Hello family and Friends!
All is going well in Costa Rica. It´s still really hot, and rains a lot! Everything is going really well. I´ll start off with the cool experience I had this week.
So today is Tuesday, P-Day was yesterday and we had quite the experience. It started off at around 7:15. We got a phone call from our district leader, Elder Sorensen (The cousin of Justin Sorensen, and he played football at BYU), saying that we wanted to go to Monte Verde as a District. We didn´t have a lot of money left over because it was the end of the month, but we heard that the secretaries added all the money to our accounts that day for the month of September. We quickly went to the bank to check, but my new card didn´t work. I ended up using my personal card and took out 20,000 colones (40 bucks) and we headed back to the house. The other Elders showed up at our house at about 8:15 and we all headed out to the bus stop to Monte Verde, but right when we got out the door, the bus we needed left. We asked some of the Ticos when the next bus comes and they said not for another 3 hours or something, so we got a taxi and tried to catch it at the next stop. Yet again, another fail. We missed the bus again. We sat there for a while letting out our frustrations, when another bus came by... what the? We jumped on it and headed for the wonderful Monte Verde.
Monte Verde is a big tourist attraction in Costa Rica. It´s high up in the mountains, and has lots of rainforests and cool things like that. We took our 2 hour bus ride up through hills and mountains. All I can say is that I felt like I was riding in a Safari Jeep. The bus was rocking and bumping the whole time. We finally made it and when we got off the bus got horded by tourist company people. I couldn´t understand anything though because i was so distracted by how cool ( temperature-wise) it was there. I loved it! We followed one of the guys and he convinced us to do a ¨jungle hike thing¨. We took a taxi and got off at our destination. We started our journey through the crazy jungle. It was nuts, unlike anything I´ve ever seen in my life! There were huge trees with vines and moss and leaves everywhere. It was so GREEN! I hope i can send you some pictures. Our hike took about 2.5 hours, but we didn´t see much animal life. We saw a few bugs, catepillars, and spiders. But they were all pretty small and not too different than what i can see in the street. So we were all a little disappointed cause we didn´t see much, when.... we found some monkeys!!!!! MONKEYS!!! Thats what i´ve been waiting for! It was sweet. they were so high in the trees and we couldn´t see them that good, but they just jumped from treetop to treetop. What a cool experience. I don´t think i´ll ever forget it.
Well, we took the bus home, and didn´t make it back until about 5:15 so we didn´t have time to email. That´s why i´m sending it today.
Spanish is going pretty great. It gets pretty frustrating at times, but it´s slowing getting better and better. I can say pretty much whatever I need to, but it´s in a really weird way and I have a feeling that the people can barely understand me.
So everyone should be super proud of me. On sunday, we had lunch with an investigator and we had FISH. but get this, it wasn´t just some ordinary fish.... it was a deep-fried, skin, bones, fins, and tail. I ate most of it, until i had to eat around the spine. That grossed me out a little bit. I still don´t like fish though. ha ha
Everything is good, if i had to say i was craving anything, it´d be ranch. I miss ranch! and maybe some chocolate. These first two weeks have been hard because i haven´t been able to buy a lot of things. We didn´t get a lot of money, but now that I do, I´ll get to buy more things. I was talking with Elder Bateman from Copper Hills, and he said that his mom sends him mac n´cheese. That sounds so good right now. It´s such a simple thing, but they don´t have it here. The food is good though. Today I ate the most delicious steak I´ve ever had in my entire life! And we always eat rice and beans... Always. It´s growing on me.
Well, all is well. I had to give a preisthood blessing yesterday. I didn´t know how to annoint in spanish, but my companion helped me out luckily. It was cool. Well love you all. I love the work. It´s really hard, and results come really slowly. But I love it. love you all
Elder Adam Paulsen
P.S. I tried to send some pictures but the computer is really slow. Next week i´ll start it sooner. Sorry. Love you all!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
John - August 30, 2010
well hello family,
this week has been pretty good. I mean as far as understanding about half of what they are saying goes. This last saturday i baptised José Luiz, he was one of our investigators that the missionaries had before us. But they never gave him a baptism commitment, so our fist meeting with him we gave him a baptismal date. He acepted and boom there we are. ha it was funny i didn´t know i was baptising him untill the night before. I guess they had said it in spanish to eachother and i must have missed that part. Anyway it went smoothly, i had to do it two times, because i didn´t get his whole left hand under the water. Then that sunday, yesterday he recieved the gift of the holy ghost. it was kinda a little bit of a scare, because he didn´t show up till like 15 minutes till the end of sacrament! but its okay, all is well. So this Saturday i baptised one and our branch president baptised another. So two baptisms.
