MTC Week 6

The Four El Salvadoreans

Hola!  So this is it, the three week mark.  21 days from now, I'll be on a plane to El Salvador.  Wow.

So pretty much every week at the MTC is kind of the same, and I've been here for so long that it's all a blurr... and I can't remember what happened when.

Me and my companion, Elder Gealta.

So, at the beginning of the week, my companion and I switched positions.  He became senior companion, and I became junior.  I let him take the lead with planning and stuff now, and he's gotten a lot better.  Our studying is really effective now!  He got pretty sick on Wednesday, so we had to go back to the room and miss class.  I ended up studying Spanish.  

Another district left this week, Elder Lulla and Abbot, and Crofts.  We also got a new district this week. They're awesome...but honestly, I miss all the old ones.  But they're in a better place now...their mission fields.  

My district, and the sun.  Yeah, a terrible place to take a picture.

Also, since the last district left, we needed some new zone leaders.  So last Sunday our whole zone was trying to figure out who the branch presidency was going to pick.  Well...they picked me and my companion.  So yesterday, our schedule went from busy, but not stressful, to busy and stressful.  There's a lot for us to do. 

Being zone leaders also meant we have to be examples, which means we have to clean our room and use it as the example to the new district that's coming in.  Well, our room consists of me, Elder Gealta, Elder Mendenhall, and Elder Parry, and we've never really cleaned it since we got here.  Usually, the day before the cleaning check, we'll vacuum the floor, I'll clean my stuff, stick our clothes in the closet, and put a big bag of candy with a note saying "take all you want" to the cleaning staff.  That usually got us acceptable scores with smiley faces, but that's got to change now.  So we cleaned our room today ...which took forever.  I don't know how excited I am about being a zone leader, but I know that my companion and I can do great because we know what we're doing.

Nordstrom's magazine cover...cause it's that good

Our branch presidency is awesome. Our new president, President Stone, gave our priesthood lesson today, and it was absolutely awesome.  

Also, I do weights and run/bike during gym every day, so I'm pretty much ripped.  I have a six-pack again.  Not that it matters here...

In our classes today, there's been a lot of focus on using the scriptures and asking good, inspired questions from them.  So if I could give one piece of advice, it would be to learn your scriptures.  Know where things are and how to use the scriptures to answer any questions.  The BOM is probably the best tool we have in teaching.  The Book of Mormon is the key to anyone's conversion and can answer any question you have if you take the time to read it.  So if you're not reading the BOM every day, and learning from it...try it out.  It'll make your day.  

The four El Salvador t-shirts, on three attractive missionaries

Well, I'm having a good time here.  Yeah, I am counting down the days, but I'm enjoying them too.  And I know I'm going to enjoy serving my zone and being an example to them (now that I have a clean room).  

Bye.  Adios,

Elder Bailey

Elder Nelson, Elder Dehart, and me.  This was our photo shoot.  We look good.

Elder Stoke's camera looked like a phone. It felt weird to put that up to my ear.

High school friends.  Elder Richards, Elder Me, and Elder Reusch.  I saw them all at the temple, so we took a picture together.