Conference in the MTC - April 1, 2017

We are alll sitting in the gym that has been converted to a stadium style event for watching conference. We have the lovely opportunity to sit on nice and hard plastic chairs for a good ten hours over these next two days. I miss my red couch a lot.

Week 6 (My Final Full Week at the MTC!) - April 1, 2017

Hey Guys!

So this week we did a ton of stuff! Well as much as you can do sitting in a compound 24/7, but hey we are figuring out things to do! Also as the title suggests, I leave next Wednesday morning for Las Vegas! I'm ecstatic. It's going to be so cool actually being there and teaching real people and not understanding a word that they say. Also it will be super hot, but that's okay!

Anyways Sunday we sang our goodbye song like every district does the Sunday before they leave (Ours was a Sunday earlier because General Conference is this weekend) and I totally forgot the song we sang, but part of it was in Spanish and that was the most important part. After we had our temple walk and I got a sick selfie with our Branch President (The sorta leader guy over our zone), President Jeffs. He is a lawyer, but he is a cool lawyer, so it's all cool if you talk to him and you don't have to worry about getting sued by him. At least that's the conclusion so far. More test are needed.

A few weeks ago we got our travel plans for Las Vegas and there are 8 people total in our group that are going to Las Vegas. Three of us are in the same district, so we were very curious who the other five were.

On Monday while heading back to our residence we met a few guys who are going to the Reno Nevada Mission. We told them that we are going to the Las Vegas mission. We were then quite surprised when they told us that they have five sisters in their district who are going to Las Vegas Nevada the next week! We had found the other five! Well sort of...But not really. The Elders told us that the other five had been looking for us because they wanted to meet up and see who the other people going to Las Vegas with them were. We exchanged classroom numbers and said that we would stop by later to meet them. No one was there when we stopped by after gym time. Nor were they there a few days later. We quickly lost hope.

On Tuesday we had our devotional and a member of the Seventy talked to us. He is giving a talk in General Conference on Sunday. His name is Elder Palmer, so definitely watch out for him. He gave a really good talk. I enjoyed that a lot.

On Wednesday we got a new district of five people. 3 Elders and 2 Sisters. We later introduced the Elders to the wonderful game of Pencils (or Spoons, whichever you prefer) and explained our ways of life and the monarchy system which we would like to establish in our zone with Kings, Lords, and lowly peasants. They were very disappointed to find out they they would start at the bottom as farmers and with time they might be able to work their way up to baker or even a blacksmith. We have yet to instate this new system.

Thursday we had our last class with Hermano Hunsaker. He is the mysterious teacher who started out as Michael and turned into Adriano. We have yet to find out his real identity. We got a sick picture afterwards.

Friday we had In-Field orientation. It is a last minute event to teacher all the departing missions some stuff that they should know before they leave. I have forgotten everything they said.

During the orientation Elders Gerber and West were meeting a lot of people who are going with them to Ohio next week. I quickly realized that maybe those five Sisters were in that same room with us. I announced a bit loudly to my companion, Elder Wardell, "Maybe those five Sisters that are going to Las Vegas with us are her.". Then we watched as a girl sitting in front of us turned to her companion and asked, "Did you here what that guy just said?". Five girls sitting in front of us all turned around in unison. We had found them!! We quickly introduced ourselves and started talking about the mad search that had taken place that week between all of eight of us in hopes of finding the missing half. We were then separated into rooms and decided to eat dinner together. So after orientation that is what we did. They all were super cool and it was sick getting to know other people that we will be with for the next two years. Also definitely a 10/10 story.

Later that night we had our last class as an entire district with Hermana Peacock. Also another sad class, but we did get a picture with her as well!

It was a super fun week and I'm really sad to have to say goodbye to half my district on Monday and then the rest on Tuesday and sometime Wednesday. They have all quickly become some of my best friends. It's going to suck, but they will do great in the places that they go too.

I'm really excited for this next week and all that will happen. Also my P-day will change when I arrive in Las Vegas, so my emails will most likely be on Monday. Which is great because by my next email I'll be in Sin City!!!!!!

I hope everyone is doing great!

