Subject: Downhill from here!
¡Es muy loco pensar que ya estoy pasado la media de mi tiempo aquí! Todas cosas estan bien y los distritos nuevos han cabido bien tambien.
Pretty much things are rolling along at the same pace here, and that pace is very very very fast it seems, at least as far as weeks are concerned. No new district this week so I don't have to be trangling them all around town while trying to keep up me studies and other duties of organizing church.
Sadly, the temple was closed today due to it being Labor day and all such things, so I did not get that lovely blessing. Fast sunday was great however, we had mission conference which was very neat, we heard from all the MTC presidents and their wives. These meetings go by very quickly when you're paying attention and taking notes, etc. The two hours were up far before I thought they would be. As of last or... maybe two weeks ago we are now the 2nd most senior district in the zone! ¡Oy! ¿Tiempo pasa tan rapido, a cierto?
The Church is true. Yes, yes it is. Verily. I keep geeking out about that at times, and get some fun responses. A few of my ward members from BYU have trangled their way into my same building for classes, so we run into each other a lot. We started an interesting exercise this week, practicing teaching investigators as though they are real people. I.E., fill out a teaching record of someone I know (Nick Grossaint) and ask someone else to be him after I give a bunch of characteristics etc. With the help of the Spirit, inspiration comes to ways that that person can be helped to understand the Gospel and come to Christ. It makes the "exercise" a lot more real, especially since it's to be done as a progressing investigator, with follow-ups, etc.
Our district has bonded together very tightly, had many a Spiritual experience. Thank goodness for the Holy Ghost and our fantastic teacher Hna. Scaife!
At the fireside last night Steven Graham spoke about how a Soviet ambassador came for a "15 minute"stay at the MTC and was shown to one of the Russian classes. He came out an hour and 15 minutes later with tears in his eyes and exclaimed "This is the REAL United Nations!" The Gospel is true, and living it blesses the people of the Earth in all ways. I haven't much more time, so I shall bid thee all adieu! I love you all!
Elder Kent Pimentel
Thursday, September 10, 2009
From Kent 8/31
Subject: A cerca de media (Close to the middle)
Howdy flammy!!
We are approaching the midway point of our stay at the MTC, it's quite possibly the most bizarre thing in the world to realize we don't have that much more time here. Truly we require the Lord's assistance in all things.
So we greeted, oriented, welcomed, etc. the new district that came in on Wednesday, it was much fun and much work. It's very different having a batch of Elders that don't know you as anyone other than "The Zone Leaders" whereas everyone else has a bit of that "They're some of those new missionaries" attitude still, but they're still good. Part of being the New Zone Leaders is we get the all-knowing binder passed down to us. I was flipping through a few pages of it and there were pictures of all the districts. First picture I saw was of District E which is leaving this week and had a lot of Elders leave earlier to other MTCs. Top left corner is a very bright grin of an Elder Hunter, Jordan Fife. Yup, Jordan and I were in the same Zone, but we never crossed paths because he had to trangle off to the other MTC. Pretty neat though, I was able to talk with a couple of the other Elders that knew him and talk about him.
Provo's been hopping since BYU starts today. BYU starting today has also caused a slew of hiccups among the staff here at the MTC, as all the teachers are required to be students of BYU. Thankfully we get to keep Hna. Scaife as a teacher, but sadly Hno. Harrington is being replaced by Hno. Jessen, who we don't really know that well, so we're hoping for the best.
Sunday came, had ten meetings to attend, more meetings on this day than the week my friend. There are no partings in Heaven, though I hope the meetings will end, life gets wearying, don't it. The meetings weren't as bad as all that though, they were nice. Just in great quantity. There was a bit of a fiasco getting Sacrament Meeting organized though, the leaving district hadn't had a chance to administer the Sacrament yet and really wanted to, so we had to change the program the night before and re-figure out who was doing what. District E (leaving) ended up doing EVERYTHING (oops) for the meeting, (opening and closing prayer, blessing and passing sacrament, pianist, musical number, and closing hymn). But it worked out in the end, so all is well!
Jon might remember the amazing devotional by Elder Holland I think they have every missionary watch, "The Miracle of a Mission." We watched it, and goodness gravy, Elder Holland epitomizes what it means to be "bold, yet not overbearing." Very powerful. We also had Richard G. Scott come for the Tuesday devotional, and he gave a truly amazing talk. Those kinds of talks just can't happen at General Conference or Youth Firesides. Very very spiritual, many sacred stories and some very neat apostollic (sp?) blessings. Yay for truth!
