Week 5

And then there were 9. As you all probably know by now my companion Elder Olsen left for home this past week. It was the pits. Well this week was no better. In fact it was probably worse. Today Elder Woodbury of Kaysville(see yearbook) announced he too will be going home. He and I had the closest relationship of the district. It's heartbreaking. I don't know what else to say about the situtation. This week has been awful. When he returns home he is planning on serving some sort of a service mission. Maybe Bountiful or SLC temple. If you see him, be sure to give him a hug or at least a handshake for me. Introduce yourself. He will not be weirded out in the least. Also, in an effort to save money he has offered to take some stuff home for me. It that does in fact happen you will surely be meeting Elder Woodbury. Please give him a hug. Let him know I miss him, and look forward to his return. His departure wasn't the only hard thing that happened this week. I could make a list of things that really, truly, sucked. I won't, but you can all look forward to the day in 2 years when I can tell you about what will likely be the worst week of my mission.

Mom-I appreciated your words of encouragement this week. I think you might be right about getting all the crappy stuff out of the way first so the rest of the mssion will be relatively breezy. I want to share with you quickly the song lyric that has kept me going this week-"tengo gozo en mi alma, hoy" I wasn't a big fan of this particular hymn before the mission. But it's my favorite hymn in Spanish. I'm grateful to the lyrics of both that song and Divina Luz, which Matt and his brothers sang at my farewell. Matt-I never thanked you enough for what a wonderful job you and your brothers did. That song keeps me going despite feeling like a rag doll. In case I forgot to tell everyone, and I honestly can't remember if I did or not, but my new companion is Elder Jared Hassler of Provo. He was the district leader until this week when it got changed. He is a cougar through and through, but I love him. Part of my new companionship meant I had to move rooms from one corner of the building to the opposite. It was terrible. Didn't wanna move. Huge pain. Well now that Elder Woodbury is going I will likely get the priviledge of moving AGAIN. TO THE SAME ROOM!!!! Hence, I'm officially a rag doll just getting dragged to and fro. Life goes on however and I am just happy to be here. Before I move on to something of a less depressing nature, I figure I will just tell you now. Don't be surprised ( I know I won't) if you get a letter next week telling you that Elder Allen decided to go home. I hope and pray he doesn't, but wouldn't be surprised. I feel like he is on the edge of a cliff peeking over. Keep him in your prayers if you would.

Okay now to the more uplifting stuff that happened this week. I got to see Elder Mulford this morning. We always see eachother Tuesday and Friday mornings because we do "service" in each others buildings. In other words we clean each others toilets. You'd think they would just save us the walk and the name "service" and just have us clean our own buildings. Anyways I talked to him this morning for a while. He ships out tomorrow morning. He is stoked. I can tell 12 weeks has had its toll on him. He is aching to get out there and share the good word. I can't wait to see him in 2 years. Elder Tirado, whom I think Mom asked about in her letter is long gone. Living the rasta-life in Jamaica. He came and went in a flash. By the way Mom-I just remembered in your letter you are down in Vegas visiting the Nug and gang. You could have omitted the part about the library and the park. That broke my heart:) I'm just kidding. I just really miss Q. Paige-make sure you are talking about me whenever possible. Caitlin- I don't expect baby E to remember me at all so your off the hook. Just put in a good word if you can. This past week I had lots of time for silent thinking. It was a rare treat. One question that caught my mind was.."has Ian learned any new words? tricks? names? anything?". I know I have only been gone for a month but who knows that can happen. Anyway an answer would be appreciated:) I was bummed to hear about Grandpa and his shoulder. Hope he is doing okay. I know he will be though because he is already 75% metal. What could a little more do?

Mom you asked a lot of questions in your letter this week. I think Dad asked some stuff too. I'm sorry but I didn't bring them with me so I can't reference them. I just got back from my last temple session with Elder Woodbury so my mind is elsewhere. I'll just have to send you guys some letters that answer everything I missed. As far as Spanish goes... I know a lot of words. I'm not the best at putting them into coherent sentence. However, I'm getting better. Praying, testifying, teaching SOME of the lessons, and other missionary tasks are becoming natural. However, asking questions, and using other tenses is really tough. I'm not worried about it though. I just don't wanna get to my first door in Chile and have some woman look at me puzzled:)

My quick spiritual thought this week is not so much a spiritual thought as it is a nifty update on missionary work. In our Sunday devotional a Brother Heaton of the MTC something-or-rather spoke to us. He basically runs the MTC from dormitories to lessons. He spent an hour telling all of us about the neat changes that are going on. The coolest being this. Starting next May the MTC will institute a new language learning program. Basically it will become more intense, start on day 1 ( unlike mine), and help new missionaries be far more prepared for the field. I know some Elders who just left that were on a pilot program of this same thing. They speak far better than anyone else. It's really cool. It will make the work spread that much faster.

20 seconds. I love you guys. Miss you. But know why I am here. Its true

-Elder Van Dyke