Elder Lawson

Week 5 - March 25, 2017

Hola Everyone!

 This week started out good, with Sunday, like it does every week(well unless you recognize Sunday as the last day of the week). We had our usual Sunday church meetings and our last temple walk with our favorite district. All of them left for Argentina Monday morning. Later that night we had our Sunday devotional which was good.

But it got better on Monday Morning. When we consuela-ed the top two floors of our residence building. It was the parting gift of the Argentina district. It was sooo funny! Then of course Monday morning was sad saying goodbye to everyone as they departed for the mystery land of South America. There was lots of crying. Then our zone went from 22 people to 14. It is a very lonely zone now.

Tuesday we had our other weekly devotional and Elder Zwick, one of the LDS "General Authorities" (Kinda like a Catholic Cardinal, but not really), came and spoke and did a phenomenal job. He has given talks in General Conference before. General Conference is where we spend two weekends out of the year watching the General Authorities speak to the entire Mormon church about family, gospel, and Book of Mormon topics. I highly recommend that everyone looks up Elder Zwicks latest conference talk from 2014. Es diez de diez (10/10). You can find it online.

Wednesday we taught Gabby and we talked about a few of the commandments and what has to be done in order to prepare for baptism.

Thursday I stayed up very late talking to Elder Gerber and Elder Fine about comic books and comic book related topics. That was a very buena noche.

Friday was great! We taught Gabby for the last time about more commandments and it was super disappointing that we wouldn't see her again, but I think we might see her next week just to take a picture with her for memories sake. Then later in the day we got our flight plans for April 5th! I will then leave the MTC and Provo and finally fly out to Las Vegas at about 8:30 that morning! Im so excited for thatbut not the waking up at 3:00 in the morning part. The best part of the day was when Elder Bishop (The whitest and most socially awkward kid in our zone) rapped the Joseph Smith's First Vision in Spanish later that night. It was jaw-dropping. Definitely one of the highlights of the week.

My district is super excited to go to our actual fields and actually start teaching!

Also my hair has grown back slightly.

So the Faux Hawk has made a return.

Anyways I'm still super excited to be here and learning Spanish and preparing to actually go and teach people! I'll tell more next week about whats happening with leaving and such!

Until then!
Elder Lawson

P.s. The pictures are of me this morning at the temple, two reference photos of my hair last week and then of my hair today, and of our zone (Pre-Argentina District leaving) from last Sunday, and finally on Monday when Elder Fine stole the Rey de Tostar Crown from me (Roast King(For whoever roasts someone the best)). An honorary title.

Pictures and a video - March 18, 2017

Also here are some from our temple walk two weeks ago​








Here is what I did Tuesday Night​:

Week 4 - March 18, 2017

Hola!

So this week was just like every other week so far. I woke up at promptly 6:30 AM and went on my merry way to my classes and then to eat and then back to class and more class and more class and Spanish and Spanish and más Español. But at 2:30 we have gym time! That is probably my favorite part of the day. We get to play Volleyball and not to be prideful or anything...But I´m pretty much a pro when it comes to spiking the ball and such

We taught our investigator, Gabby, again yesterday with another church member. This member was this little old lady, Sister Willie, who is like the most adorable old lady ever. She has been on 8 missions and her husband was the president of the Mexico City MTC for three years. Sadly he passed away six years ago. We talked to Gabby about temples and the point of temples and the things we do in them. Sister Willie was such a huge help explaining to Gabby the things that we did´nt know how to say in Spanish.

This past week one of our districts in our zone left and this upcoming week another district is leaving. When I first arrived our zone had 45 people in it. After Monday morning we will have 14. And it is rumored that we will not have a new district arrive this week. Not that I don´t mind not having to constantly wait for a shower each morning, but a small zone is just muy abburido (very boring).

Next Wednesday will make it 2 weeks until I arrive in the mission field. The ¨field¨ is my actual mission of Nevada Las Vegas. I´m super excited for that!

Anyways, this week wasn´t filled with too many shareable stories, but we did get some sick pictures this morning in front of the BYU Y and the MTC. Also some ducks. And then I got my haircut. And now I´m practically bald. Es no bueno, perro! It should grow back soon!