I'm truly learning more each day here, both about the Gospel and in Spanish. Purely amazing, the Spirit is very very strong. For yesterday's Fireside Robert Swenson, director of Missionary Services spoke, and the theme of his talk was "This is The Christ," James E. Faust's song. There was actually a video of some missionaries from earlier this summer singing it to new mission presidents, with a very prominently featured Alyson Harmon. The Church is true, and that's about the end of it.
Liz, you'll be happy to know that I am taking Brandon's advice and taking the work very and extremely seriously.
I hope things start working out better for y'all, it seems the autos have served their time. I pray for you all! The Church is True, Christ lives, Joseph Smith was a prophet, and the Book of Mormon is true. Amen and amen! Recognizing and following the Spirit is fantastic and amazing!
Love ya love ya! Less than three! (<3)
Elder Kent Pimentel.
Howdy flammy!!
We are approaching the midway point of our stay at the MTC, it's quite possibly the most bizarre thing in the world to realize we don't have that much more time here. Truly we require the Lord's assistance in all things.
So we greeted, oriented, welcomed, etc. the new district that came in on Wednesday, it was much fun and much work. It's very different having a batch of Elders that don't know you as anyone other than "The Zone Leaders" whereas everyone else has a bit of that "They're some of those new missionaries" attitude still, but they're still good. Part of being the New Zone Leaders is we get the all-knowing binder passed down to us. I was flipping through a few pages of it and there were pictures of all the districts. First picture I saw was of District E which is leaving this week and had a lot of Elders leave earlier to other MTCs. Top left corner is a very bright grin of an Elder Hunter, Jordan Fife. Yup, Jordan and I were in the same Zone, but we never crossed paths because he had to trangle off to the other MTC. Pretty neat though, I was able to talk with a couple of the other Elders that knew him and talk about him.
Provo's been hopping since BYU starts today. BYU starting today has also caused a slew of hiccups among the staff here at the MTC, as all the teachers are required to be students of BYU. Thankfully we get to keep Hna. Scaife as a teacher, but sadly Hno. Harrington is being replaced by Hno. Jessen, who we don't really know that well, so we're hoping for the best.
Sunday came, had ten meetings to attend, more meetings on this day than the week my friend. There are no partings in Heaven, though I hope the meetings will end, life gets wearying, don't it. The meetings weren't as bad as all that though, they were nice. Just in great quantity. There was a bit of a fiasco getting Sacrament Meeting organized though, the leaving district hadn't had a chance to administer the Sacrament yet and really wanted to, so we had to change the program the night before and re-figure out who was doing what. District E (leaving) ended up doing EVERYTHING (oops) for the meeting, (opening and closing prayer, blessing and passing sacrament, pianist, musical number, and closing hymn). But it worked out in the end, so all is well!
Jon might remember the amazing devotional by Elder Holland I think they have every missionary watch, "The Miracle of a Mission." We watched it, and goodness gravy, Elder Holland epitomizes what it means to be "bold, yet not overbearing." Very powerful. We also had Richard G. Scott come for the Tuesday devotional, and he gave a truly amazing talk. Those kinds of talks just can't happen at General Conference or Youth Firesides. Very very spiritual, many sacred stories and some very neat apostollic (sp?) blessings. Yay for truth!
I'm truly learning more each day here, both about the Gospel and in Spanish. Purely amazing, the Spirit is very very strong. For yesterday's Fireside Robert Swenson, director of Missionary Services spoke, and the theme of his talk was "This is The Christ," James E. Faust's song. There was actually a video of some missionaries from earlier this summer singing it to new mission presidents, with a very prominently featured Alyson Harmon. The Church is true, and that's about the end of it.
Liz, you'll be happy to know that I am taking Brandon's advice and taking the work very and extremely seriously.
I hope things start working out better for y'all, it seems the autos have served their time. I pray for you all! The Church is True, Christ lives, Joseph Smith was a prophet, and the Book of Mormon is true. Amen and amen! Recognizing and following the Spirit is fantastic and amazing!
Love ya love ya! Less than three! (<3)
Elder Kent Pimentel.
Monday, August 24, 2009
From Kent 8/24
Subject: He éxitomente hacido semana tres
Haaaalloooooooooooo (In the manner of a Jagular) Fambly!
