundry was an Elder complaining about how tired he was. His companion said, "You can sleep when your dead Elder! We are on a Mission!!" To which another Elder responded "We wont get to sleep for we will have work to do then!" and everyone was like ooooooohhh he got you guys! as you can see, the mission life requires a certain amount of slap-happiness and humor and we have all achieved that through our long and hard worked days...

Anyway, love yall and I hope that everything is going well for everyone!!!

As always,

Elder Tracy

PHOTOS:  Here's our whole district, Elder Myatt finishing off a chocolate milk bag, and me and Elder Torres a great roommate

Semana 1 - The First Days at the MTC

Hey y'all!!

It is your favorite Elder, Elder Tracy.

This week has been a crazy ride. But I had the time of my life here.

Let's see. On Wednesday, we got to the MTC and said good bye to my family. It was kinda rough but it wasn't that bad actually. I was whisked away to this bui,ding to get our tags and our packets and other stuff. And then I was shown to my classroom where the rest of my district was located and waiting. I met my district and his name is Elder Moser. He's the best, we are like the same person so our poor district has to deal with us hahaha. In our district we have 8 Elders and 2 Hermanas. We are going to california, mexico and Chicago. We are part of a pilot program for language learning where we on,y speak Spanish in the classroom and we are supposed to in our day to day activities. But we don't really hahaha. And we had a meeting with our mission presidents here and it was aweso,e they told all the new missionaries a bunch of awesome stuff about peace and comfort. And then we went to work. We have been drilling Spanish and speaking and pronouncing stuff. My two years if Spanish have been super helpful.

We have the best district. All the elders are so funny  and kind and loving. Elder Moser and I work really well together and we laugh at like everything. Once, at lunch, look at elder Moser and I'm like do you think I can fit this whole cookie in my mouth? And he just loses it and is like soothe Hermanas are having all these deep, intellectual conversations and we, the elders, are like so do you think I can fit this cookie in my mouth hahahahahahah I love our district.

The cafeteria is pretty good. There is a lot different options for us to eat and there is a lot of fresh fruits and veggies. I have been trying to eat healthy some more so it's a thing haha but it's been good no complaints there.

We are learning Spanish very quickly. We are getting really good at conversational Spanish and we can talk to each other all pretty well. We still need some work on the gospel topics yet we are getting there. We are actually making the other elders in our zone mad because we can speak Spanish pretty well after only three days and they are better than us still yet we are quickly gaining. We can intruduce our selves, pray and testify of basic doctrine in Spanish already!

Yesterday we got the opportunity to finally work out and it was the greatest ever. We ran about a mile and then we got to play volleyball with the other missionaries here. It was great to exersize.

Oh and another fun thing, I was made district leader here. So that means that mi compañero, Elder Moser and i are in charge of the 8 other missionariesmjn the disrtict. It was an assignment made by the branch president and his counselors. So in effect God called me to this position as well.

In summary, everything here rocks. The days are hot, long and hard, butbtheg are the the greatest days I've had. I am picking up the language fairly well and I help the other Elders in my district who aren't. I get enough sleep, I exercise, I'm trying to eat and drink better and more regularly. I am not homesick very much at all. We are focused on our work. I am happy. Things are simply great.

As I've considered leaving my home and my friends and the life I knew before, I'm reminded of a quote I found once. Joseph Young once wrote concerning the Saints of the church leaving Nauvoo. He said "We must not look back, but placing our faith in God, we must leave our destiny in his hands."

I love all of you and hope all is well.

As always,

Elder Tracy