Hey y'all

Hey everybody!
     How's it going? Brade got his call to Mexico?! that's awesome!! can't wait to speak
Portuguese/espanol together. I'm stoked for all my friends. you guys are lucky in that
you'll know a ton of peeps in the mtc. Elder Malugin is here now! haha so i see him
quite a bit. but that's about it. but at the same time its good cause it forces me to
meet new people.
     NEW YORK - so this past week I went to NY. What an adventure. Two weeks ago,
we got a letter that said we would be going to NY and that was it. So we show up when
we're suppose to and they took us to the Salt Lake Airport on Wednesday at 9:00 pm.
they just dropped me and elder fontaine off. so we walk in and had no idea what to do.
haha. luckily we figured it out and got our tickets and got through security. we barely
missed cafe rio. so we had to settle for MCdonalds which we were still pretty stoked
about. The food here isn't too bad but i miss outside food. then we got on the plane
flew to NY and arrived at 6:00 Am. got a ride to the church office building which is
also the temple! oh and we gave a Book of Mormon to our driver. then we got breakfast
at a restaurant right next to the temple. best omelet i ever had! then we got to sleep
on the floor from 8-10. haha. then we went to the angolan consolate. got finger printed
and turned our stuff in. then drove back to the airport. we got the airport at 1. and our flight
wasn't til 3. but it got delayed til almost 8! but we kept hearing "last call for flight to Salt Lake"
but it wasn't our flight. at least we didn't think so. so we ran across the airport which is Massive
and made it to the gate before the plane left. the men working there said "oh elders are you on
this flight or the later one" so we were relieved that there was a later one. and told them. then
they said they could get us on that flight. which we were stoked about. so we got on that and flew
home. we got home at about 8. which meant we were in time for CAFE RIO!!!!!!!! best meal ever.
so that was awesome. and as we were standing in line some ladies started talking to us and asked
us where we were going and all that and bought our dinner! then we drove back to the mtc on the
express shuttle but we had to drop another lady off and the car got stuck in her driveway because
it was so icy. so we got out in our suits and were going to push it haha but the driver wouldn't let
us so we got some chains from off the top of his car and put them on the tires. and were able
to get out. we got back to the MTC at about 11:30 pm. we were exhausted!!!!!!!!
     It was kind of depressing flying back to Salt Lake but not flying "home". but at the same time,
I was sooooo glad to get back to the MTC! back to my bed, back to some people that i know. I
love Utah soooo much. so yeah, that was the main point of this week.
     Being district leader is pretty cool. I get to get the mail from the post office. i have to go to
leadership meetings on Sunday with the branch presidency and the other district leaders. and
just things like that. the branch presidency tells me things and i tell my district. and then we talk
about how our zone is doing. if anyone has any problems. Cool Story: one elder had some bad
symptoms so they took him to the hospital and found a tumor that they thought was cancer. so they
had him come back and run some tests on it. our branch presidency called a surprise meeting one
night and we had a group prayer for this elder and any other elders in our branch that were sick or
needed help. later that week he got the test results and the tumor was gone!!! pretty amazing
miracle. the Lord does watch over and bless his missionaries.
     I love you guys so much!!!! i pray for you every day! i miss you all. but I'm glad I'm here. Every
day comes eventually and i just take it one day at a time. love you!!! Adeus!!!

Hey Peeps!