Muchas grácias por el regalo que dáis! (Thank you very much for the package! I actually am only allowed to say dáis to family, otherwise it's strictly dan. Dáis is the informal second person plural, and missionaries are not to use the informal/intimate second person, unless in prayer.) I did enjoy it very much, and will continue to do so! Also, thank you very much for the addresses, I don't really have anybody's so that will be very nice.
Elder Dushku and I are officially Zone Leaders now! And we started our new leadershippery by finding out that they're changing the way new missionaries handle their first few days, and they're giving us a slew of new and more responsibilities. We take each new district our Branch/Zone gets and give them the tour of the MTC. We also help explain their schedule, give them the lowdown on culture and expectations at the MTC, teach them how to do Companionship Inventories, plan, so on and so forth. Every week. Well, every week that our branch gets new missionaries. We're pretty much the example missionaries, the presidency of the MTC can only say so many times how things are supposed to go, but once the greenies (kinder term than n00bs) see actual missionaries following it then they believe it.
We can't seem to keep our teachers for too long at a time, once Hna. Scaife came back Hno Harrington's Grandpa passed and he had to take the week of for family and funeral type things. We've been lucky to have one steady sub for him though, Hna. Beeston. She's been great, and she served her mission on Concepción as well. In her words, I don't know what cold is yet. Insulation apparently doesn't exist in buildings, and it's so wet and humid that it makes it worse no matter what temperature it is. So I took that as a yes, I probably will want some type thermal garcias.
We got to attend the Oquirhh Mountain Temple dedication, it was very very nice, strong Spirit. They closed the doors at 2:30 and just had silent meditation until it started at 3, which was very nice. Over the past few days my testimony of the Restored Gospel has grown a lot, primarily because of Temples and what happens in them. And we did some serious investigating of Facsimiles in Abraham, and Abraham in general, and it witnessed how authentic and pure The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is, God has restored in full the blessings of old. The verses to "The Spirit of God" have taken on new meaning, very neat.
We've had some excellent teaching experiences this week! In the T.A. (Volunteer scenarios) we taught an excellent lesson, very strong in the Spirit. Earlier in the week we got a new investigator in the R.C. and challenged her to read some passages in the Book of Mormon and pray about them. We haven't gotten a chance to hear back from her yet, we haven't been able to check the R.C. email for the past couple of days, but it was a wonderful experience to talk to a real person who was struggling to "decide whether or not she believed in the Book of Mormon." She was raised Christian and didn't have any objections to what she had read so far (she was about half-way through it). Fingers crossed! Hna. Beeston also took us through a progressive investigator scenario in one of the observation rooms (FBI interrogation style, there's a mic'd "home" set up and a 1-way mirror). Each companionship in the district got a chance to teach, and base it off of what the last had gone over. I find most teachers when 'playing' an investigator will often assume the characters of real investigators they taught. It makes it a lot more authentic, and it really feels like you're talking with this other person who's had all these problems in their life. The Spirit is phenomenal. Elder Dushku and I were the last companionship to teach her (Susan was the simulated investigator's name), and at that point she had become comfortable with the missionaries and really opened up her feelings, why she really hadn't been to church etc., so it wasn't according to any lesson plan, but it felt like it was.
Spanish is coming along great! I can understand most of it if I read it, get a gist when it's spoken, but can hardly speak it... interesting. Anymcwhoozle, time runneth out, I must be trangling off. Two of our missionaries are heading to the Guatemala MTC tomorrow, and we lose all of District A today. Fantastic group of Elders.
Love you all, The Church is True!!
Elder Kent Pímentel
Haaaalloooooooooooo (In the manner of a Jagular) Fambly!
Muchas grácias por el regalo que dáis! (Thank you very much for the package! I actually am only allowed to say dáis to family, otherwise it's strictly dan. Dáis is the informal second person plural, and missionaries are not to use the informal/intimate second person, unless in prayer.) I did enjoy it very much, and will continue to do so! Also, thank you very much for the addresses, I don't really have anybody's so that will be very nice.
