Hola! Ultimo Semana en el MTC

Date: Wed, 8 Jul 2009

How is everyone doing? I hope everyone is having just a marvelous day. And I hope everyone had a great fourth of July. Oh how the time is flying and now I only have 5 more days here in the MTC. I'm so excited. Today while I was getting my shot I ran into a guy from Santiago and he just told me how I'm going to love the people.

So on Thursday I got my flight plans for where I'm going. i'm one of the lucky ones who doesn't have to leave in the morning. My companions and I leave the SLC airport around 3:30, Land in Dallas around 6:30 and then leave Dallas around 9:30PM and land in Santiago around 8:30AM It's going to be a long day but I'm anticipating it.

Most of my 4th of July was pretty much the same. Just normal teaching like always, but at the end we had a little production about America and how God made it possible for us to establish the church here in this land. It was so cheesy. The special effect were not that special and I spent almost half the movie laughing. That's okay. It had a lot of good information though. Afterwards they let us go outside and watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks from the MTC. That was pretty fun.

So this week is called our teaching week where we only have two hours of class and the rest is spent teaching the gospel. Kinda getting us in the mood for how it's really going to be like in the field. I am humble though knowing that I'm going to know diddly squat once I get there...

This past week we've had fun scaring each other. Elder Wilson hid in Elder Ray's closet the other day and scared him. We took one of the poppers Dani gave me for the 4th and we popped it next to Elder Moore who freaked cause he didn't know what was going on. It's just been a fun week. I'm going to miss this district.

Some things I've learned this week as a missionary:

I dislike big people. Now I'm not singling out fat people... wait... I dislike clumsy people that's how I should say it. There are so many tall/fat/clumsy missionaries who just don't know how to walk and don't know how wide their shoulders are. I can't count the number of times I'll just be walking and a guy just runs into me. C'mon.

As far as doctrine goes... I have learned from one of the teachers that you don't have to teach all of the doctrine in order for an investigator to progress in the gospel. I used to get anxious when we didn't start talking about the gospel soon. He helped me realize to just be a pal to them. He said, "Do your investigators need to know what an apostasy is in order to get baptized" obviously no, and he said, "but they do need to be reading, praying, and going to church. So focus on that." Which is true

Well that's it for this week. Until Chile!

Oh yeah my Chile addresses:

For packages send them to the mission office:

Elder Samuel James Yoshida
Chile Rancagua Mission
German Riesco 230 Suite 730
Rancagua
Chile

For pouch (which is single sheeted letters, folded into three-panels, and taped at the top NO ENVELOPES)

Elder Samuel James Yoshida
Chile Rancagua Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150
USA

That is how DearElders will work. Write the DearElder and then they'll put it in the pouch and send it to me, which will take forever and cost money. So just e-mail me after July 13th... it will be much easier.

I love you guys
Vive la Chile
Elder Yoshida

An amazing week!

Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009

I got a bunch of things to tell you so look out, here we go.

Last week's P-Day was fun. After I e-mailed you folk I got to go to the Provo temple and clean. It was so fun. I never thought I would say this, but I actually enjoyed the service. I don't know why, because I got stuck cleaning the grease vents in the cafeteria. Oh man, good times. Brought me back to the good ole KFC days when I had to clean those stupid vents above the fryers as well. Zach you know what I'm talking about. But then I got to go clean the baptismal font. That was fun. I didn't know that vinegar is a main cleaning surprise. Let's just say I almost died from inhaling too much vinegar haha.

MICHAEL JACKSON IS DEAD? wow! What's up with that? I guess you can say that's the first major event that has happened while I've been gone. Interesting... I heard he was just barely becoming big in Europe. I almost feel for the guy. But what do I know. He's dead now.

So my mission president went to Japan on his mission and he comes storming in to the chapel before priesthood meeting and starts writing some symbols on the sign and looks straight at me. I'm say, "what is that?" and he says, "It's you. This is the Kanji for Yoshida" I was like whoa! that's intense. I ask, "What does it mean?" He gets a huge smile and says, "This symbol means the mouth of the samurai. And this symbol means a field. So you are going to the field to teach the mouth of the Samurai" How cool is that? It's like the perfect missionary last name and I didn't even know it. Maybe I'll have to draw it in my next letters so you can see what it looks like.

Friday's devotional was amazing. We were all anticipating to hear from the first presidency, but none of them showed up, but that's okay. Elders Perry, Oaks, Holland, Bednar, Cook, Christofferson, and Anderson were all there. It was so sweet. Elder Holland spoke to us and we all know how his talks are. Especially on missionary work.

On Sunday we had sacrament meeting with a big group. After sacrament meeting we were making our way back to a classroom to have our district meeting. We spotted a few missionaries congregating around something so we walk over there and sure enough President Monson and President Eyring were just standing out there in the front just chilling. I was literally only 10 ft away from them as they spoke about their Spanish stories. It was so awesome. I was sad we couldn't shake their hands, but just seeing them was amazing. It turns out that Every member of the first presidency and quorum of the 12 except Packer were in a sacrament meeting. A guy in our zone actually got to pass it to Monson. Lucky kid!

