Another Letter!

Bonjour ma famille!

Another week has come and gone. I still don't understand how it can feel like the days last forever but the weeks fly by. But here i am starting my third week. so i guess i'll start off by talking about thanksgiving  It was a super relaxing day because we didn't have class. Elder Holland came and spoke at the devotional. He brought his family and made some of his grandchildren do musical numbers and bear testimonies. I'm glad that my grandpa isn't an apostle who would make me speak in front of the whole mtc. Elder Holland gave a great talk on being thankful about the blessing of living at this time on the earth and how we have so much and that the gospel wont be taken away again. We had a big thanksgiving dinner (at lunch) and then we did a service project where we put together health and school kits for kids in Africa. Later that night we had a weird thanksgiving program thing. It was pretty bizarre  i'm not gonna lie. After that we ate popcorn and watched the movie 17 Miracles. On Sunday Stephen B. Allen (not a general authority  I think he helped put together preach my gospel or something) came and talked to us. He showed us a bunch of old Mormon commercials. We watched Andy's favorite one with the sad little kid eating cereal (ask ash or Andy and they will show/ explain it to you.)

We've been teaching alot more and I can finally pray, bear testimony, and teach basic principles in french without using notes. i feel like i've learned way more in these past 2 weeks than i did in 2 years of highschool french. I love how you learn so much and constanltly feel the spirit at the mtc. I still see more and more elders and sisters from PG. I think i've seen like 20-25 people i know. Crazy. We finally found the alarm clock that was hidden in the celing and going off at 3:00 every morning. I climbed up on the ironing board and looked around in the celing with a flashlight. Oh the joys of the mtc. They still haven't told us when we are glying out to the consulate but i think it should be sometime next week.

Anyway, I love you all and hope all is going well. Thanks for all of the letters. I was going to pick up some envelopes and stamps at the store but i decided to sleep instead. You're constantly tired here and it can be especially hard during the sunday meetings. Anyway, until next week.

L'amour, Elder Swenson

First Letter!!!

Bonjour!

Hey everyone. So FYI my P-day is Tuesday so that's when you'll get my emails. It's been a good week at the MTC. It's a lot to take in when you first get here but you catch on fairly quickly. There are a lot of elders that i know from school. I think I've seen between 15-20 people i know, and run into more every day. Any way there are 3 sets of elders and 1 set of sisters in my district  3 are going to Paris but the rest of us are going to Lyon  My companion is Elder Gonzalez. He is from Spain. He is an awesome guy. my favorite thing is hearing all of the american quotes and pop-culture references that he says in his accent. Pretty great. I've taken a few pictures but i don't know if i'll be able to send them on the MTC computers. Apparently you used to be able to send pictures on certain computers but i couldn't get that to work. I'll ask around to see if there is a way to do that. It's nice to have a P-day  because i feel like there is never time to relax here. This is mostly because we have to teach lessons to this investigator in french, and it's kind of hard and frustrating to teach in a language that you don't know. We've taught 3 lessons so far. Not only do i have a limited vocabulary but i have no idea what they are saying when they respond back. But i'm sure the language will come eventually. I thought there would be a lot more language classes here but instead they pretty much just turn you loose with a dictionary and some french gospel phrases and expect you to teach yourself. We only have a teacher for like 2 maybe 3 hours and the rest of the time we just sit there trying to prepare lessons and write talks and such. The food here is good but does strange things to your insides. especially the potatoes. Sunday we got to watch a video of a talk that Elder Bednar gave at the MTC on Christmas  It was so good. I love how blunt they can be when they are just talking to the missionaries. He does a pretty good cookie monster impression by the way. I'm pretty stoked that we get to hear an apostle on Thursday  Any way all is going well. I did get those shirts and a few letters so thanks for all those who wrote. I will try to write some letters but i need to pick up some envelopes and stamps from the books store first. Or maybe i can just mooch some off of one of the other elders. Any way the timer at the top just turned red and is scaring me so i'm going to end this letter. If you have any questions for me just ask.

L'amour, Elder Swenson

P.S. Costa Rica! That is awesome  Congrats Madison.  

It's Official!

Trent did a great job speaking in church on Sunday.  Afterwards we all went back to the house for some good food, and fun visits.  Thanks to the family and friends that came and supported our Elder.

Yesterday was the big day and Trent reported to the MTC!  We are proud of him and know he will be a fantastic missionary!  We are anxiously awaiting the first letters, and will keep you posted on all of the exciting and not so exciting ups and downs of Trent's mission!