Elder Dushku and I are officially Zone Leaders now! And we started our new leadershippery by finding out that they're changing the way new missionaries handle their first few days, and they're giving us a slew of new and more responsibilities. We take each new district our Branch/Zone gets and give them the tour of the MTC. We also help explain their schedule, give them the lowdown on culture and expectations at the MTC, teach them how to do Companionship Inventories, plan, so on and so forth. Every week. Well, every week that our branch gets new missionaries. We're pretty much the example missionaries, the presidency of the MTC can only say so many times how things are supposed to go, but once the greenies (kinder term than n00bs) see actual missionaries following it then they believe it.
We can't seem to keep our teachers for too long at a time, once Hna. Scaife came back Hno Harrington's Grandpa passed and he had to take the week of for family and funeral type things. We've been lucky to have one steady sub for him though, Hna. Beeston. She's been great, and she served her mission on Concepción as well. In her words, I don't know what cold is yet. Insulation apparently doesn't exist in buildings, and it's so wet and humid that it makes it worse no matter what temperature it is. So I took that as a yes, I probably will want some type thermal garcias.
We got to attend the Oquirhh Mountain Temple dedication, it was very very nice, strong Spirit. They closed the doors at 2:30 and just had silent meditation until it started at 3, which was very nice. Over the past few days my testimony of the Restored Gospel has grown a lot, primarily because of Temples and what happens in them. And we did some serious investigating of Facsimiles in Abraham, and Abraham in general, and it witnessed how authentic and pure The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is, God has restored in full the blessings of old. The verses to "The Spirit of God" have taken on new meaning, very neat.
We've had some excellent teaching experiences this week! In the T.A. (Volunteer scenarios) we taught an excellent lesson, very strong in the Spirit. Earlier in the week we got a new investigator in the R.C. and challenged her to read some passages in the Book of Mormon and pray about them. We haven't gotten a chance to hear back from her yet, we haven't been able to check the R.C. email for the past couple of days, but it was a wonderful experience to talk to a real person who was struggling to "decide whether or not she believed in the Book of Mormon." She was raised Christian and didn't have any objections to what she had read so far (she was about half-way through it). Fingers crossed! Hna. Beeston also took us through a progressive investigator scenario in one of the observation rooms (FBI interrogation style, there's a mic'd "home" set up and a 1-way mirror). Each companionship in the district got a chance to teach, and base it off of what the last had gone over. I find most teachers when 'playing' an investigator will often assume the characters of real investigators they taught. It makes it a lot more authentic, and it really feels like you're talking with this other person who's had all these problems in their life. The Spirit is phenomenal. Elder Dushku and I were the last companionship to teach her (Susan was the simulated investigator's name), and at that point she had become comfortable with the missionaries and really opened up her feelings, why she really hadn't been to church etc., so it wasn't according to any lesson plan, but it felt like it was.
Spanish is coming along great! I can understand most of it if I read it, get a gist when it's spoken, but can hardly speak it... interesting. Anymcwhoozle, time runneth out, I must be trangling off. Two of our missionaries are heading to the Guatemala MTC tomorrow, and we lose all of District A today. Fantastic group of Elders.
Love you all, The Church is True!!
Elder Kent Pímentel
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Germany Berlin Mission Blog
For pictures and more updates see http://germanyberlinmission.blogspot.com
Report from Colleen
From Colleen:
I will say it again - I can't believe how time flies. The last few weeks have been just packed. I'm so happy to have a Sunday afternoon at home. Just a few highlights:
- we attended our first baptism since coming on our mission. It was held in a river across the street from the Potsdam Ward building (no baptismal font at the building). It was very cool and the young lady looked just beautiful!
- We finally got our shipment from the states. Nice to get recipes, measuring cups and family photos.
- Finally did some yard work.
- Visited three wards/branches traveling 1 1/2 hrs. to get to one.
- Gave my first talk in all German in Sacrament Meeting - it was very short but I did it.
- Picked up 16 new missionaries at the airport and did training, interviews, fed and photos and the next day did the reverse for 17 going home. It was nuts around here but that only happens once or twice a year with groups that big. I love them all. What fine young (and older as well) people they are.
- We spent this last week in training with the other mission presidents and their wives in the European Area. It was so good to meet up with our MTC group from 6 weeks ago. We received training from our Area Presidency and Elder Rasband, Q of 70 AND Elder and Sister Tom L. Perry. It was a wonderful meeting and we learned a lot. We also got to attend the temple and some church historical sites in the Manchester/Preston England area. We missed our missionaries and are now glad to be home.
We love you all so much. We think of you often. We are headed off again this next week for Zone meetings, Tues.-Fri. and will get back Fri. night.