It is wierd how some days i can understand the conversation that they are having, and then other times i am totally out of it, and not understanding anything. I think it has a lot to do with what they are talking about though. But spanish is coming along, It won´t come to me in a click, but with time. I always say to my comp, con tiempo. Which means with time.
ha dad its funny you should say the things about ¨free meal!¨ because that is not how it is at all here. There aren´t any places that are like that. Oh and i am getting your emails and everything just fine. For breakfast i usually have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Then for lunch we go to our cook´s place for some good food. Then usually we don´t eat anything for dinner, because it is a prime time for doing lessons and stuff. so i´m suprised that im not starving here. But things are good. Also so we read a lot of scriptures down here. I don´t know if you have an impression that we don´t read much, because I am learning so much right now!
Mom I´m glad that your knee scope went well, good to hear that things are healing up good. Oh yeah about the package. I would really worry about sending most of that stuff. You can send it, but we don´t have to worry about wet wipes down here our toliets are pretty good. I´m just glad that we have running water all the time in our house. So another thing that would be nice would be if you could send beef jerky down here. They don´t have any of that here.
Well thats about all i have to report for this week. Oh so the place we are at is called Nonualco. That is our area. Right now I´m in San Vincente in an internet cafe. So about letters i think there will be a two week delay between letters, I don´t have a ton of time to write letters, so i might just stick to emails. well i gotta go. i love you all, i hope you all are enoying life, because im enjoying it here, Because im in the service of our lord and bringing people unto their salvation! -Elder John Paulsen
this week has been pretty good. I mean as far as understanding about half of what they are saying goes. This last saturday i baptised José Luiz, he was one of our investigators that the missionaries had before us. But they never gave him a baptism commitment, so our fist meeting with him we gave him a baptismal date. He acepted and boom there we are. ha it was funny i didn´t know i was baptising him untill the night before. I guess they had said it in spanish to eachother and i must have missed that part. Anyway it went smoothly, i had to do it two times, because i didn´t get his whole left hand under the water. Then that sunday, yesterday he recieved the gift of the holy ghost. it was kinda a little bit of a scare, because he didn´t show up till like 15 minutes till the end of sacrament! but its okay, all is well. So this Saturday i baptised one and our branch president baptised another. So two baptisms.
It is wierd how some days i can understand the conversation that they are having, and then other times i am totally out of it, and not understanding anything. I think it has a lot to do with what they are talking about though. But spanish is coming along, It won´t come to me in a click, but with time. I always say to my comp, con tiempo. Which means with time.
ha dad its funny you should say the things about ¨free meal!¨ because that is not how it is at all here. There aren´t any places that are like that. Oh and i am getting your emails and everything just fine. For breakfast i usually have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Then for lunch we go to our cook´s place for some good food. Then usually we don´t eat anything for dinner, because it is a prime time for doing lessons and stuff. so i´m suprised that im not starving here. But things are good. Also so we read a lot of scriptures down here. I don´t know if you have an impression that we don´t read much, because I am learning so much right now!
Mom I´m glad that your knee scope went well, good to hear that things are healing up good. Oh yeah about the package. I would really worry about sending most of that stuff. You can send it, but we don´t have to worry about wet wipes down here our toliets are pretty good. I´m just glad that we have running water all the time in our house. So another thing that would be nice would be if you could send beef jerky down here. They don´t have any of that here.
Well thats about all i have to report for this week. Oh so the place we are at is called Nonualco. That is our area. Right now I´m in San Vincente in an internet cafe. So about letters i think there will be a two week delay between letters, I don´t have a ton of time to write letters, so i might just stick to emails. well i gotta go. i love you all, i hope you all are enoying life, because im enjoying it here, Because im in the service of our lord and bringing people unto their salvation! -Elder John Paulsen
Monday, August 23, 2010
Adam - August 23, 2010
Well, I´ve had quite the interesting week. It´s been pretty intense with the whole culture shock thing. I´ll start with my first day here. We can pretty much call it my first day of the mission because... I´ll explain.
