Hola todos

Hola Familia!
Sorry about the lack of spacing of paragraphs and if there are any double periods, the computers here are so dumb. Anyways, this past week was amazing! On Sabado (Saturday) I was able to see Mom and Dad get set apart by Elder Anderson and Elder Costa. It was an amazing experience and the first time that I can remember meeting an Apostle. It was also really good to see Rachel. I love you Rach! I hope you are doing well. As well, it was nice to see the grandparents and Kent and Deanna. I miss you all, but we're all going to be so blessed for all the service we are doing for the Lord. Serving a mission is less of a sacrifice than it is a blessing and an opportunity. I am so privileged that I get to literally put the name of Christ on my chest everyday. I can't wait to get out and share this great message of happiness with everyone I can. Less than 2 weeks! Now if only we could get our main progressive investigator here to commit to baptism.. Haha. Anyways, more about my week. On Sunday Elder Hunt (My companion if you forget) and I were invited weeks in advance to pass the Sacrament in the special Sacrament meeting for the mission presidents. 10 of the 12 were there and the first presidency as well as pretty much every other General authority. It was awesome. President Monson talked about motivating missionaries so it was really interesting and inspiring. Then that night we had a fireside where the head honcho at the missionary department spoke.. It was awesome. He showed us what the new mormon.org

is going to look like in about 5-6 days from today, and it is going to be amazing. You should all check in on it during the next week or so.... And also create a profile, I made one :) He also announced the District 2, just a camera crew following around missssssssiiiioooonnnnaaaarrrriiiieeeessss ((((sssseeeeeeee hhhhoooowwww stupid the computers are? It keeps doing that every minute or so and it logged me out 4x so ffffaaaarrrr.... ssssoooo dddduuuummmmbbbb) it took place in San Diego. It was cool to watch, and I liiiikkkkeeeedddd iiiitttt bbbbeeeetttttttteeeerrrr tttthhhhaaaannnn wwwwaaaattttcccchhhhing the District 1 with Mom and Dad.. haha.. They said we're going to watch more of it out in the field so that should be interesting.. The Church is changing with technology and I think it is awesome! Yup.. AAAAnnnnyyyywwwwaaaayyyyssss lllloooovvvveeeedddd tttthhhhiiiissss ppppaaaasssstttt week.. Only one more pppp ddddaaaayyyy left in the MTC!!!!!!!! :) IIII lllloooovvvveeee yyyyoooouuuu all so very much.. :) Thank you for your words of encouragement.. The Gospel iiiissss ttttrrrruuuueeee.. God loves us more than we know, and so does our Redeemer. I love you all! Talk to you next week!

My general life in the MTC.... :)

Hello friends, family, and acquaintances! Today i am using a ridiculous computer where I cannot use the enter button and when i use the period it always makes 2.. haha.. yup.. anyways.... I am doing well here in the MTC as usual.. This week is pretty crazy with all the mission presidents coming and especially my parents coming.... Things going on this week- 1.. today cleaning the temple for 3..5 hours, should be neat 2.. Going to my parent's setting apart on Saturday 3.. Passing the Sacrament in the special Sacrament for the mission presidents where all the General Authorities except 2 of the 12 will be in attendance.. Should be way awesome.. I am striving to keep working hard here in the MTC and this past week was the 1st week we taught in all Spanish.. It is difficult, but it is possible.... I only have 2 more p days after today til I'll have the next one in Argentina!!!! :))))) Yeah, I'm really excited.. This past week Tyler Coutu came into the MTC! My best bud from school that got called to Provo?? Yeah, he got switched to Provo Spanish speaking just a few days before coming here.. so crazy.. It is good to have another friend here.. I have a few and it is awesome to see them.. For example i see Jared Romney every once in a while.. It's cool.. Oh yeah! This past week me and my companion, Elder Hunt, had a competition with our other 2 roommates (elders smith and allan) to see if my companionship could lose more weight than they could gain.. Yup.. We won.. I lost 3..5ish and my comp lost 2ish.. Haha.. Then one of them gained 3 and the other lost 3 haha.. Oh also.. happy fathers day dad! totally spaced it.. haha time flies.. sorry if i forget to say happy birthday or something in these letters, I don't even know when holidays are.. haha.... Anyways.. I'm learning lots here in the MTC and we've learned all the main concepts of Spanish so now I just have to get them all down pact with a decent vocabulary while we learn the little nuances.. It's fun.. Too bad the gym is closed for the next few days...... pretty sure my ballin skills are improving.. haha.. yup.. well don't know what else to say and the little red timer is blinking like a crazy person.. I love you all! I am so happy I'm out doing exactly what the Lord would have me do! It's been an awesome experience here so far and i know it will only get better as I go out into the field and start help bringing change and peace to people's lives.. This is an amazing work! I'm happy to welcome mom and dad to it.... They already do a great job of living the Gospel and it will be natural for them to be the Mission President.. Awesome.. Love you all.. Love my life.. Life is good.. :)

A Ustedes

Yo what up familia?? It's just a good ole party here in the MTC, kinda like groundhog day, but with basketball every day. Pretty sure my skills are increasing. Haha. Uh... Elder Hunt (my companion) and I have just started a weight competition with our roomies (elder allan and elder smith). The competition is for my companionship to lose more weight than the other companionship can gain. hahaha. Elder hunt and i have been jump roping every night, pretty tiring. yup. fun fun. Haha.