Hope to talk to you again soon. Love, Colleen and Jay
Monday, August 17, 2009
From Kent 8/17
Subject: Semana dos
I've succeeded at week two of the MTC! Many things have happened, I'm now officially in the groove of everything, and todo bien! (all is well!) We got new branch presidents last Sunday, the Lindseys. They perked up at seeing the Pimentel name and asked if I was related to any Pimentels in the Bay area. Turns out they know the Greens more than the Pimentels, but they knew Grandma and Grandpa Pimentel, and I think a Thomas Green specifically. Our branch presidency is an amazing group, I love them all!
Our district, 1C, has two teachers, Hermano Harrington and Hermana Scaife (Hermano = brother, hermana = sister). Hna. Scaife is absolutely phenomenal, I can't even grasp it. She is so in tune with the Spirit I think she could be a general authority. Very often she'll just pause, step back, and then ask a question or make a comment that is not in the exact lesson that was planned at all, but is exactly what we need to hear. Monday night specifically was amazing. I had prayed about something in the temple earlier that day and it was answered in full that night at class, I feel it was being so done for everyone, the Spirit was very very strong. There's a lot of love here among the district and zone and teachers.
On the subject of zones, our zone leaders, both absolutely fantastic Elders, Hammer and Bowden, are leaving for the field next Tuesday. So yesterday during weekly interviews with the Branch Presidency President Lindsey tells me that Elder Dushku (mi compañero) and I are going to be the next zone leaders. It was a bit of a shock, I have to say, what with us only having been here a week. I kind of was anticipating some form of leadership opportunity, however, just not that much this soon. I have full faith that we'll do a great job, however, we've had wonderful examples of how to do it.
Elder Dushku and I room together with another companionship of Elders Mayberry and Barton. Elder Barton knows Addison Redding, so we have quite a bit in common. Elder Mayberry is a very outgoing man with a phenomenal singing voice and is very very savvy when it comes to outlandish thoughts/connections, musical references, etc. Elder Barton gets/makes all the Homestar references of obscurity, etc. It's amazing how clear the Lord's hand is in what districts, rooms, and companions we have. Our entire district gets along amazingly well, we're all just a little weird, and know our Star Wars quotes a bit too well. The new district that came in last Wednesday to my knowledge are all of the same feather as well (Not our crop, but a league of their own). One of the Elders, Elder Hine (pronounced heenay) is a riot. He's black and has a chiseled, sculpted muscular body comparable to that of Zeus, but he'll always be the one reciting the weird Al star wars songs, quotes, etc. Yesterday he did the impossible and did a front flip over Elder Mayberry (who was standing up) on the cement, without touching him at all, and landed on his feet. Very entertaining, we refer to the event/action as "The Hine."
I run into a lot of familiar faces, Alyson Harmon, people from Skyline and choir, people from my BYU ward, lots of faces from my dance classes and ballroom in general. We went to the Referral Center on tuesday and did the outgoing calls, where we check up to confirm deliveries that people call to order movies, Bibles, Book of Mormon copies, etc. I only actually talked with one lady (most of the people live in the South, lots of Texas, Alabama, Mississippi numbers etc.) who was very nice and agreed to have the missionaries come over. Elder Dushku, however, got the persons dad or grandpa, who started asking what stuff was, and when he heard about the Book of Mormon got extremely excited. In short, Elder Dushku taught the first lesson over the phone. In entirety.
I do not receive Dear Elders before my computer time on Mondays, the earliest I'll receive Dear Elders before I write is on Friday evenings, as they don't send them on Saturdays or Sundays. I do find it interesting the way that Dear Elder combines all the letters sent to you by Dear Elder though. I got something short from Brandon, so it combined it with one of Dad's letters. It got to the end of Dad's letter, and then there was a p.s that he gave, and then he signed it again. I got an entire letter with the words "-Continued- -Dad." It was very humorous, so we pinned it up against the wall. The weeks are going by incredibly fast now, I can hardly believe it's already Monday, truly truly bizarre.
My time runneth out, and I must draw to an close. I'm learning how simple and practical Spanish is, it's probaly one of the most efficient languages known to man, especially since it's completely phonetic, no exceptions (no spelling ghoti and pronouncing it fish).
The Church is beyond true, it's amazing, I love you all!!
