Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Elder Gaughan's FIRST Letter Home!!

Hey everyone! Well I've made it through my first weekend at the MTC. Everyone has told me that the first week is the longest and the toughest. I've already learned so much and I still have a long way to go. One of my teachers, Hermano Ames, served in the Carlsbad Mission. How crazy is that?!?!! I was talking to him on the first day and he totally remembered us and having dinner at our house. He's way cool and a great teacher. My other teacher is Hermana Rizley, she served her mission in Peru and is also a really good teacher. The spirit here is amazing. I feel it daily almost all day, if not the whole day. So long story short I love it here and am doing really well. Spanish is moving really fast. We've already covered almost everything I learned in high school and we're learning so much more. We try to talk to each other in Spanish as much as possible and it's done nothing but help us get better.

My companion is a really cool guy. His name is Elder Banks from Spanish Fork, Utah. We get along pretty well and when we teach we seem to bounce back and forth smoothly which is really cool cause we've only known each other for 4 or 5 days. We both struggle with different aspects of the work, but we are always there to cheer each other up and get back to work. Everything here is work, work, work, but it's awesome. We have already improved quite a bit and I know we will continue to get better. Elder Banks and I attempted to teach one of the tutors here in Spanish. Needless to say we struggled quite a bit, but it was a good experience and we have become more motivated to do all we can to learn the language. The other 2 missionaries that we room with are Elder Seegrist and Elder Johnson, both from Utah. They're really funny guys and we get along great. The 4 of us have started to read the Book of Mormon in Spanish to help us learn the language faster. It goes slow, but we feel it's helping a lot. We're all going to the same mission so there is a chance that we could meet up again in the field which would be great. I already feel so close to these guys and I know we will grow closer as we continue our work here.

There is so much to tell, but we only get half an hour to write an e-mail so it's tough so write everything on I want. I've seen a bunch of people I know already. Seth French from SVU is in my zone. He leaves for El Salvador in a week. I've also seen Robbie Garret also from SVU. As well as Andy Nelson from the stake and Nik Greenwood. I finally saw Bryan yesterday during dinner. We haven't been to the Referal Center yet, but hopefully we go soon. He seems to be doing well and I can't wait to meet up with him again and see how his experience has been.

Sorry my thoughts are all over the place. We've been told that the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. It's true, I honestly can't remember what we did on which day. I miss everyone and hope you are all doing well. Preperation day is Monday so that's when you'll be getting these e-mails from me. Oh and tell everyone that if they Dear Elder me they need to select the MTC when they're saying where to send it, otherwise it might get sent to Argentina. My P.O. Box is 310 if anyone wants to send me letters.

I'm almost outta time, but know that I'm doing really well. I'm progressing and loving it here. I hope everyone is doing well and tell people to write me cause I want to see how they are doing. We had a fireside last night and the speaker talked about the longterm effect we have as missionaries when a family is baptized. It made me think of the missionaries that taught you and how grateful I am for them. It's because of them that Iam here today preparing to do the same thing for others. This is an amazing place and I know I'm doing what I need to and what I should be doing. Tell Mike, John, Alex, and Tara hi for me. And tell them to stop being lazy and write me. I wanna know what they're up to. Once again I miss you all, but don't worry, I'm not coming home. I can't wait to get out into the field and get to work. I love you all,
-Elder Gaughan

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