Week Four

This will probably be a fairly short email since there is not a whole lot different this week from last week. Still teaching investigators, and although there haven't really been any stand out moments, lessons have been going really well because this last Tuesday we got some incredible one on one feedback from our teacher on how we can teach better, focus more on the person, and make the lesson more personal to fit them by asking questions.

We did have a couple really cool devotionals though, and I really appreciated the point that one of the speakers made about missions and how they affect you personally. He spoke about how right out of the house is when people tend to be the most self indulgent, and spend their time seeking after pleasures, which are good feelings that don't really last such as big money experiences ($500 sky-diving trip), drinking, one-night stands, etc, and try to find themselves that way. When you serve a mission however, you are leaving behind everything in your life to focus outward on other people, and get good feelings that last from helping other people change for the better and helping make a positive difference in their lives. I know I personally wouldn't mind going on a $500 sky-diving trip, but it was really cool how he made the point that you really find yourself and who you truly are when you focus outward instead of on yourself, which I feel partially applied to me this last summer at summer camp as well when all my time was spent focused on the kids I was in charge of, and that was one of the best summers I have ever had.

Other than that however, I now only have one more P-day in the MTC (besides today) before I hit the actual mission field, and it is a crazy thought. Ten days from now, I will be leaving the country for two whole years and it blows my mind. I don't have the flight/travel plans yet but we are supposed to be getting them in the next couple of days and so I should hopefully be able to fill everyone in next week on the details.

I'll throw in some pictures we got on our temple walk this last Sunday though: On our way back we went around kicking trees to make the snow fall off of them so that we could get some awesome pictures. Someone also got a picture of us walking from behind and we decided to throw a filter on it and call it our album cover for D29D (District 29 D, our district) and the name of the album would be "Kicking Arboles" (arbol is tree in spanish). Good times. We were all also super stoked that the street light was yellow in the picture instead of red or green, so I guess it's the small things you get enjoyment out of once you've been in the MTC for 5 weeks. The last picture is a picture from the stairwell right outside of our classroom as well of the mountains in the distance. Argentina will definitely be a lot different haha. Anywho, I will talk to everyone next week!

Love, Elder McCollum