Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Hello Family! So this is the message I want you to put on the blog if that is ok. I hope you remember how to do that. If not you should ask Brother Sands at church to help you because he knows how to do it. So first off I am sorry that I told you preparation day was Mondays. I didn't know that it wasn't going to be on Monday. So here at the MTC it will always be on tuesday. I don't know what day it will be when I am in the mission field. So my shampoo, toothpaste, and shaving cream were all taken at the airport before I left Spokane becuase you can't have things in big contaniers in your carry on bags so that sucked that I had to throw those out. So I am homesick a little bit and it really started as the plane was taking off. That was when it really hit me that I am going to be gone for two years and not be able to see all of you for the next two years. It is starting to get better though because I am becoming more busy so that is good. It really gets better when I have a lot to do because I am focused on the work and trying to help people. So I have spent quite a bit of money already because I had to buy more shampoo and toothpaste when I got here. I still had a whole thing of shaving cream that I hadn't used yet in my suitcase so I didn't have to get a new one of those. I also bought a scripture tote or case because my scriputures needed it or I think they might fall apart completly. I bought a different case thing that didn't really work so I am going to return that today. Also I threw away my reciept for my bags when I got here and just remebered yesterday that I could get money for that so I had to dig through our trash to find it again haha but I did find it so I will be getting more money for that later today. So my companion is Elder Linn and he was born in Seattle but moved around during his childhood but he was in Rockwall Texas for high school and before he came here for his mission. He is awesome and we get along really well. Yesterday was hard though because we were not as focused as we should have been because we were both looking forward to today too much and just lost track of what we needed to be doing. That is something I need to work on. So there are four of us in our room and the other companionship is Elder Clark and Elder Schembrie. They are both awesome and we are all becoming good friends and get along well. The dear elder letters that I have gotten are awesome thank you so much. They helped me a lot to get through the day. I would love to recieve more so you can send as many as you want and that would be great, and it's free! So we are being fed very well here which is good and the food is really good they have some great foods here but I bet if I was here for longer than three weeks it might start to get boring but I'm not sure. So we have two classes each day and my teachers are Brother Woolf and Sister Call. Both of them are returned missionaries that are working here at the MTC while going to BYU. It is nice being able to have teachers who have gone through the same things that we are going through and can really help us out when we need it. I like them both a lot, they are great. So we have "fake investigators" that we are teaching. They are real people that our teachers taught but our teachers are acting as those people so we can really get good teaching practice and that has really helped. Some of the time it is not the best lessons but that is why we are here, to learn how to teach and being able to teach then find our mistakes and working on fixing them is great. So before I left Spokane I found a bookmark that you made a while ago mom for your class and I have it in my scriptures. It is the one about the scripture mastery which is 1 nephi 3:7. I don't know if you remember when you made that bookmark but it really reminds me of you mom so thank you very much for making that and letting me have one. So I also purchased a hymn book because we sing a lot here and I have actually started singing now and I like it. I am not a very good singer but I do like it because it really helps me to feel the spirit and it sets the tone for the classes or the study times that we have. I am not able to send pictures here in the MTC. I have to wait until I am in the mission field. I am sorry about that I didn't know that I couldn't send you pictures yet. I forgot to take pictures until Sunday when we got to walk over to the temple and just spend some time on the temple grounds which is awesome. The Provo temple is amazing and I took some pictures there but haven't had the time to look at them to see if they turned out good. That will be okay though because we are able to go to the temple grounds every sunday. The temple closed yesterday for cleaning so I won't be able to attend it while I am here. I am bummed out about that I was really looking forward to being able to go to the temple. Hopefully I will be able to go when I leave for the mission field. I love going to the temple and really being able to feel the spirit there.

It is very awesome to here that Ben is doing better. I am very happy for him. Thank you for telling me that. You are right I did want to hear that. Maybe I could have called when I got to the airport but i'm not sure. I am very happy to be able to email you today. Preperation day is awesome and we just get to relax. It has already been a hard week with all of the teaching practice that we have gotten. Planning for these lessons is one thing that is very hard. It is hard to know exactly what to talk about but the main thing I have learned is to pray about it and the spirit will guide me and tell me what I need to be teaching so when Elder Linn and I can't think of what to teach about we stop and say a prayer to help us. I am running out of time now but I have a few more things to say. I can't sleep well and I have a cotton pillow so if you could send my feather pillow on my bed with the pillow case that would be great. I also forgot my tie clip it is on the ledge around my room. I think near my dresser. I would love it if you could send those to me please. Oh and also pictures if you could send pictures of all of you and also of Boe and Billy that would be awesome to be able to have. I will write more in written letters home today so look for those!

I love you, family, so much and I hope you all have a great week.

Love, Elder Ryne Bailey