So we got to the Mission Office at around 10:30 and we were all exhausted from the crazy-ness of traveling. Well, we got there and had to fill out a few forms and take a picture and finally got to go back to where the AP´s were staying. They had a really nice house. It had a big garage and 3 floors with at least 4 bathrooms. Well, after a little bit of unpacking (enough to change our clothes for the next day) we got to sleep at around 12:30. We had to wake up at 5:45 for breakfast with the president, then we went downtown to get fingerprints for our visas. We got back to the office, had 2 hours of lessons about money, mission rules, etc., and had interviews with the mission president. President Gálvez is a great guy, so is his wife. They don´t speak spanish, but I could tell they had a genuine love for us. Anyways, the trainers all started showing up at the office, we got paired up, and left for our areas. My companion is Elder Portillo. He is about 6 feet tall, and definitely native. He´s from El Salvador, and is... I dunno... different than me. He has a lot of different views on how to work, maybe thats because he´s been in the mission for 9 months, but I was ready to get to work. I guess the President told the trainers to take it easy on us for the first weeks so that we don´t want to go home. But I was completely opposite. I hated going and visiting the members for an hour and a half and waking up really slow, barely studying anything in our four hours of study time. Well, he told me that he was doing that on purpose yesterday and that now we are going to work hard.
So the reason that I said we should call this my first week in the mission is because I couldn´t understand anything that was going on. I could barely pick up on the conversation, and when people ask me a question, I just look at them. Thinking to myself ¨What in the world did they just say?¨ I thought I could understand Spanish pretty good, but with natives it´s another story. Well, luckily Elder Portillo can speak pretty good English and can help me out a lot. Right now, after a full week with the natives, I still can´t understand what´s going on. I don´t even understand why we go to the MTC, it doesn´t help. Well, I´m here, and I´m trying, so that´s all that matters.
My area is called Puntarenas. It´s a pretty big area, so they might put the name on the map. I live in a little crap-hole city called Juanita Mora. It looks like i like in Mexico. I took a picture of the street, but I don´t know how to send it just yet, so next week you´ll be recieving visual confirmation of the place they call a city. Well, my house is tiny, and smells so bad. Elder Portillo said that the apartment is cursed. It stinks and they can´t do anything about it. There are 4 rooms. One is the kitchen/living room where we have desks and a sink. Then there is a small room that is maybe 10x10 for our closet. We have two tables that we have our bags on and live out of. I don´t have anything to hang my shirts up or pants so I just try to fold things nicely. Then we have our bathroom. This is the source of our stench. It REAKS!!!!! I try to hold my breath when I shower, but I end up running out of air and giving in to breathing. Get this, a cockroach died in there on maybe Thursday, and it´s still in the shower. Just sitting there ha ha ha. We don´t have anymore toilet paper, so I´ve been holding it in for a couple of days.... ha ha. Well, the last room is our bedroom. It´s barely big enough for 2 beds and a desk inbetween them. It´s my favorite room in the house because it has a fan.
Well, the weather is pretty good I guess. It´s SO hot in Puntarenas. I´d guess about 90 in the middle of the day. And it is so humid that you start sweating when you sit down to study at 8. Yesterday was the worst day of rain. It rained for about 2 hours and the road turned into a river. We tried riding some member´s bikes home to not get our feet wet, but we aren´t the most coordinated bikers and both of us fell over and got our feet wet. The water was so deep that our feet were getting wet while pedaling the bike though.
All is well family. I´m doing good, feel good, a little homesick, but that´s life. I love you all so much and can´t wait for this next week. I´m hoping my spanish gets better, and the days have more work in them. Love you all so much.
Elder Adam Paulsen
P.S. This guy in our Branch came up to me on sunday and was wondering if you could sent him a HLJ (CTR in Spanish) ring from Deseret book. He said he was a 9 or something. He didn´t care what it looked like, but that it was in spanish. I also would like a ring if you are sending something. I´m a 10.5 and I want a cool CTR ring. It doesn´t need to be in spanish. I told him to pay me when it gets here. If that´s a lot of work, or it´s really expensive (over 20 or 30 bucks) don´t do it. In other words, tell me how expensive it would be to send a ring or two here and I´ll let you know if i think it´s worth it. He´s a little crazy so whatever. And you can send it to the mission office. It´s the address that I sent you. We don´t have and address, I don´t know how you could send a letter to my house. Love you!
John - August 23, 2010
nice thats good to hear that lana got a promotion. Alright well today is my P-Day! Monday. well let me start from the beggining, we got off the airplane when it was raining. We went through outside to meet our mission president, He is an awesome man. and very patient with all of our spanish hah. So he speaks some english and his wife does too. Our first dinner we went into a restaurant and had some little taco things. It was good. it would be like chiles in the states. I think i heard the whole dinner was like 20 bucks maybe. and we had about 18 people with us there. The mission president´s Assistants were there, Elder Evans and Elder Brotherson. He told us that he would be training one of us. He was an AP for 8 months. So we stayed at the AP´s appartment, if you can call that an apartment. hah it we slept on the floor those two nights, with pads, so it wasn´t terrible. But it was way hot! and hummid!
so then our second night here we had dinner at the mission presidents house. and wow is it nice! way nice, he has three daughters i think, the oldest is 14 or something. anyway that was way nice.