Elder Kent Pimentel
I've succeeded at week two of the MTC! Many things have happened, I'm now officially in the groove of everything, and todo bien! (all is well!) We got new branch presidents last Sunday, the Lindseys. They perked up at seeing the Pimentel name and asked if I was related to any Pimentels in the Bay area. Turns out they know the Greens more than the Pimentels, but they knew Grandma and Grandpa Pimentel, and I think a Thomas Green specifically. Our branch presidency is an amazing group, I love them all!
Our district, 1C, has two teachers, Hermano Harrington and Hermana Scaife (Hermano = brother, hermana = sister). Hna. Scaife is absolutely phenomenal, I can't even grasp it. She is so in tune with the Spirit I think she could be a general authority. Very often she'll just pause, step back, and then ask a question or make a comment that is not in the exact lesson that was planned at all, but is exactly what we need to hear. Monday night specifically was amazing. I had prayed about something in the temple earlier that day and it was answered in full that night at class, I feel it was being so done for everyone, the Spirit was very very strong. There's a lot of love here among the district and zone and teachers.
On the subject of zones, our zone leaders, both absolutely fantastic Elders, Hammer and Bowden, are leaving for the field next Tuesday. So yesterday during weekly interviews with the Branch Presidency President Lindsey tells me that Elder Dushku (mi compañero) and I are going to be the next zone leaders. It was a bit of a shock, I have to say, what with us only having been here a week. I kind of was anticipating some form of leadership opportunity, however, just not that much this soon. I have full faith that we'll do a great job, however, we've had wonderful examples of how to do it.
Elder Dushku and I room together with another companionship of Elders Mayberry and Barton. Elder Barton knows Addison Redding, so we have quite a bit in common. Elder Mayberry is a very outgoing man with a phenomenal singing voice and is very very savvy when it comes to outlandish thoughts/connections, musical references, etc. Elder Barton gets/makes all the Homestar references of obscurity, etc. It's amazing how clear the Lord's hand is in what districts, rooms, and companions we have. Our entire district gets along amazingly well, we're all just a little weird, and know our Star Wars quotes a bit too well. The new district that came in last Wednesday to my knowledge are all of the same feather as well (Not our crop, but a league of their own). One of the Elders, Elder Hine (pronounced heenay) is a riot. He's black and has a chiseled, sculpted muscular body comparable to that of Zeus, but he'll always be the one reciting the weird Al star wars songs, quotes, etc. Yesterday he did the impossible and did a front flip over Elder Mayberry (who was standing up) on the cement, without touching him at all, and landed on his feet. Very entertaining, we refer to the event/action as "The Hine."
I run into a lot of familiar faces, Alyson Harmon, people from Skyline and choir, people from my BYU ward, lots of faces from my dance classes and ballroom in general. We went to the Referral Center on tuesday and did the outgoing calls, where we check up to confirm deliveries that people call to order movies, Bibles, Book of Mormon copies, etc. I only actually talked with one lady (most of the people live in the South, lots of Texas, Alabama, Mississippi numbers etc.) who was very nice and agreed to have the missionaries come over. Elder Dushku, however, got the persons dad or grandpa, who started asking what stuff was, and when he heard about the Book of Mormon got extremely excited. In short, Elder Dushku taught the first lesson over the phone. In entirety.
I do not receive Dear Elders before my computer time on Mondays, the earliest I'll receive Dear Elders before I write is on Friday evenings, as they don't send them on Saturdays or Sundays. I do find it interesting the way that Dear Elder combines all the letters sent to you by Dear Elder though. I got something short from Brandon, so it combined it with one of Dad's letters. It got to the end of Dad's letter, and then there was a p.s that he gave, and then he signed it again. I got an entire letter with the words "-Continued- -Dad." It was very humorous, so we pinned it up against the wall. The weeks are going by incredibly fast now, I can hardly believe it's already Monday, truly truly bizarre.
My time runneth out, and I must draw to an close. I'm learning how simple and practical Spanish is, it's probaly one of the most efficient languages known to man, especially since it's completely phonetic, no exceptions (no spelling ghoti and pronouncing it fish).
The Church is beyond true, it's amazing, I love you all!!
Elder Kent Pimentel
From Kent 8/10
Subject: P-day!
Hello Flammy!