Until next week!

Elder Lawson

P.s. Here is another picture of my District from a few weeks ago 

(in order of left to right, Elders West, Gerber, Dillender, Pyle, Wardell, Baird, Me, and Fine)

Here is what I did Tuesday Night​

Week 3 - March 11, 2017

Hola Amigos,

This week has been super interesting. On P-day Adam (Thursday), our district learned of Vin Dap Oop and how the airline Delta is controlling everything at the MTC and there is nothing beyondthe great Provo Mountains, but the wall of the snowglobe that we apperently live in. We had been waiting two weeks to learn this zone "secret". And then on P-day Eve (Friday)(Also Wednesday is considered P-day Michael) I officially joined the crowd and participated in Consuela-ing the new district we got this week. Consuela is the mythical latina cleaning lady who leaves vacuums in your room at night if you are new to the zone and have a dirty room. Now yes I may be sleep deprived from waking up at 2 AM, but it was so very worth it.

(BTW P-day means preparation day and it's like our day off to email and such)

This morning like every P-day our zone went to the temple, which is a three minute walk away, and had a great time there as usual.

On Monday we started teaching a new investigator. Her name is Gabby and she is studying English, Portuguese, and Italian at BYU. She is from Peru. Our lessons have been going great and on Friday we were joined by a church member just to see how lessons about the church can improve with other local church members there. The guy that joined us was Aaron. He is a Chemical Engineer, so in turn he had no social skills whatsoever, but it all worked out tremendously well! 

The Spanish is slowly improving moreand more each day. It mainly dependson if I'm in the mood to intently focus and try to understand our teachers and what they say or just daydream. Teaching in Spanish is super cool though because I'm terrible, yet in the moment my Spanish skills improve tenfold from blessings from the Lord and such and it all worksout swell.

It insane how knowledgeable about church stuff I have become compared to the 3 weeks ago when I thought I knew a lot, but really didn't. My testimony of the church and gospel topics has grown a ton.

I'm super excited to see what happens this week.

Elder Lawson

P.s. here are some pictures of me and my companion and my district

Week 2 - March 4, 2017

So the story starts like this

It's Friday morning. 2:30 AM. Everyone in my district are all sound asleep in our rooms (Four people to a room). When suddenly! Everyone is jolted awake by the white noise of 12 billion vacuum cleaners igniting to life! And then everyone flipped out because why are there vacuums in our rooms? Why are they on? How did they even get put there when we all have locks on our bedroom doors? Well it starts like this...

During our daily gym time, we are required to put our name tags and keys and things in these little slots so that they don't get lost. It turns out that while everyone was away working out a few of the missionaries from our zone (Our zone is made up of three districts and we do everything with either our zone or district (sixteen total people in our zone)) were going through our stuff and taking a key for each of the two rooms that we share. Coincidentally a few people complained about having lost their key to the room later that day. Fast forward until 2:25 AM and the other districts were up using the keys they took to place vacuums in each of our rooms and out in the hallways. Finally with a well timed plugging in of all the vacuums our entire district was awoken to vacuums "vrooming" very loudly in a small area.

I did not fall back asleep for about an hour

Other than that this week has consisted of waking up at 6:30 in the morning and sitting in hours of Spanish classes, gospesl doctrine classes(in Spanish), and más studying. Of course with our regularly timed weight lifting sessions and eating a lot of food.

Our district has a great time discussing church topics and non-church topics such as The Office, Spongebob Squarepants, Nacho Libre, and other miscellaneous things to keep us from focusing on studying! We get along swimmingly though!

Anyways within the first week my Spanish is pretty much on par with how it was at the end of my 2 school years of Spanish class. And I have learned a lot more about scriptual and gospel things that come from studying that stuff all day.

The MTC life has been lots of studying, pranks, quotes from movies and TV shows, and teaching fake investigators.

Until next week!

Elder Lawson

P.s. sorry if it takes me a while to respond to any emails that you have sent me. My typing skills are a bit subpar and we don't have too much time on the computers here.