Hey everyone!
I've got a ton to write so I'm just going to jump into it!
Every Tuesday is our p-day. but at 7 every Tuesday night, we have a devotional.
This last week, we got a new MTC presidency. President Brown left and now its
President Hally, i think haha. But last Tuesday was the day that they switched
the presidency. So Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was the speaker of the Tuesday
devotional!!! He gave an amazing talk! He talked about how important it is that
we convert ourselves on our mission. He said "If you serve a mission, then come
home and get a tattoo or braid your hair, don't meet me in a dark alley" hahahaha.
his point was, that no missionary, if they truly serve a mission, should come home
and go inactive. How can you preach to people with all your heart of how important
the gospel is and then turn around and go inactive. He then talked about how the
2nd coming has already started. It started when the church was restored and is a
work in progress. don't think that you'll repent when the 2nd coming is almost here,
because it is almost here. it's already started. Then he gave a dedicatory prayer
for three remodeled buildings at the MTC. it was an amazing talk. And i heard they
talked about it in the church news. it was on the 15th. you should go look at it!
Everything else has been pretty much the same, except for this past Sunday....
We go to Sacrament and we sit down. and Brother Brough, a member of our
presidency, came up to me and my companion and asked if he could talk to us.
"oh great! what did we do this time" he takes us out into the hall and says thanks
for our service but that we were being released as portal masters... I was super
bummed and so we walk back in and sit down. We had only been portal masters
for two weeks! then Brother bartholomew comes up to us and makes a joke about
how I'm always late hahaha. i love bro bartholomew, he's hilarious. then bro. brough
comes up to me again and says president hodges wants to talk to me out in the hall.
So now I'm thinking "oh great! what did i do this time?!" so i go out into the hall, and
he tells me that Elder Lamkin is being released as District Leader and he was wondering
if I would be the new District Leader. I smiled and said of course! so I'm the new DL!!!
so that's pretty cool! and that's about it!
I'm working on writing you all back:) we don't get much free time! and we're suppose to
read the entire BOM while we're here in the MTC. i mark up my scripts a ton so it takes
me forever! but I'm working on it. these pics are from my companions camera... i fell asleep
in class haha and the other one is from a while ago. but i really like the pic!
 i love you guys! thanks for all your support! miss you
guys so much!! i pray for you every night!! love you:) tchau!

I almost forgot!!!!!!! Huge Shoutout to:
@max_metcalf25 (max Metcalf)
@AllSportHanker (Hunter Hanks)
@LurpyNoodle81 (Cory Pinegar)
@KarateMaster (Jake Ostler)

All of your guys' calls are awesome!!! I am So stoked for
all of you! And I'm so glad you made the decision to serve
a mission!!! Its super hard but you'll love it at the same time.
Make sure you're ready! prepare yourself now! You guys are
going to make great missionaries, i wish we were all going
out at the same time. but you guys will love it! Love you All!

Sup Peeps!!!

Hey y'all!!!
so lets see what went on this week... for the most part its the same. eat sleep study every day.
but one thing that was a little different this week was that our zone leaders and their district left
the MTC for the field! it was kinda sad. I'm super stoked for them but I'm gonna miss them. Its
crazy how close you grow in such a short amount of time. I loved them. But its cool to see them
leave for the MTC. On a happier note, my friends from Waterford, Parker and Jacob both came in
this past Wednesday and I've seen them quite a bit. This morning we did a session at the temple
and they were in our session so that was cool. I learn something new every time I go to the temple.
also, i saw Tim Glenn. He went to C-wood, and was a senior when i was a sophomore. he just got
back from his mission and now he teaches here. so that was cool to see him!!

funny story: so every week we have to prepare a talk for sacrament, IN PORTUGUESE!!! The
branch presidency gives us a topic to talk about and that way when we enter the mission field,
we'll have about 8 or 9 little talks that we can give. then come sacrament meeting, the branch
presidency calls on one elder and one sister to give their talk. so as i said before, this last Sunday
was our Zone leader's district last Sunday. so Saturday night we were all like oh crap we need to
write our talk but we decided that they would probably be one of the ones get called to talk so none
of us prepared a talk. this weeks topic was about the Book of Mormon. and no one in our district has
had to give a talk in sacrament yet. so we show up to Sacrament
and sit in the back row. then our branch president comes up to us and has us move up the front row.
so we're all waiting to hear who's getting called to speak and you can probably guess where the story's
headed by now. the branch president says "and following sacrament we'll hear from elder Money."
hahahahaha ohhhhh man. i didn't have anything prepared so i turned around and asked the elder behind
me for his Portuguese Book of Mormon and i talked about Mosiah 2:41. all in Portuguese. it went about
as good as it could've gone haha. thank heavens for my Spanish.
So i go to New York on January 23rd! I'm so stoked for that. to be able to get outside of the MTC and
eat some real food haha. So that means i am for sure going to ANGOLA. so that's cool to finally know.
and yeah that's about it.
I loved your guys's letters! and i LOVED the photo book! thanks so much!!! i look at it every night.
the pics crack me up! they're so funny! i almost forgot what you guys looked like;) jk but i really
do love the book it is awesome!!! Thanks for the Flag and the coat. I've worn it like every day.
its freezing here. and it'll be super nice for New york. love you guys! keep in touch! tchau!