The MTC is a plethora of things. The first couple days were highly overwhelming, it took a few days for me to stop simply absorbing things and actually asess them. All is well now, I've emerged from my reclusive, observatory coccoon and feel at homeish. It's definitely an entirely different existence, that's for sure. The Spirit is present just about everywhere, and there are SO MANY rules, but I suppose that's good because that only presents more opportunities for obedience, which is one of the simpler requirements for the Spirit. I've been picking up the Spanish rather quickly, it's extremely similar to French so I have twice the cognates. Only problem is that the French will sneak in left and right, especially when it comes to articles and conjunctions. Learning a lot about myself and what is needed in the mission, and so far the primary two are Planning and Obedience, and hardly any focus on me and the things I need to do so I can be a good missionary. Focus is on the people and what THEY need. Amen to that.
Interesting thing, my companion Elder Dushku has twice now spoken distinct and clear Spanish in his sleep, though he hasn't taken any before now. Though he has taken six years of acedemic Latin. Elder Popcorn is here, along with many from my BYU ward, and many from the ballroom world, both Elders and Sisters. The name Pimentel has sparked interest, I met one of Ruth's schoolmates from Harvard, and someone who knows Roger and his family. There were so many missionaries going Spanish speaking the day I came in that they ran out of Spanish Bibles, so I still don't have one :(. Oh well, it will come.
My P-days are on Monday, so that's when you can expect letters from me. One of my roommates has the exact same coat as me, another Elder in my district has a suit the exact same style as me, and my companion has a pair of shoes that's only 1 size different from being identical to mine (I'm a 42, he's a 43). Thank goodness for marking them ;) (And just generically making sure I don't accidentally put them in other people's closets...) With my P-day on Monday it lets me get a weekend to breathe, as Sunday helps me as well, no classes, just usual meetings.
Those I've talked to say that Concepcion is more temperate in the summer and very cold in the winter, so I may need to invest in woolen socks or something of that type, but I suppose I'll find out when I get there. Exciting things I tells ya! It's interesting, I have trouble pronouncing "Pimentel" the way we normally do, I've been saying "Peementeo" type variations without trying to... ah wellz.
Hope everything's going well and such back at home with y'all! The Gospel's true!
Hurrah for Israel,
Elder Kent Pimentel
Hello Flammy!
The MTC is a plethora of things. The first couple days were highly overwhelming, it took a few days for me to stop simply absorbing things and actually asess them. All is well now, I've emerged from my reclusive, observatory coccoon and feel at homeish. It's definitely an entirely different existence, that's for sure. The Spirit is present just about everywhere, and there are SO MANY rules, but I suppose that's good because that only presents more opportunities for obedience, which is one of the simpler requirements for the Spirit. I've been picking up the Spanish rather quickly, it's extremely similar to French so I have twice the cognates. Only problem is that the French will sneak in left and right, especially when it comes to articles and conjunctions. Learning a lot about myself and what is needed in the mission, and so far the primary two are Planning and Obedience, and hardly any focus on me and the things I need to do so I can be a good missionary. Focus is on the people and what THEY need. Amen to that.
Interesting thing, my companion Elder Dushku has twice now spoken distinct and clear Spanish in his sleep, though he hasn't taken any before now. Though he has taken six years of acedemic Latin. Elder Popcorn is here, along with many from my BYU ward, and many from the ballroom world, both Elders and Sisters. The name Pimentel has sparked interest, I met one of Ruth's schoolmates from Harvard, and someone who knows Roger and his family. There were so many missionaries going Spanish speaking the day I came in that they ran out of Spanish Bibles, so I still don't have one :(. Oh well, it will come.
My P-days are on Monday, so that's when you can expect letters from me. One of my roommates has the exact same coat as me, another Elder in my district has a suit the exact same style as me, and my companion has a pair of shoes that's only 1 size different from being identical to mine (I'm a 42, he's a 43). Thank goodness for marking them ;) (And just generically making sure I don't accidentally put them in other people's closets...) With my P-day on Monday it lets me get a weekend to breathe, as Sunday helps me as well, no classes, just usual meetings.
Those I've talked to say that Concepcion is more temperate in the summer and very cold in the winter, so I may need to invest in woolen socks or something of that type, but I suppose I'll find out when I get there. Exciting things I tells ya! It's interesting, I have trouble pronouncing "Pimentel" the way we normally do, I've been saying "Peementeo" type variations without trying to... ah wellz.
Hope everything's going well and such back at home with y'all! The Gospel's true!
Hurrah for Israel,
Elder Kent Pimentel
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