Okay so we Then had to wake up at 4 to get ready to go on the bus. 5 of us that were the new incoming missionaries are in my area. But only one Elder, Elder Hyde is in my zone, and a sister, Hermana Wilkes, its kinda funny adam would know her, because she was in his district back in the MTC for 3 weeks. anyway i found out that my comp was Elder Brotherson! crazy. He has said that the president never puts new gringos with a gringo trainer. But with our whole district he has put all of us with gringo comps. So we got onto the bus, and left my companion, Elder Harvey, ha good-bye Elder Harvey and Hello Elder Brotherson. I like this change. Ha sad but true. Elder Brotherson is the bomb, i like him a lot. He is way funny. anyway we got into our room around 6 that night. the place was a mess. Lets just say the living standards are a little lower than in the US hah. Its okay though. we are doing good in the area. We have two people set for baptism for the 28th of this month. Ha i can´t really say that its my baptism because in the lesson, i don´t talk much. Since I´ve gotten here I´ve realized how much spanish i don´t know. HA . Yeah but its getting better already. The first day i got in here i could not understand a word the people were saying. But last lesson we were in i was picking up on a lot of what they were saying. Oh and those two people for baptism were already people the Elders were working on before we got here. So they aren´t really ours to begin with. but thats okay.
So the people here are really humble. They have a ton of problems with marrige and getting divorces. In this country its really hard to get a divorce. Right now we are working with a family who the parents need to get married. Get this the dad is like 70 and the mom is like 36 gross right? wierd. Well anyway they live in one big shack that has like 8 beds in it with a table in the middle. They live in humble circumstances, lets say. Its wierd most people here have like tvs and stuff but there housed are crap. I think they have their priorities a little mixed up. hah but the people are willing to listen so thats cool. well its about time i got off.
Right well if you had to send a package, i would send it to the mission office, and fill it with wet wipes, cristal light, and life savers. Hah yeah thats about the only thing that i need. Don´t send it to our house, because i don´t even know the address to our house. so i don´t know how you would send it there. Its okay to send it to the mission office, because the mail system here in El Salvador is pretty secure, its just getting it through mexico that might be the problem. So put some pictures of Jesus on it, and it should be fine.
If you want to look at where i am, The main city that is closest is San Vinceti or something like that. The house is about an hour bus right away from that. Our area is called nonualco, or something close to that.
Well i´ve got to get off and write a letter to the mission president. Bye Love you all. -Elder John Paulsen
so then our second night here we had dinner at the mission presidents house. and wow is it nice! way nice, he has three daughters i think, the oldest is 14 or something. anyway that was way nice.
Okay so we Then had to wake up at 4 to get ready to go on the bus. 5 of us that were the new incoming missionaries are in my area. But only one Elder, Elder Hyde is in my zone, and a sister, Hermana Wilkes, its kinda funny adam would know her, because she was in his district back in the MTC for 3 weeks. anyway i found out that my comp was Elder Brotherson! crazy. He has said that the president never puts new gringos with a gringo trainer. But with our whole district he has put all of us with gringo comps. So we got onto the bus, and left my companion, Elder Harvey, ha good-bye Elder Harvey and Hello Elder Brotherson. I like this change. Ha sad but true. Elder Brotherson is the bomb, i like him a lot. He is way funny. anyway we got into our room around 6 that night. the place was a mess. Lets just say the living standards are a little lower than in the US hah. Its okay though. we are doing good in the area. We have two people set for baptism for the 28th of this month. Ha i can´t really say that its my baptism because in the lesson, i don´t talk much. Since I´ve gotten here I´ve realized how much spanish i don´t know. HA . Yeah but its getting better already. The first day i got in here i could not understand a word the people were saying. But last lesson we were in i was picking up on a lot of what they were saying. Oh and those two people for baptism were already people the Elders were working on before we got here. So they aren´t really ours to begin with. but thats okay.
So the people here are really humble. They have a ton of problems with marrige and getting divorces. In this country its really hard to get a divorce. Right now we are working with a family who the parents need to get married. Get this the dad is like 70 and the mom is like 36 gross right? wierd. Well anyway they live in one big shack that has like 8 beds in it with a table in the middle. They live in humble circumstances, lets say. Its wierd most people here have like tvs and stuff but there housed are crap. I think they have their priorities a little mixed up. hah but the people are willing to listen so thats cool. well its about time i got off.
