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

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

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

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

John - July 28, 2010

Hey everybody,

Well things here have been pretty normal. Our district leader got put in as our zone leader and they put me in as the new district leader! Yeah, now i get to hand out everybody's mail at the end of the day. Basically it means more work for me. Its funny in our room we have E. Harvey and i and our previous DL now ZL, E. Christensen and E. Rawlings. So the only person in our room that doesn't have power is E. Harvey, ha its kinda funny. Well i heard adam got put in as a ZL (zone leader) thats pretty cool. When we had our "temple walk" on sunday i got a picture with him, Bailey i mean Elder Shaffer and Elder miller. Those two were our roommates in college. So thats always fun to see them around.

I'm suprised by how many people i know here! just this last wednesday i knew like 3 new elders. and the week before i saw a few more. Its way cool to see them all come in, and some of them i haven't seen in a really long time. Oh i saw Elder Callister just the other day, yesterday actually, and he said he was shipping out the next day(today)! I just can't believe that it feels like he had his first day a few weeks ago. So i got a picture with him before he left. He is going to be an awesome missionary; I mean we all knew that before, but you can really see it here.

Mom thanks for the package of cookies, i just opened them last night and they look good. I haven't cracked them open yet, but i will today for sure. Well last week i sent a letter with my memory card in it, so i hope that gets to you, By the way do you think i should use a padded envolope when i send that? i just put it in a new one. I hope it gets to you.

Dad hah i love reading your letters about girls camp, and how fun it is. Haha. I hope to hear more about it. and i want to hear how the lodge was in Idaho. also I've been doing pull-ups everynight and push-ups everynight, and now i can do like 10 pull-ups with my nuckles to me (or palms out). All the way down too! When i got here i could only do 8 and i think i cheated al lot to do those. So i've made some improvements. I just thought you would like to hear that.

Well things here are just the same. It's so crazy to think that in about 2-3 weeks i will be in El Salvador! That is so cool! i just get excited every time i bring it up. It never gets old. One of our teachers is out of town so his sub is a Sister that served in El Salvador! so that will be way cool to hear from her, about everything. Also one time another sister came into our class that served there and said a few things. I asked her about the temp and she said that one time it was 110 degrees or so outside in midday! So thats new. i didn't think it got that hot.

So something spiritual that happened to me this week. Well today we went the temple! It finally opened, so that was way cool. and wouldn't you know it i couldn't find my temple reccommend! I really have a problem with that. So since i haven't had to use my wallet since i've been here i stowed it away. and i could not find it. I was getting a little worried about it too. so i said a pray along with most of the members of my district im sure. and Elder Orton said did you look in your scripture case. so the last place i looked was in my scripture case in the classroom. It was in the zipper part of it! That was cool. And another one that i think is even cooler. was yesterday. So it was after breakfast and i know i had used my blue card to swipe for food. so when we were in the classroom i had lost it! Yeah i know i am having trouble with losing things this week. I swear this doesn't normally happen. anyway. so i had lost it, and it was getting close to lunch time, when i would need this card to get my food. And food is pretty important to me. hah i love my oranges! Right so i found my chap-stick which was also in the same pocket, and i found it on the ground to my left. so i look around on the ground breifly and i couldn't find it. So now im getting kinda worried about it, so i sat in my desk and said a little prayer to our heavenly father and basically said that i had lost my card and to please help me find it. So i got up kinda waiting thinking about where i could have left it. Then a thought came into my mind (from the spirit no doubt), that i should look on the ground again. So i pulled out my desk, was looking around then i picked up a spanish gramatical book and there was my blue card! Some how it got under the book. I Don't know how. anyway, i mean it seems simple now, but at the time i just didn't think about that. well thats all the time i have. I love you all! -Elder John Paulsen

Adam - July 27, 2010

Hey Everyone,

Everything is going great at the MTC. I'm just about to finish week 5... or 6 here and I have 3 left. It's so weird to see people come and go. You get attached to a group of Elders, and two weeks later, they all leave. This monday, the oldest district in our Zone left for Nicaragua. Now, we're the oldest district and I definitely don't feel like the oldest. I remember back to when I was brand new. I looked up to those older districts so much, so it's hard to imagine that the Elders coming in right now are looking up to me. I never thought that I'd be an example to people here, at least not this soon. So here's some pretty awesome news, Elder Whittaker and I were made the New Zone Leaders on Sunday. We're just movin up and up here. Ha ha. Just kidding. It's actually easier than District Leader from what I've had to do. There is one extra meeting on Sunday, but you don't have to conduct any meetings, interview the Senior Companions. It's way easier! I love it. This wednesday we are bringing in the newest District in our Zone. They are going to El Salvador, Chile, and I think there is one other place, but I'm not sure. E. Whitt and I teach them a few rules, show them around the residence halls, and on Thursday, we show them around campus. I remeber when Elder Trent and Elder Little (Our old Zone Leaders) brought us around. It was so much fun, so I hope I will be able to make it fun.

