Week 7 - I Left the MTC...well, kind of

Hola, muchas gracias por los packages. I loved the flag! [Levi asked if we could find an Argentina flag so he could hang it on his wall] It's totally bisnitchin fer sure. And thank you for the shirt, candy, and chips. We were on the same brain wave because one bag was for me and the other was for the district (two of my sisters love salt and vinegar but had never had Poore Brother's). As for the ring, yes size 12, yes Spanish lettering (HLJ: haz lo justo, or in English: Do the righteous), no spinner, no shield, just cool looking, and I prefer the thick ones. Thank you so very much :)I'm glad to hear school went well for everyone. Oh how I remember the countless bruises from football practice. Tell Tate now that he has started Spanish I want some in every letter from now on. I'm sure Tyra is very excited about her baptism! I'm excited, I wanna hear all about that shiz. I'm glad Grandma and Breeze will be there :)..and Dan too I guess.

The meeting with the consul went well. I still do not have my visa, and I won't have a date until I get it but hopefully I'm not pushed back. He let us do a Q and A about Argentina and I found out fast food costs three times as much as it should because people want to be "modern". Business men will eat at McDonalds over another restaurant because of this. There some other interesting things, but in gen I'm just pumped to get out.

Speaking of getting out...I left the MTC!!!!! Elder Goodman had been feeling ill for bout a week so we finally went to the health clinic here who let us walk to the real Dr down the street!! Omgsh! I saw people. I saw magazines. I heard music. It was nice to know that the outside world still existed. I really wanted to contact every person I saw..then I remembered it was Utah and I left it at hello and other friendly salutations. No worries, Elder G man is good just a lil pneumonia.

My female teacher, Hermana Cochrane is also a high school volleyball coach so she wasn't in class last week for try outs and I had two awesome subs. One of them, Hermano Dallon, was straight up legen..wait for it...dary. He helped me a lot and totally an awesome teacher.

Well I have thirteen days left hopefully. John Greenleaf Whitier once said "Of all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been'." Just a lil daily gem I thought I'd share with you, and it's a lil of how I'm looking at these next twenty two point five months. It should be good.Next week is hopefully my last P-day here so it could be my last email for awhile. I don't know but I'll keep you updated with what I do know.Love you all.

Love,Elder LMX

ps: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYRA!!!!! Eight is a totally awesome age. Live it up. Enjoy your baptism, and third grade! :)

Week 6 at the MTC - Hopefully Visa Coming Soon

Well I would like to start this email off with some good news. Two Argentina Elders have received their visas and left. I had a meeting with a visa agent on Friday and have a meeting with the Argentina consul tomorrow, so with how things are looking I should be leaving on time!!

Other good news, the new roomates I was supposed to get never showed up. E' G-man and I were anxious to meet them and we had some pranks ready and some intimidating lectures rehearsed just in case we didn't like them. So as our anticipation was about to end and we returned to the room Wed night nobody was there. Soo we don't know what happened but we're glad it did.

There is a new Hermana in my district (which now makes it four girls to two boys, we probably have the oldest average age for single missionaries). She is in our district because she had to have an inch and a half piece of glass surgically removed from her foot, so she is here for four more weeks while the rest of her district left. Okay so having foot surgery is funny, right? Well it gets ten times funnier when you find out that her name is Hermana Barfoot. It's hard not to laugh about it, but she is really very nice and will be serving in Bahia Blanca with Elder Blackhorse.

Oh yeah, crazy story time. During volleyball an elder who doesn't know how to play ran into a sister in my district. He knocked her over and she screamed and looked at her knee and her knee cap was not where it was supposed to be. They took her to the MTC Dr and he said it was dislocated and she probs would have a miniscal tear as well. They ambulanced her over to the hospital where they did xays and MRI and all that jazz and popped her patella back in place.
Well there was absolutely no damage and she is back to normal. fue un milagro (translated-it was a miracle)

You shouldn't need to send me any packages in Argentina, but if you do, tape a picture of the Virgin Mary on there. The mail people open up all packages and take the stuff they want, but they leave it alone if the Virgin Mary is on there. Kinda funny, and helpful.