Right well if you had to send a package, i would send it to the mission office, and fill it with wet wipes, cristal light, and life savers. Hah yeah thats about the only thing that i need. Don´t send it to our house, because i don´t even know the address to our house. so i don´t know how you would send it there. Its okay to send it to the mission office, because the mail system here in El Salvador is pretty secure, its just getting it through mexico that might be the problem. So put some pictures of Jesus on it, and it should be fine.
If you want to look at where i am, The main city that is closest is San Vinceti or something like that. The house is about an hour bus right away from that. Our area is called nonualco, or something close to that.
Well i´ve got to get off and write a letter to the mission president. Bye Love you all. -Elder John Paulsen
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Adam - August 17, 2010
made it here!!!
Costa Rica is a beautiful place i just wanted to say that I made it here safely. I love this country already... except for driving! It´s nuts and I feel like I´m going to die whenever I get in the car. There are barely any rules and people just weave in and out while speeding down the street. We even saw a 4-wheeler driving along.
So last night was not too bad. We arrived at around 10 and got back to the mission home/office at around 10:30. We had our first Costa Rican meal... Taco Bell! It was quite heavenly! We had to fill out a few forms, and take a picture or two, then we went back to the Area President´s and house and slept there. We didn´t get to bed until around 12:30 though. I´m crazy tired today!
President Galves is awesome! And so is his Wife. They met us at the airport with this huge banner that said "Bien Venidos Misioneros del Mundo" which means welcome missionaries of the world. They gave us a big hug and we headed home. They don´t speak much english so it was a pretty quiet car ride. I feel so lost with the spanish! I feel like I´m back to week #3 in the MTC. Everyone speaks so fast and I can barely pick up on a few words. I feel really dumb when I have to answer a question because I don´t really know what they are asking. In the MTC, we could try in Spanish, and if we fail just say it in English. But here, you can´t do that. You just have to try and not sound too stupid. Luckily, the missionaries in the Office speak english and are really friendly. They don´t speak too much spanish in front of us ha ha.
So I found out that Kirk is a Zone Leader, so there isn´t really a chance he could train me, but I have about a 50% chance of him being my Zone Leader. That way I would still be able to see him. That´d be really cool. Later today we go to our areas and get our new companions. We don´t know who they are yet, but it sounds like it´s going to be way fun!
Well, I love you all! Just wanted to let you know that all is going well. I love Costa Rica and the people here are awesome! P-Days are mondays so I´ll give you an update on my life then. I know the church is true and I´m doing the right thing!
Always, Elder Adam Paulsen
P.S. Costa Rica is pretty cool. I haven´t gotten out of San José so I haven´t seen any amazing beautiful things. Mostly, it´s just dirty! Ha ha. Love you All!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
John - August 11, 2010
Day 56 of my captivity,
This week seems different than others, they gave us papers to obviously send us to a much more harsher prison containment cell. Also from what i can tell i've begin to break the system and some how one of my comrades must have ratted me out, so they must be sending me out, beacause i know too much. The food has been odd rations of grub, obviously filled with some drug enduced virus. I have tried to stay away from the substance as much as possible.
Ha alright if you don't know that is from the Dog vs. Cat journal. If you haven't read it, look it up its funny stuff! Well hello everybody. well this week has been an exciting one. I got my flight plans on friday let me tell you where i am going. ha okay so get this we have to be at the travel office (in the MTC) at 3 AM! sweet right? hah. so our flight from SLC will leave at 6 AM then we get into Dallas at 9:35. While there we have aobut a 6 hour lay-over and leave at 3:40 PM and then we will arrive in Sal Salvador at 6:05! Wow cool huh? so i will plan on calling you from Dallas anywhere from 4-5. Most likely the sooner we will get off the plane. They said i can talk for like 5-10 minutes of something jsut to tell you i made it okay, but we'll see if we actually stick to that time limit.
So about the baggage in the airport. They tell us to bring 100 bucks cash in case of any problems so i will be taking out that much in the atm this friday. Mom/Dad make sure i have enough money in my account for this. I know you said you would also put money in for a calling card (which i have not bought yet), so if you could make sure i have plenty of money. I still have to pay for the calling card, and a package of things that i will send home probably today.
So funny thing, i think it was a few days ago. I was talking with an elder and said that i went to ALTA and a passing sister said, Hey do you know Megan Whitehead? I said Yes! and she replied that she was her older sister. Megan Whitehead is someone from high school that i know. So that is crazy how small of a world it is here sometimes.