Week 3

Oi familia!
How's everybody doing? Hope its all going good! Anything new going on? Things here are
pretty much the same. Every day we do the same thing. its wake up, study, eat, study,
eat, study, eat, study go to bed. and do it all over again. Sundays and Tuesdays are my
favorite days because theres some variety in them. Today we get to go to the temple and
do a session. So that'll be cool. Let's see... what else is new. I didn't get the stomach flu
that's been going around so that's good! I think we start our malaria pills this Wednesday.
we have a meeting with the Health Clinic. So things are going pretty good.
Time here is so weird. The days are so long, but they all blend together. The weeks go by
pretty fast. There's not a whole lot new that's gone on. My Portuguese is coming along
pretty good. My Spanish helps a ton. Remember how in school I would get super bored
when I learned something really quick and we were still going over it? I haven't had that
feeling in a while but that's how I feel when we study Portuguese. But It's a blessing. I'd
rather have it be easy and be bored than have it be hard. Its super hard for some kids.
Oh one new thing that happened this week, Me and my companion, Elder Nelson got a
branch call. We're the "online portal masters". hahaha. So all we do is teach the new kids
that come in how to work the computers. But its cool cause we get to go to all the leader-
ship meetings with the zone and district leaders. That's about all that's new and going on.
I hope everythings good at home. I love you all. miss you guys. let me know how you're
doing. love you guys!

January 6, 2013

Happy New Years!

Oi Familia!! Happy new years!!!
     Hope it was good! we didn't really do anything for new years. They don´t really celebrate it in the MTC.
some kids had those little poppers and hats and stuff but that was about it. we went to bed at 10:30 just
like every other day. but I didn't get to tell you about all my Christmas stuff! we had Elder Russel M. Nelson
come and talk to us. he did alright. But the highlight of the day was the fireside. We had Greg Olsen come
talk to us. He's the guy that painted the painting i have in my room of Jesus and the little boy. He did a way
good job. He talked about some of his paintings in depth and that was one of them! then later that night, we
got to watch a movie called "its a wonderful life" it was pretty good!
     Today is our first real p-day. last week it was on Christmas so we didn't have much of a p-day. But today
was awesome! we went to breakfast at 7:30 like always and then went back to our room and took a nap from
9 to 11:30. it was soooooooo nice!!!!! i miss naps so much. i swear I'm always tired here. Sundays and p-days
are my two favorite days. Sundays are awesome cause they're pretty relaxed and we have huge devotionals
where all the missionaries in the MTC go to one room and listen to a speaker. and then we watch a Conference
talk or a church movie later that night. i love it. this past Sunday we had susan black-easton and her husband,
Gordon Durrant come talk to us. Gordon Durrant's talk was hilarious.
     So some pretty big news in the MTC... EVERYONE is sick!!! like deathly ill. there's a stomach flu going around
and everyone is getting it. we woke up a couple days ago and walked out in the hall to go shower and there were
four elders with their mattresses in the middle of the hall asleep. they were the first ones to get sick. and they ended
up getting quarantined for a couple days!! some other missionaries even had to go to the hospital. I started taking
Amoxicillin cause i don't wanna get sick. And they just announced that for the time being, we aren't going to have
the big devotionals with all the missionaries, but instead we'll go to our classrooms and they'll broadcast it there.
so that's kinda a bummer but oh well.
     Tomorrow I've been here 2 weeks! doesn't seem like that long but it is. I heard something that is so true....
"The Days are long, the weeks are short, and the months fly by." I don't know about the months yet, but the weeks
do fly by, even though the days seem like they're forever. Time is weird in the MTC.
     Love the pics!!! the one of us in our Christmas shirts was awesome. and the one of you guys with your knives
and guns was hilarious. Thanks for all the letters and everything. they make my day! hope you guys are all doing
well. you're in my prayers everyday. I love you guys SOOOOOOO SOOOOOO much. let me know how y'all are
doing. love Elder Money.