Sounds like things are pretty crazy back home. Thank goodness the ward is helping you out so much. I'm pumped to see mom and dad for their setting apart. Should be an awesome experience. Elder hunt and i also received news that we are going to be able to pass the Sacrament in the special Sacrament for the mission presidents. :) All or most of the general authorities should be there.

Uh stuff that happened during the past week.... Our oldest District (that had the Zone leaders) left for their missions. It was crazy. Elder To'a and Elder Kleinman are the new Zone leaders. They're cool. Yup yup. I don't know what else has happened. Like i said it is like groundhog day over and over haha. It is good though. I am anxious to get out to the real world though. You can only role play teach so much... Haha. Oh! I know! My buddy Tyler Coutu is coming in today! So is Adam Paulsen and a few others. Should be good. I think Tyler got switched to Spanish cuz I looked at his bag full of stuff and it said Beg - Span. haha. I might be able to see him more if he is going to be speaking spanish. Um... yeah. Not much else going on.

Uh. Nicole! Crazy you are flying to China on Friday. You're gonna love it. Just keep your chin up and remember who you are. :) Rachel, I hope you are ready to turn the house into a party house! Haha. No just kidding. Haha. Nate! Hope your move goes well. I look forward to you picking me up from the airport in a couple. haha. Josh! Mercedes sounds like she is doing great! That's awesome she is a crawling machine. She is going to be a talking machine next time I see her. haha. Cool.

Well I just want you all to know that I know that this Gospel is true. Joseph Smith was a prophet and he did see God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. It is awesome being here and having so much time to get to know my Savior so much better. I am reading Jesus the Christ like a mad man and I love it! It is awesome to learn more. I love reading the Book of Mormon. I hope you are all studying it everyday, because it is so helpful. :) I love you all so much. Thanks for being such great examples.

Time Is Flying By

Hey family! Friends! Acquaintances! (is that right? my english is degrading...) I miss you all dearly. My stay here in the MTC is becoming a blur. Haha. So weird. I've been here 3 weeks now so next week will be pretty much the half way mark.

The Spanish is going well, but I am finally feeling a little bit behind what we are learning. Overall my Spanish is pretty decent though. Yo se que el evangelio es verdadero. Haha. Yup.

Um.... this week.... I really like the devotional last night, it was about trials and prayer from a member of the 2nd quorum of 70. Nothing else really exciting has happened I guess. I think I talked about the Atonement in my last letter a little. I feel like we've been focusing on that a lot lately and I'm learning so much. I've also started reading Jesus the Christ. Everyone should read that book. It is amazing and I love reading it. Maybe it is cuz I am a missionary, but I think everyone should read it. Haha.

My favorite thing about being here is having so much time to read the Book of Mormon. I've never been great at reading it consistently so it is really nice to have time that I can read it for at least 30 minutes every day. So far I've read all of 3rd Nephi and now I started over so I am almost to 2nd Nephi. Love it. I wish I would have focused a lot more on the gospel before my mission, just in general, because it is so good and it makes me so happy. I love being able to go to the temple once a week.

My District is doing pretty decent. We have a couple hooligans, but I think they're slowly getting better. I've learned a lot of patience in dealing with that. Haha. I might get released this week or in a week or two. Depends on if the President thinks we need a total of 3 district leaders or 2. So far I think we're only going to have 2. But I'll have to let you know next week.

Trials do make us stronger. I know they do. I had to go through a lot to get here, but I know it was all to improve my ability as a missionary. It is interesting to look back and see how the Lord has blessed me, so my challenge for myself and for anyone reading this is to recognize how the Lord is blessing us when we receive it, and not wait til later to realize. He really does bless us so much. Also, if you can do one thing for me it would be to read the Book of Mormon. Try to spend 30 minutes a day because it makes so much more sense that way. Do it! Haha. I love it and so will you.

Family, I miss you a lot. Thanks for all you have always done for me. I am sad I don't get to see Owen for 2 years, but it was nice to get that picture of him, and Nate attached pictures in his email so it was nice. I hope you are all doing well, and I want you to know I am doing more than well.

The Gospel is true and my email time is less that one minute!

I love you!!!

Elder Zachary John Trayner