September 25 - Mexico MTC week 2 (short letter this week!)

[I wrote to him about the Ogden Temple dedication]
 I really wish I could have gone to that temple dedication with you that would have been so cool.  In response to your question about the food.,  The food is really just Mexican food that tastes really bland and every once and a while they´ll have some poorly cooked hot dogs or pizza or something.  

The investigators are just teachers pretending to be investigators, but I think that sometime next week we start teaching real investigators/less active members.  That will be scary.  

Today we had a devotional where 2 general authorities came and spoke to us.  It was really good.  They both talked about how to find people to teach and that we shouldn't be teaching people just to baptize them, but to retain them as members of the church their whole lives. It was a really great talk and I got a lot out of it.  

I´m thinking about general conference and I wish I could be watching it with all you guys this year because I miss that so much. That was always one of my favorite things, watching conference with the whole family.

It´s stopped raining here for a while so its been really hot lately.  Luckily we´re not outside all that often so its not too bad.  I really love the package of chips and salsa you sent me, it was SO GOOD

A picture of me on the first day

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Here is a picture of a sweet rainbow we had. it´s so pretty down here

Some Elders from my house

Week 1 - Mexico MTC - First Pday!

This week was really hard and really long, probably the longest of my life, but it's already getting better. We started teaching our first investigator all in Spanish on our second day here! It was SO scary. My Spanish is really coming along though and we already taught her 5 times. I have already learned to love teaching the lessons. 

I just feel so good and happy as soon as we finish teaching and it definitely helps me through the week. We were listening to a talk by Elder Holland and he was talking about how we have to become our first converts. I am realizing how true that is. We have to be converted to the things we teach before we try to teach them to others. It's crazy how much I have to rely on the Lord out here. It really helps a lot to just pray all the time. 

In regards to your questions: 

1. What is your daily schedule like? I wake up at 6:30 every day and just get ready until 7 when we have to meet in our classrooms for personal study. Then we go to breakfast and the food here is kinda awful. I try to live off of fruit loops and nutella. Then we go to a language study class and then to a Book of Mormon class. After that we have companionship study and then lunch and then more language study and then we go and teach an investigator. After that we have study time until about 6:30 and then we eat dinner, and depending on the day we either have a devotional or just more study. Then we have a planning session for the next day and then we go to sleep. 

2.  Who is your companion and what is he like? Do you get along thus far? My companion is Elder Seegmiller. We get along really well and he loves Seinfeld so we're always quoting it ;) 

3. How was your first Sunday there? My first Sunday was so good. We had priesthood and Sacrament meeting and it was a nice breath of fresh air after all the classes and studying for the week.  

4. What is the food like? The food is terrible so I wouldn't be surprised if I've been losing a lot of weight here.

5. How hot and humid is it there? Does it really rain a lot? Do you stay inside most of the day?  Its not too hot and not all that humid. It's actually really cold in the mornings and it did rain everyday for the first 5 days but it hasn't since. 

6. How many sister missionaries are there in the MTC do you think…percentage?  Ummmmmm probably about 20 sister missionaries here. 

7.How far away is the temple from the MTC?   I'm not sure how far the temple is but it's closed for now so we won't be able to go :( maybe to the visitors center sometime later. 

8. What are your teachers like?  Our teachers are great but none of them speak English too well so it makes it a little hard. 9. How is the language coming? The language is coming along great! I can definitely feel that I'm getting tons of help from the Lord and I love it.

It really has been such a long and rough week, but it reminded me of a verse in Isaiah 

ch 54:8

´´In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee´´

I love that scripture and it brings me so much peace.  

I have gotten a little sick as well. I have little tonsil stones so that's a little rough, especially with all the talking we do here.

Love, Elder Thayne

p.s. thanks a lot for the donuts :) the elders in my house liked them a lot too ;)


Here are a couple of pictures sent by his companion to HIS mom...thankfully she shared!

Elder Thayne, his Companion Elder Seegmiller and 2 others

Recreating the famous Beatle album cover?

Made it to the Mexico MTC!

Josh made it safely to the Mexico MTC this afternoon. He sent a short email saying he made it but his next pday won't be until one week from tomorrow! Yikes...a long wait for a letter! He looks so great with his name tag on! My friend and her husband are serving in the Mexico MTC and she sent this picture of him when he arrived. So good to see him even though he's only been gone one day! - Sharisa