This past week E. Harvey and i had to leave the MTC for the foot doctor, because he has an ingrown toe-nail. We left yesterday?... wow yeah yesterday. that seems like it was so long ago. but anyway so yeah that was exciting to get out of the MTC and be in the real world for a little while. Then we have to leave again on friday to get a check up for him, but It was wierd to leave, im not going to lie. This place is like my home now. I know basically where everything is, and I'm used to everything here. Plus i have my friends here that i have made so leaving the MTC will be interesting.
So i will be leaving this place soon! My days are seriously numbered now. I can soon count the hours, not that i don't know how many there are now, 115 hours give or take a few minutes. hah but this is going to be soooo cool! In one week i will be in a whole new country trying to understand what they are talking about. ha i think i will pick up the language pretty fast, Hah its like when we went to Iowa this spring, and it seemed like by the end of the trip i was talking like everyone there a little bit. So i think that i will pick things up fast.
Alright well i will let you know where my MTC address as soon as i know, oh wait you know what it is. Can you send that to me in my mail. I'm not really sure what it is. I think E. Harvey knows, I'll ask. Anyway don't send me mail that i will not get. Like i will leave monday. so sunday is too late, saturday is also too late, and friday is probably too late also. So if you want to get mail out to me now then send it soon.
well i will try to send out as much mail as i can today. bye
I love you all, Elder John Paulsen
This week seems different than others, they gave us papers to obviously send us to a much more harsher prison containment cell. Also from what i can tell i've begin to break the system and some how one of my comrades must have ratted me out, so they must be sending me out, beacause i know too much. The food has been odd rations of grub, obviously filled with some drug enduced virus. I have tried to stay away from the substance as much as possible.
Ha alright if you don't know that is from the Dog vs. Cat journal. If you haven't read it, look it up its funny stuff! Well hello everybody. well this week has been an exciting one. I got my flight plans on friday let me tell you where i am going. ha okay so get this we have to be at the travel office (in the MTC) at 3 AM! sweet right? hah. so our flight from SLC will leave at 6 AM then we get into Dallas at 9:35. While there we have aobut a 6 hour lay-over and leave at 3:40 PM and then we will arrive in Sal Salvador at 6:05! Wow cool huh? so i will plan on calling you from Dallas anywhere from 4-5. Most likely the sooner we will get off the plane. They said i can talk for like 5-10 minutes of something jsut to tell you i made it okay, but we'll see if we actually stick to that time limit.
So about the baggage in the airport. They tell us to bring 100 bucks cash in case of any problems so i will be taking out that much in the atm this friday. Mom/Dad make sure i have enough money in my account for this. I know you said you would also put money in for a calling card (which i have not bought yet), so if you could make sure i have plenty of money. I still have to pay for the calling card, and a package of things that i will send home probably today.
So funny thing, i think it was a few days ago. I was talking with an elder and said that i went to ALTA and a passing sister said, Hey do you know Megan Whitehead? I said Yes! and she replied that she was her older sister. Megan Whitehead is someone from high school that i know. So that is crazy how small of a world it is here sometimes.
This past week E. Harvey and i had to leave the MTC for the foot doctor, because he has an ingrown toe-nail. We left yesterday?... wow yeah yesterday. that seems like it was so long ago. but anyway so yeah that was exciting to get out of the MTC and be in the real world for a little while. Then we have to leave again on friday to get a check up for him, but It was wierd to leave, im not going to lie. This place is like my home now. I know basically where everything is, and I'm used to everything here. Plus i have my friends here that i have made so leaving the MTC will be interesting.
So i will be leaving this place soon! My days are seriously numbered now. I can soon count the hours, not that i don't know how many there are now, 115 hours give or take a few minutes. hah but this is going to be soooo cool! In one week i will be in a whole new country trying to understand what they are talking about. ha i think i will pick up the language pretty fast, Hah its like when we went to Iowa this spring, and it seemed like by the end of the trip i was talking like everyone there a little bit. So i think that i will pick things up fast.
Alright well i will let you know where my MTC address as soon as i know, oh wait you know what it is. Can you send that to me in my mail. I'm not really sure what it is. I think E. Harvey knows, I'll ask. Anyway don't send me mail that i will not get. Like i will leave monday. so sunday is too late, saturday is also too late, and friday is probably too late also. So if you want to get mail out to me now then send it soon.
well i will try to send out as much mail as i can today. bye
I love you all, Elder John Paulsen
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Adam - August 10, 2010
Friends and family, Brothers and Sisters,
The end is near. I only have 6 days of MTC until I get thrown out into the jungle! It scares me a ton, to think that I'll be out there without anyone to tell me how to correctly congugate this verb, or when I use incorrect spanish grammar. Okay, I probably will have someone telling me what I did wrong, but they'll be telling me in SPANISH!!! That's the only thing I'm really nervous for. The Español. Nobody told me that I would have to go into a foreign country while barely being able to speak their language?!?! Well, I´ve prepared myself the best I can, and I just hope that I get a good companion.