I had the priviledge to watch a talk given by Pres Uchtdorf in which he gave some interesting new doctrine. Apparently, we will speaking German in the Big C. Maybe it was a joke, I can't be sure, but interesting to think about nonetheless.

Love you,
Elder LMX

Week 5 at the MTC - English No More

My week has been good. Wednesday was hilarious. It was the funeral service complete with a eulogy, talks, and a special musical number. Elder Goodman and I were the pallbearers and took English out to a secluded area in the back corner of the MTC which is hidden by some big trees. We were going to say a few last words and then head back. Once we got there, however, with divine intervention we discovered we had something important to do. At our predetermined location was a shovel! So I dug a hole and we buried the casket we made and with a sharpie wrote a headstone on a rock. It was beautiful. The musical number was written by one of the sisters in about five minutes. The words were such eloquent Spanglish I wanted to cry and mourn but I couldn't help but be happy that he had inspired such beautiful music.
Yesterday a native district I had become close with departed for their respective missions. It's always sad but exciting to watch people leave.
Elder Goodman and I also received some bad news...we're getting new roommates! We are the only obedient reverent mishs on our floor. Security is called almost nightly by the floor under us because they can't sleep with noise my floor makes. I don't wanna have to hurt someone so these new guys best not mess around.
I know nothing new on the flu but nobody has left for Argentina in a month and a half and none of them have leaving dates.Thank you for the bread and for the letters and the emails.
Love you,ELMX

Week 4 at MTC - Swine Flu Cancels Church Services in Argentina

Hey!
My Spanish is improving and I am learning but still far from fluent. I've been teaching in Spanish recently which is hard but helpful. One of my teachers is a teacher for a native district and sometimes we practice with them which is humbling but very helpful.
Tomorrow, English dies. We're a holding a funeral service and everything. Then it's strictly Spanish.
Some cool news about Argentina: because of the swine flu, church is cancelled. This news doesn't make me feel any more comforted about my visa.
No new elders have been placed in my room. It's just Elder Goodman and I. It's really quiet now, rather different. Some interesting news on Elder G-man: he has Lamoreaux relatives in Gilbert! He doesn't know who the Lamoreauxs are. His dad just told him in a letter they had Lamoreaux fam in Gilbert.
Last week our guest fireside speaker was the guy Other Side of Heaven was based on. Tuesdays are GA firside nights. Sundays are other random people. But the big GA's always take July off from coming to the MTC so I've been getting retired 70's coming to talk but hopefully August will have some big people. The week before I came Bednar was here. Week before that, Holland (who has become my favorite apostle).
Elder Goodman and I decided to join the MTC Choir. That should be exciting since we'll be here a couple more months.
Sorry, I can't think of anything else new. Every day is a repeat of the previous and they tend to blend together, but it's still going good. Anyways thanks for the support and your abundance of optimism.
Talk to ya later.
Love,Elder LMX
(that's how my district spells Lamoreaux)

Week 3 at MTC - Delay on Getting Argentina Visa

Thank you for the shoes and gel and such. I didn't think hair product was allowed either but it is and the shoes fit. I was ahead of you on the Sharpie and bought one in the bookstore to mark all my clothes two weeks ago but thank you nonetheless. We can do a camera SD card exchange whenever you'd like =]

You can't imagine how weird it is knowing if I had been called somewhere else I would be out of the MTC today. I've come to learn that the Lord does prepare people to hear the gospel as well as the missionaries. Not very many coincidences in the mission field.

I have not talked to a visa agent and there is a 95% chance I won't leave on time. Argentina is being gay and every missionary that has supposed to have gone lately has been delayed a minimum of two weeks.

Sorry to hear about Jarrett that sucks. (Levi's cousin broke his leg.) However it reminds me of an experience here. I was playing court volleyball during gym and someone went up to spike and jumped up to block--I won--and he now has some ligament damage due to his foot landing on mine and rolling off. He's on crutches and I feel guilty everytime I see him (which is a lot since he is in my zone).