So this shows you how immature I am as a missionary. Elder Wilson and I have found these cool looking bugs and everytime we see them we flip them over on their back and make fun of them. Well we were getting ready to take a picture with our camera when all the sudden it started flying at us. Me and Elder Wilson freaked and were screaming, "OH MAN WE'RE TOAST!" haha Everyone around us was looking at us like we were queers but that's okay. You gotta have some fun here.

Yesterday's devotional was fun. Gerald N Lund talked to us. If you don't know who he is he's the dude who wrote the Works and the Glory books. He was so awesome. He taught me an awesome lesson that may help the other missionaries out there. He said, "when an appointment falls through, immediately find someone to teach, because that might be the Lord putting someone else in your path at that exact time." He then talked about many miracles that happened of conversions that took place when other appointments fell through.

That's it for this week. People... 12 days left. So if you ever thought, "maybe I'll send Elder Yoshida something :)" you might want to get on it. Haven't heard anything from any of my friends in a week. Grr. That's okay though. The work is great and I'm sure you're all busy. I'm not sure how Dear Elders work. I think they print them out in Salt Lake and then they have to send them to Chile so It will still probably take just as long now. Anywho's I love you all. Sorry it's so long. Take care.

Hola

Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2009

I'm going to have to apologize before hand to everyone out there. Nothing exciting happened this week and I really don't have anything to write about. All the missionaries here are getting antsy for today and the rest of the weekend. As Braden discussed about getting a new president this week we get all of them! That's right, over 120 mission presidents are coming today to get the training they need. I don't know if Elder Hellewell knows him yet, but I've seen pictures of him. Although I can't remember the name. But anywho, because all these dudes are coming this weekend, we are going to have general authorities walking around left and right. Apostles, seventy, you name it. Instead of having our devotional on Tuesday we are having it on Friday, and we are expected to have one of the members of the first presidency speak. It is so awesome. I can't wait.

The language is coming great. Last week we taught the first lesson in Spanish for the first time. It was pretty hard. All we have left to learn is past subjunctive and then its just a matter of getting fluent at it.

The time is ticking down here in the MTC. We are now the oldest district in our zone. 19 more days til Chile.

Love you all
Elder Yoshida

Hey Everyone!

Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009

Another week gone by, and another week I'm getting closer to blowing this joint. Being a missionary is great, and this week flew. I don't have as many experiences to write, but I will try to entertain you.

I'll start with a Spanish lesson. NEVER DESCRIBE SOMEONE AS CALIENTE. Many high school teens will say "that girl es muy caliente" thinking they're saying she's very hot. No way. In Spanish, when you describe "someone" as being caliente. You're actually saying that they are very willing to... well the slang term is a 5 letter word that starts with an "h" hopefully you get my drift.

I'd like to give a shout out to my step sister Liz. Happy Birthday! and hope all is well.

Funny story: so last P-Day we were doing laundry, and I returned to my room. There's this awesome elder in my district, Elder Wilson, who I've become pretty close with. He dared me to jump a whole flight of stairs. I was like, "dude I got this" So I jumped, and cleared the stairs, however I did not give myself enough room to catch my self and bashed my head into the brick wall in front of me. I think I knocked myself out for about five seconds. It was funny, but very stupid as a missionary. I learned a valuable lesson there. :)

The TRC is a place in the MTC where you teach volunteers in real life situations. We go to the TRC once a week and boy does it get intense. The only thing I can compare it to is when I would get ready for a football game.

Sorry there's not more to write about. The week just flew by this time with not much going on. We're getting new zone leaders this week. It'll be interesting to see who it is. I love you all and thank you for your support.

Elder Yoshida

Almost Halfway!

Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009

So I got to thinking today that in 3 days I will be halfway through my stay at the MTC. That's so crazy to think about. And then I'm 6,000 miles away. Kinda crazy if you ask me.

Not too much has happened this week. There are still some people getting sick, but for the majority of it it has died down. Until yesterday. Now I'm starting to get neck aches and congested sinuses. It sucks! I'm still good to go when I take some medicine, but not being 100% is a bummer.

Elder Ray is feeling better. This kid had everything but the flu that was going on. He had the flu at first but got better, then coughed for a week straight, got an ear infection, and then got pink eye. He is our sick mascot, but I think he's finally back to normal.

Funny story that happened to Elder Williams a couple weeks ago. As he was getting out of the shower one day some zone leader on the other side of the hall thought it would be funny to fill his garbage can with water and splash it all over him. Elder Williams got soaked. We found out who it was, and made him apologize. He had to beg our zone leaders not to report him, because they don't tolerate pranks here, and there would have been a good chance that he could have been sent home. Our zone leaders confided and the kid is lucky, for now. If it was me I would have told, but hey that's why I'm not zone leader right?

Speaking of going home something sad happened this past week. One of our zone leaders, Elder Cheesman was sent home today, because he was so sick. It was sad to see him leave, but there is a chance he can come back. I sure hope he feels better.