Well, the biggest thing that has happened this week is that we got our Travel Plans on Friday. We leave monday morning at 12:00 A.M. We fly Delta to Georgia and land in Atlanta at 5:51 pm. We have an hour lay-over there until our flight to Costa Rica leaves. So we leave that airport at 6:50 and make it to Costa Rica by 8:00 about. I'm so excited to get off a plane in another country. I've never done that before and I'm expecting it to be AMAZING!!! I just hope that I don't get sick. ha ha.
I get to call home for about 30-40 minutes during the layovers, but I'm not sure how long I will have between the flights in Georgia. I report to the Travel Office here at 8:00 in the morning, so I'm not sure how long I'll have in the SLC airport. But I'm guessing that I will have enough time to call you for a while. I think I'll have a little time in Georgia to talk too, so you should tell me what to do. Call you in SLC? Call in GA? The rule is that you should limit your calls so that you don't distract your family or yourself too bad. So just let me know.
I went to the Temple today... Loved it! I did a sealing as a proxy for a child and it reminded me of when our family got sealed together. I'm so grateful that we can be together forever as families and that this gospel allows us to do that. I love this gospel and know with all my heart that it is true. I know that Joseph Smith was called by God to restore this church and the Book of Mormon to this earth and that we have prophets today to lead and guide us.
P.S. You should watch the Joseph Smith movie if you have any doubts. It's AMAZING!!! Well, got to start class! Talk to you on monday. Love you all.
Elder Adam Paulsen
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
John - August 4, 2010
Hello, everybody!
It was nice to get letters from people this past week. Umm dad i was laughing so hard at what you said in your letter about girls camp. how you think that maybe you should stop showering and they won't get close to you! ha i thought that was way funny. I told the elders in my room about it i thought it was that good! Aright so mom i really don't think you should come to the airport. I hope you were joking when you wrote that. i don't want anyone crying over me again. plus its against the rules. I can call you though, that is probably what i will do. So i read this dear elder about somebody" Adrienne" putting in there mission papers. then i realized that you mean't ADRIAN! at first i didn't get it, but after that clicked(last night) i was really excited! yeah if you see him tell him to write me! i don't know his exact address so i can't send him stuff. and I've tried to get stuff to jason, but the past two weeks he hasn't responded.
Anyway thats crazy that megan prater is getting married! I remember them telling me about this john caracter, i have never seen him though, atleast i don't think so. And that is awesome that marie is getting married too. Geez so many people getting married, so many things happening. Lana You better not get married! hah just kidding. If it happens it happens yah know.
So i go to the temple in the morning on my p-day(wednesday) and its awesome! we went to the caffeteria with our district, and man oh man is it amazing! It has huge Oranges! which i think are the best part, of course. and real eggs that they make omlets out of. Oh it was so good. i was in heaven this morning. I don't think my district has seen me that excited before. hah.
Alright well i will send a package home this week with the gym shoes in it, and possible stuff i don't need. i can't really think of what that would be, but i guess it'll be a suprise for you.
So yeah that was wierd that the video card doesn't have any of the pictures on it. I will probably send a new one back with some pics on it. And send that card that you have with you to me! or it will take like a month for me to get it in El Salvador. Right so this rain coat that you will send, i would rather you not send it. And i know it rains down there, dad. On of our subs this last week showed us pictures of what it was like when she served in el Salvador. It was way sweet to talk to her. I will send a letter with more detail. But about the rain she said that when it starts raining that its like a bucket of water on you. Like there is no light begining, its just really hardcore! so i wouldn't have enough time to put on a rain coat. and i probably wouldn't anyway. I would just tough it out.
Well I'm really excited to get going to el Salvador! I've only got about a week and a half left. And I've started to realize how much work i need to get done! There is so much to do and so little time. I don't know how we will get it all done. But thats okay, i will try my best! welll i love you all. -Elder John Paulsen
Hello, everybody!