And nothing else I can think of for now that I want or need. I'm doing well and I'll see if a can take a picture with my name tag. Anyways, thank you for all the letters and emails!

Love,Elder Lamoreaux

Week 2 at MTC - Study...Eat...Study...Eat...Gym...More Studying

Hey there. There are seven people in my district as of now. And how the MTC works is you spend all day with your district. We wake and go to our classroom for personal study. Go to breakfast. Go back to our classroom for either a couple hours of personal and companion study, or a couple hours of class with one of our two teachers. Then lunch. Then class for a couple more hours with the teacher who didn't teach us before. Then dinner. Then more class time of either MDT (missionary directed time) or instruction with one of our teachers. We then plan. Then go back to our residence hall.
Gym time is thrown in for fifty minutes Mon and Wed - Sat. Still don't sleep much but I enjoy being here and I'm learning and really love the three sisters and three elders in my district they're awesome (and three of us are from the AZ so it's pretty legit...speaking of legit, apparently no one else uses this word outside Phoenix) .
Thank y'all for the letters you should get yours by the end of the week. I was supposed to meet with an Argentine visa agent today but for some reason it had to be rescheduled.
The elders who help the n00bz are the ones on their way out so I don't do that for several weeks. But yeah hopefully I'll get to see Andrew and D and Colton. I don't really see people outside my distict and zone. But speaking of n00bz...when you're new your name tag has an orange sticker on it. At the end of my first day I didn't throw it away, I just moved it to the back of my badge. Last Wed I moved it back to the front and everybody was welcoming me and being very friendly and giving me the rundown of what I knew and the lady in the cafeteria gave me extra ice cream (they have ice cream on wed for the new elders and sisters). I'm really tempted to do it again but my sticker is losing its stick.
Oh yeah...today was my first mish haircut. Twas interesting but I still have my devilish good looks, so no worries.

Love y'all. -Elder Lamoreaux

First E-mail from MTC - Survived the First Week

Well, my first week is almost over and a lot has gone down. I've learned a lot. Improved my Espanish. I made some awesome friends. An elder in my first zone and district (Elder Spencer) is from Thatcher and knows Uncle Spencer, muy c hido. My first two teachers were incredible until the district split (it started out too large) and I ended up in the new one, but my Sister teacher served in Argentina so she's pretty cool. I purchased a pocket Spanish Hymn book and I love it. I always have a hymn runnin through my head and love singing in Spanish. I ran into and spoke to the guy that went through the temple the same day I did.
The fireworks show on Sat was pretty legit...but I didn't get to hear the Jo Bros unfortunately. It's impossible to sleep here but it's gotten a lil better. The swine flu quarentine is in my building!..not my floor, but I walk by it everyday. It makes me think of the Verizon dead zone commercials. The MTC mission pres (President Smith) is very awesome and has given two great talks so far.
I was able to go through the Provo temple today which was totally sweet. It was beautiful and a lil confusing the way the layout is and such but I loved it.
My companion is pretty awesome and everyone in both my first and current districts were great to have.
I know this seems very random and quite sporatic but there's so much to say and so little time to say it.
If you haven't received my second letter yet, my new mailbox number is 320, but everything else is the same.
The food is decent, nothing to gross but I haven't gone back for seconds yet.
Gym is fun. I've been playing volleyball a lot. One of the sisters in my district is really good, and the district leader in my first district played for BYU.
Thank you guys very much for the notes. It took me awhile to figure it all out haha but I loved reading the lil rolled up scrolls.
Not like you need to or anything...but Pioneer day is coming up and I'm kinda jonezin for a Spanish CTR ring ;). Not a spinner preferrably, I don't wanna replace the awesome one I have, just have a second in the mission language =]
I'm sorry you haven't received any pictures yet but they're kinda pretty strict on having cameras out and stuff, but hopefully you'll get a card coming in the mail soon.
I love you all very much. Thank you for the support. Feel free to write. Again, I love you guys.
-Elder Levi Wade Lamoreaux