So one of the cool things that happened this week was during our TRC last wednesday. So a TRC stands for Training Resource Center... I think. And what happens is every week you have a situation including an investigator. You have to go in and teach them the specified lesson according to their needs. There are two parts to it, the first is a spanish task where you have to talk to the investigator about clothes, food, or furniture. Then the second part you have to teach. For the first 4 weeks, the lessons are in English, but last week we moved over to Spanish. I was really nervous to teach the whole thing in Spanish, but our teacher, Hermano Salmón, kept telling us that if we have faith. We can be like Jesus and "Walk on Water". It was pretty inspirational, but we just went ahead and tried to teach the lesson the best we could in Spanish. We started off and it was really rough! I kept freezing and didn't know what to say, and Elder Whittaker started teaching a part of the second lesson. I tried to tie it back into the lesson, but I'm sure it sounded Ultra-Awkward! I was jumping around from point to point, so the lesson didn't flow at ALL! But we made our way to the Restoration and started talking about Joseph Smith. I began to recite the first vision in spanish (which i had just learned a few days earlier) and our investigator put her head down. She seemed like it was getting a little emotional for her. I actually didn't notice this because I was thinking too hard about what i wanted to say. But we made it to the end of the lesson. Everything seemed like it went pretty well, I asked her to pray, and she accepted. She started praying and about half-way through, she started to cry. She felt the spirit and so did we! Even though we had a rough lesson, we brought the Spirit which is the most important part!

I know that even though I'm struggling with the language, the Spirit will always help me convey my message. I love this church so much, and I love you all! Write me and let me know what's happening out there. Love you all!

-Elder Adam Paulsen

John - July 21, 2010

hello everybody!

i'm so suprised that I've been here for five weeks. The weeks seem to go by faster and faster now. things are going good. Just trying to master spanish. this week for our TRC, which is like our test, we are teaching the first lesson en español! My companion and i just split up the topics and try to remember as many things about the subjects we have. so i can kinda give half of the lesson by myself! We still have a lot of things to work on, like actually including our investigators in the lesson. Because in spanish its so hard just to think of a question to ask them, so at the moment its like we are giving them a lecture. ha its okay though i know that in time we will get good at this. We are memorizing some things in spanish like the ariticles of faith. I'm on the 4th one now.

well things with my companion are... going i should say. He can be really hard to get along with. like he gets into aurguments with everyone in class. one of the things he said was and i quote because i thought it was so rediculous," stupidity is one of my pet peevs" or one time i told him he needs to learn how to hold his tounge, and he just said that he couldn't on this one. But its okay, i get over it.

so thats about how the MTC is going for me. I'm not sick or anything, feeling fine. Hah one time for lunch actually just the other day i ate four plates of food: two bacon/Guac. burgers, and two Gyros. They were good. oh and two little salad bowls. umm yummy. We had a Devotional last night, given to us by Elder H. Ross Workman, emmitus member of the quorom of the seventy. It was really great, he talked about a lot of things, some things were about softening our hearts. he said that when we our hearts are hardened the spirit cannot penetrate it. So that made me think that i need to open my heart to others(my companion), and be more understanding of others(my companion). he said some really great things last night. then we had a district devotional, which was fantastic. i felt the spirit many times! Love it. Love the Elders in my district.

So last week, Sunday, they were supossed to change the district leader, but E. Christensen(our DL) said he was talking to Our Branch President, President Peters, and from what he said, it sounded like Pres. peters didn't know it was time to change the DL. So either we will have a change this coming sunday, or E. christensen will be our DL for the rest of the time. Before we knew about this, we were all saying who might become the new DL, most of the elders were saying it was going to be me... so thats kinda exciting. Oh also on sunday we changed from senior companion to junior companion. So now im the senior comp! Oh yeah now E. Harvey will have to listen to what i want to do! hah just kidding i ask him what he wants to do all the time, so it doesn't seem like a dictatorship. Although that was kinda how it was when he was senior comp. Not going to lie.

Hah for P-day today some of the elders in our district say we are going to make a commercial or a tv show for our spare time today. its going to be way funny. we'll see how it goes. sorry if i don't all write you today, its hard to write everybody today. so many letters.

Oh mom so i put on the doc martins today to test them out. Ha and i think its ways funny, because the souls are like atleast an inch thick, so i go up to E. Christensen, who is taller than me, and now I'm taller than him! Ha its funny, i feel like I'm walking around with one inch lifts on. which is kinda what im doing. Also if you want lana to send that tie, that would be sweet, just put in some random candy; like junior mints or something. Sweet! Well thats about all i can think of what to say, well i love you all! i got to go i've got 30 seconds left! bye. Elder paulsemn