It was nice to get letters from people this past week. Umm dad i was laughing so hard at what you said in your letter about girls camp. how you think that maybe you should stop showering and they won't get close to you! ha i thought that was way funny. I told the elders in my room about it i thought it was that good! Aright so mom i really don't think you should come to the airport. I hope you were joking when you wrote that. i don't want anyone crying over me again. plus its against the rules. I can call you though, that is probably what i will do. So i read this dear elder about somebody" Adrienne" putting in there mission papers. then i realized that you mean't ADRIAN! at first i didn't get it, but after that clicked(last night) i was really excited! yeah if you see him tell him to write me! i don't know his exact address so i can't send him stuff. and I've tried to get stuff to jason, but the past two weeks he hasn't responded.
Anyway thats crazy that megan prater is getting married! I remember them telling me about this john caracter, i have never seen him though, atleast i don't think so. And that is awesome that marie is getting married too. Geez so many people getting married, so many things happening. Lana You better not get married! hah just kidding. If it happens it happens yah know.
So i go to the temple in the morning on my p-day(wednesday) and its awesome! we went to the caffeteria with our district, and man oh man is it amazing! It has huge Oranges! which i think are the best part, of course. and real eggs that they make omlets out of. Oh it was so good. i was in heaven this morning. I don't think my district has seen me that excited before. hah.
Alright well i will send a package home this week with the gym shoes in it, and possible stuff i don't need. i can't really think of what that would be, but i guess it'll be a suprise for you.
So yeah that was wierd that the video card doesn't have any of the pictures on it. I will probably send a new one back with some pics on it. And send that card that you have with you to me! or it will take like a month for me to get it in El Salvador. Right so this rain coat that you will send, i would rather you not send it. And i know it rains down there, dad. On of our subs this last week showed us pictures of what it was like when she served in el Salvador. It was way sweet to talk to her. I will send a letter with more detail. But about the rain she said that when it starts raining that its like a bucket of water on you. Like there is no light begining, its just really hardcore! so i wouldn't have enough time to put on a rain coat. and i probably wouldn't anyway. I would just tough it out.
Well I'm really excited to get going to el Salvador! I've only got about a week and a half left. And I've started to realize how much work i need to get done! There is so much to do and so little time. I don't know how we will get it all done. But thats okay, i will try my best! welll i love you all. -Elder John Paulsen
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Adam - August 3, 2010
ear Friends and Family,
Today is Day 44 of my captivity here in the MTC. We only have a week and a half left before I get released. My district get's our release papers this thursday and we're all getting so excited. I was worried that some of the other inmates were going to get a little to excited and they were going to have to send some teachers to calm us down. It's expected that our exact date of release from here will be the 16th of August. It still seems so far away! I imagine what the outside world is like when they let us smell the fresh air during our designated excersize time. I still believe they are trying to brainwash everyone here. I imagine they are doing one (or all) of three things to accomplish this. One, putting brainwash-drugs in the food they force us to eat. I'm almost positive they are using this technique because they keep intercepting the food that our families are trying to send us. If it looks, smells, or feels like outside food, they take it. Second, they put subliminal messages in the movies they force us to watch every Sunday night. They only have 4 or 5 movies that seems to play in a rotating look everyweek. There has to be something more there. And finally, they have special trees. Somehow, they've made trees that smell like skittles all over campus, or so I've heard. I've never in my life heard of trees doing this, but I constantly see others going up to the trees trying to smell them. I want to tell them that they are being brainwashed by smelling the tree, but I know they wouldn't believe me. Whoever is in charge of this "MTC" has it all figured out perfectly. I feel like I'm the only one that knows the truth. I'll keep you posted on my health next week.
Ha ha ha, okay, I can't keep that up any longer. It makes it seem like this place is horrible. I just had to because I told John that I would write a letter like that. Remeber that Cat vs. Dog diary, ha ha ha. Well, I'm doing great everyone. Spanish is great and it's slowly coming along. I talked to an Elder from Guatemala that is trying to learn English and I'm so excited. He told us how Costa Rica is so hot and it rains all the time. It'll be so sweet.
So the biggest thing that's going to happen this week is that we are going to be getting our travel papers on Thursday. That means that we are leaving in less about 2 weeks. I can't wait!
Something cool that happened this week... We got a new district that Elder Whittaker and I had to orrient. It was pretty intense, and one of the Elders had cameras following him around. I guess he is doing a tv series for BYU TV and they are going to be follwoing him around in Guatemala. I think he said it was going to be called something like Mormon.tv or something. You can look it up if you want. I'll try to write a little bit more about it because I might be in it. I had to sign a paper and everything. :) But showing all the "Newobbs" around was pretty intense. It still feels weird to be the oldest district here. Just not used to it.
Everything else is great. I love it here. I love the temple, and I've been looking forward to it all week. Everyone needs to try to go the temple as much as possible.
Love you all,
Elder Adam Paulsen
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