Dear Everybody,
How is everybody? It seems like it has been so very long since I last talked with everyone! But then I look back and say, "holy cow, it's already been a week!" The days just keep slipping through my fingers, and I don't know what to do about it! I'm just living in the moments as they pass by so very quickly. I can't believe that I have already been gone an entire month. It's August now, which means I'll be in France very soon! Like under two weeks away! And under two weeks away means that we get our travel plans on Friday! That's right, you heard me folks, Friday!! We are all very excited to get them! As I read everyone's emails this morning, it sounds like everyone had a lot going on! Your week was probably a lot more exciting than mine! Well..actually we did have a few exciting things happen this week I guess.
So that speaker that everyone was talking about last Tuesday turned out to be the one and only John Groberg! Yeah, the actual guy! For those of you that don't know who John Groberg is, you should go watch the movie, The Other Side of Heaven. Yeah, that's John Groberg. It was so cool to hear stories he told from his mission..because most of them I can remember watching in the movie! He would tell us a story, then play that clip from the movie. It made me want to go watch it, then I remembered that I can't. So would someone mind watching it for me? Cause if you could, that would be great. Thanks!
We did have some confusion this week with all of our teachers. In the past week, we've had about 4 or 5 subs. For some reason our teachers didn't want to teach us this week! So we never knew when we were going to have a teacher. Randomly, during one of our study times we didn't think we were going to have a teacher, Frere Israel showed up. Now Frere Israel is a super nice guy. He grew up in Jamaica speaking French, served his mission California speaking English, and he also speaks Criole. But the only problem is that he speaks really quietly, with a Jamaican accent, in French. So let's just say that our whole class not only struggled to understand his French that morning, but also his English! Plus he taught us the wrong lesson! It was fun though. Then that same night, we had another sub teacher. She was nice. We were running out of time because our sub decided to teach us everything that Frere Israel was supposed to teach us, but didn't. So we were running out of time, and we still had to teach her a lesson! (Our sub being the investigator.) So we had about 30 minutes of class left, with two companionships left to teach. So we had to shorten our lesson plan by quite a bit! I was pretty proud when we got in and out in about 15 minutes. It was basically one of the shortest lessons ever. But it was still great! Well this week I got to play some more basketball! I do love shooting hoops!
There is a new district in our zone, I don't know if I've mentioned them or not before...but there is one Elder who is 6'8". Yeah, he's pretty tall. Anyways, him and I have become pretty good friends now! He is a convert to the church, and has quite the story. He was only baptized about a year and a half ago! He's a super nice guy, and just the other day, he even gave me a note just telling me how much our friendship meant to him. What a nice guy. Oh! Let's see...this week was kinda just a normal week, with not much exciting things happening. Here's a funny story though! So last..Friday I believe we were teaching Jean Pierre. And the funny thing was we didn't know we were supposed to be teaching him that day. So at the begining of class he just asked, are you ready to teach Jean Pierre? And we answered, oh! Um...Sure! So we had a total of 10 minutes to prepare for that lesson. And to our surprise, he told us afterward that that was our best lesson with him! Maybe we should just not prepare for all our lessons...okay. I was totally kidding right there! Planning is definitely the right way to go. I should probably talk about fast sunday! That was a fun day here at the MTC! I was surprised when I wasn't even that hungry all day..but that day we went to a devotional where the MTC president spoke with his wife and stuff, then we had Sacrament meeting, then our traditional sunday walk! Then we went to dinner, where people were eating food like it was going out of style!
I'll admit that I did eat two bowls of Graham Canyon ice cream. Here at the MTC, you have to fight for Graham Canyon ice cream. Because it is so delicious, and they only have byu creamry ice cream on sundays! My district did get to Usher for that meeting with the MTC president, which means we basically had to stand around and tell people not to sit in certain seats, and then we got 2nd row seats! Totally worth it! Oh, also on Sunday, I thought that I was going to be released from my position as district leader, because our first week here our branch presidency told us that they would be changing the district leader every two weeks. And I have already been district leader two weeks! Can you believe that? Anyways, getting back to my story, I wasn't released as district leader, so that means I get to be the district leader a 3rd week! I don't know if they just forgot, or if they just plan on keeping us in for the last two sundays we have here! I guess that we'll see with the coming weeks. Oh man. Did everyone else have a blast in that rainstorm last night?
So we have gym time around 8:30, so we were just heading out to the field as the storm was blowing in. It started to rain, and they closed the field. And that's when we got soaked! We ran back to the residence, but by the time we got back, we were already so wet, that we decided to get our cameras and see if we could get some sweet pictures. And we did. That rain storm was definitely rejuvenating! We felt so alive in the rain! Now sometimes these computers work with my camera, but sometimes they don't..so I'll try and send some pictures home. But I couldn't get the camera to work last week. Well I think that's all for this week ladies and gentlemen. It sounds like everyone is doing well back home! I'm glad to hear Cayson rocks at playing soccer, and that mom is now safely in Michigan with my nephew. (Still so cool to say.) I love hearing from everybody! Hearing from all of you reminds me that there actually is a world outside this MTC bubble! It's great to hear all the news! Keep me updated! Thank you for your letters, emails, and packages! They mean so much to me! I'm sure I'll have lots to tell you next week!
Beaucoup d'amour, (
Elder Hamilton