Week 3: MTC life

Hmmmm, another week DONE at the MTC. This week was by far the fastest. It seriously flew so fast. This week I really felt like things started to come together. The language is picking up, we were able to go into lessons and just speak what we thought and not need to write out how to say words. The language is starting to pump through my blood haha. The lessons are more effective and you feel a whole lot better about them when you know how to say the words you want to say! 

Got to meet the Mission Presidents who will preside over me in Indiana! They were so awesome. There are going to be 250 missionaries in Indiana when I get there, 242 English, 8 Spanish. It's crazy how I am one of those eight. I was selected by God because he knew I could do it and I must be needed in the lives of these hispanics. I guess our plane will have 21 flying out with us on july 16thbut only 3 of us are even here right now in the MTC: my companion and I and a kid here learning English from Fortaleza Brazil. It was such an awesome experience to use our spanish (which Portuguese can mostly understand) with him and him use his portuguese/spanish with us. He is pretty much bilingual! I guess the other 21 all come in like on july 1and will just fly out with us, they are all americans speaking english so they don't have to be here long.

 Last night was AWESOME! There was a worldwide broadcast with 11/12 church apostles there. It was so cool to be so close and have them speak directly about us missionaries. Facebook for missionaries? WHAT? This is definitely a new age and the church really knows how to progress the work to be more effective in these days. I heard I was on the broadcast also because I was singing in the choir, how cool am I? HA! 

Well, like I always say, not much happens here other than learning. I can't wait to get in the field and have awesome stories and experiences to tell. I know that it's just gonna get better and better! 

Until next week!

Elder Groseclose

Elder Horvorka and I

At the temple 

Week two

Well let's see, can I just start off saying that this is the most exhausting place in the world. You are NEVER able to just relax, except today! (even though we still have class from 6:30-9:30, still better than 1:00-9:30 I guess....) It's so hard to have a weekly email because not much happens in the MTC except lots of learning so I don't have much to say but I have some funny things that happened w/ our spanish this week. So we have mock investigators we work with that act they are real people who want to learn about the church so we teach them lessons in spanish, so funny stuff happens, here are a few:

someone didn't know the word for feelings so he had to draw a picture of a heart to try and explain it.

creer means believe, crear means create. in someones lesson they accidently said they created God and the Book of Mormon as opposed to saying they believed in it....

we wanted to say that the spirit is strong (fuerte) but someone accidentally said dead (muerte) instead. that was weird....

and in my prayer I completely lost my train of thought and I was just gonna end it and say "Lets have a good time", but "we have" is tenemos so it'd be "tenemos bueno tiempo" but I said tiene instead which is "you have" which means I pretty much told God to have a good time, i am sure he totally loved that.... our investigator totally laughed during the prayer.

what else is going on here.... well we have 4 50 minute gym times a week which is lame and not enough. the volleyball here is worse than it was my sophomore year of high school volleyball, it's pathetic! i miss really playing. that being said i have had to now just revert to playing 4 square which is actually quite fun, even if i did have to sit out last class for 5 minutes because i dove for the ball which is against the MTC rules, they want to keep us from getting hurt so we can still go out in the field when we are ready. this one girl broke here arm and has to stay 5 extra weeks, UGH. poor thing. the food here is nothing special, it's just like the food at the dorm LAME. in other news, send more letters homies, they are the best ever. nothing sucks more than seeing someone get 4 letters and you walk away with zero, i've written back everyone who mailed me i just think the mail place is slow so sorry if you haven't got replies yet! spanish is progressing and we are all getting more sleep deprived as the days go by but eventually this'll become easy, right??? i miss television, i'll admit that. i need my trashy tv shows that involve drama over the stupidest things. haha. hmmm, well not much else has happened, SORRY! in about 5 weeks these letters will be amazing because i'll finally be in indianapolis living the true missionary life!

much love to you all!

-elder groseclose

View from the Provo temple 

Failed room checks...hahah! 

Purple tie day! The zone. 

Mom sent donuts! 

My classroom

Elder Fitzen, from my zone 

Elder Mcleeve from my district

My friend from BYU

First week in the MTC

HOLA! This is my weekly email! Ok so I have 12 minutes left of email time, it''s crazy, we only have 30 minutes! I want to start off by saying I am so grateful for all the emails I got and I am sorry the responses were so short, my time is limited! I am so very appreciative to all you who wrote me :) Please send me letters! Letters we get daily and have as long as we want to write back! PLEASE send me letters. Ok so, got here the first day and it was crazy rushed. Got out of the car and got all my bags and was taken immediately to get my keys and ID and my name tag and was taken straight to class. I walked in and my teacher immediately started speaking in spanish and was trying to tell me to go take some orientation on the computers. It is crazy how they just immerse you in the language immediately. The work here is SO hard! We are in class around 14 hours a day except Sunday and Mondays. My spanish is coming along so fast. The gift of tongues is so true! It blows my mind how I have been able to pick up the language so fast. The food is alright, just like the food in the dorms so nothing new there. My companion is Elder Wolverton and he is from St. George. we are both going to indianapolis. my district has 10 people in it and we are crammed in a very small room! dressing in church clothes daily is such a chore but i better get used to it, eh? haha! Waking up at 6:30 has actually come pretty easy. sorry this is so rushed, i had so much emails! OH! Lessons! I already have given to lessons to our investigator Tomas. the second day we got here we were told we had to teach a lesson in spanish! it was abysmal, it'''s crazy because i was able to fully understand what he would reply to us, but i had no idea how to communicate back. the Lord's work is so true and it''s amazing how good it feels to be here. everyone is happy and optimisic and it''s so weird only being called elder groseclose. i have lived with these people for a week and i don''t even know there names! ahhh 5 minutes left, sorry this letter is abrupt but i want to add pictures now so i am gonna do that. WRITE ME, I HAVE REALIZED IT'''S MUCH EASIER! :) but for people sending me pictures or TV show updates, emails work but i may not reply but know i read them! ahh i can''t see what pictures i am sending SORRY hope they are good!

 Jeff's name tag that he will sport 24/7 for the next 2 years!

 Elder Groseclose's MTC district

 Still the same Jeff we know and love!

Elder Groseclose and his MTC Branch president and his wife.