One thing I've learned from a mission, and I feel every young man should know. SCRIPTURE INSERTS ARE USELESS. You know those things you get in seminary where you glue the paper and then glue it into your scriptures. My advice is to not do it. All they do is flip pages when you don't want them to, and they just get in the way. I tore all of mine out, because they bothered me so much. Save yourself the trouble.

It's funny how things can be called different names. Since we can't play basketball "games" we basically resort to playing Lightning. But not very many people call it lightning. I've heard it been called "knock-out" "twister" and "speed" crazy huh? Oh and another thing. I think its only an Idaho thing but people call spinning in your car donuts. I call them cookies, but donuts do make more sense. I still prefer saying cookies though.

Thank you Uncle Kendall and Aunt Anne for the package. I didn't think you would actually send Dew. I love the package, and my companions love it too :)

For the grand finale we had an awesome experience yesterday. For our devotional we had David A. Bednar come and speak to us. It was so amazing, and I hope Braden, Kyler, and Shayne, read this. Elder Bednar said, "the most common question asked to me by missionaries is, 'How do I know when it's me or the Holy Ghost prompting me' My answer is, 'Don't worry about it. Press forward with faith, be a good boy, keep your covenants, and keep the commandments, and your steps will be guided" Wow that's awesome. So don't just sit around waiting for the Holy Ghost to bash you over the head with revelation. He related three stories of where he did things without even thinking about it, and not realizing it was the Holy Ghost til after he did it. I loved it so much and I wish I could share more, but I'm afraid I would be repeating myself, but remember, (this even can apply to you at home) Don't be searching for the spirit to guide you. "Be a good boy, be a good girl, keep your covenants, and keep the commandments, and your steps will be guided."

I love you all!
Elder Yoshida

I Am Legend

Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009

Day 21

Today has been the first time in four days that I've been out of the residence halls for longer than 3 hours. Things are getting pretty crazy here. The swine flu/regular flu has hit the MTC hard. I don't know how much longer I have until I'm the last one left. Around 60 elders have already had to be put into quarantine (solitary confinement with other sick elders). I don't know what is going on in there but I can only expect the worst. and I'm safe to say that at least 40% of the elders have been hit with some sort of sickness. It's only a matter of time before the MTC turns into a place full of Missionary Mutants and a movie called I am Legend 2 will be coming to a theatre near you.

There's my story for the week. It's all true too. Things are getting pretty crazy, and I've been blessed to not be getting this sickness that's going around. Missionaries are not allowed to leave the MTC until at least June 13th. New missionaries coming in only get to have their parents drop them off on the side of the sidewalk, and that's there goodbyes. Kind of sad, but that's how bad it's getting here. I think they have a thing on LDS.org about it all. No one be worried though. This will all blow over. I just wanted to make a joke of it all. I'm perfectly fine (knock on wood) I say I've been stuck in the residence halls because my companion has been sick and we've had to stay behind with hi. It's pretty cool.

Congratulations Elder Hellewell on a successful mission. I actually have two missionaries in my zone that were supposed to leave yesterday to the Mesa spanish speaking mission, but can't leave because of the sickness.

The gym is finally fixed and I've been loving it. It's fun to play basketball with the other elders, but two days ago they cancelled playing basketball because it's a "contact sport" and they don't want people getting sick. Yeah crazy I know.

Funny experience. I go to the temples on Wednesday after I e-mail. Last week I went to the temple and after I had received my name I was waiting for my companion. There was an old guy waiting at the bottom of the stairs making sure we all had names. He told me to go on upstairs to the chapel. I told him, "Oh, I have to wait for my companion." and he said, "go on upstairs." and I said "my companion's just back there" and then the dude yelled "GO UPSTAIRS" I couldn't help but laugh. An old guy in the temple yelled at me :( It's okay. he's old so I didn't frown on it too much. It was still pretty funny.

One of my favorite things about this place is how everything here is so cheap. In the bookstore everything in here is like 40% off for missionaries. I get bags of candy for like 40 cents, but hey still send me more cause I love candy. I could seriously get the quad scriptures for $30. Pretty nifty if you ask me.

Sorry this letter isn't very long, and I hope everyone is doing well. I'm loving the work and can't wait to get out in the field. It's crazy to think I'm already a third of the way through my stay at the MTC.

Yo Amo Ustedes.
Elder Yoshida

First Week in Pictures

Sam sent us these pictures from his first week in the MTC. Enjoy!

"This is the pic I took of Kate in the explorer."

"Mis companeros at the map."

"Our district minus two.
Top elders: Ray, Crabb, Beckstead, Williams, Moore, and Willie
Kneeling: me, Burton, and Mitchell"

"Elder Yoshida and Elder (Tyler) Owens"

"Williams B-day party.
Top: Mitchell, Burton, Willie
Middle: Beckstead, Crabb, Wendt, Wilson, Williams, Moore
Bottom: Ray"

"My companions at the MTC sign"