I got Mom's package from Houston just now, and it is possibly the best thing I have ever received! It's like Christmas! The highlight has to be the University of Texas Snuggy, but everything in there was great, even the socks! Thanks so much for sending it. It made this P-day into a great day overall. My companion, Elder Lybert, and I are both grateful for the Texas map shirts. They're really cool.
I am now wearing the UT Snuggy, and it is possibly the best thing of ...my...LIFE! I don't think I can express just how much joy this brings me.
However, now that I am done pontificating about my wonderful presents, I can get into what has happened so far this week. Our teacher, Hermano Ortiz left this week for Texas, since his family lives there. Apparently, this is a very important time for his family and they need to be together. So we'll have substitutes for the next 3 weeks, but Hermano Ortiz will be back for our last week at the MTC.
We picked up a new "investigator," Maria at the Teaching Evaluation Place and we meet with her on Fridays. She moved here from Mexico and has two young daughters. Her husband just left her and her parents died, so her faith in God is failing. Hopefully we will be able to help rebuild the foundation of her faith through the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We'll see how our next few lessons go. Our first lesson with her was okay, but a lot of it was really just getting to know here. We didn't have too much time for a message.
Oh, our first new substitute here at the MTC for Hermano Ortiz is Hermano Solberg from Mesa, Arizona. He served his mission in Argentina the same time as Hermano Maughan. Our first day with him was pretty intense. We learned a lot of grammar principles and then the second day (and for the rest of his time with us) he was a new "investigator," Bernado. Bernado is a divorced, retired, 55 year old man with two kids and a firm belief in God. He is devoted to God because he says God has saved his life on three separate occasions. So teaching him will be interesting and hopefully soon we can bring him into the Church.
On Sunday we had President Jackman speak to us at the Devotional and his remarks were interesting. But it was also really cool that he served part of his mission in McAllen, Texas. However, the coolest part of Sunday was right after the Devotional. Movies play in different places on the campus afterwards and the Joseph Smith movie was playing in one building across campus from where we were watching the Devotional. We knew it would be packed so we sat next to an exit and as soon as the Devotional was over we exited. As a joke, with a few other companionships, we started to run. I thought it was pretty dorky, but then after rounding the first corner we ran into about 30 other missionaries who were running. There was another mob of joggers just behind them. We got some of the last seats in the room for the movie. It was a really great experience. However, I will always remember seeing so many young men rush to see, testify, and tell about the story of Joseph Smith.
That's all I've got for this week and I'm just about out of time. Thanks for the package and I hope everyone is doing well!
Love,
Elder Wood
