Hey Friends/Family!
So today I have this thing called in field orientation, which is like a 13 hour long workshop. they gave us a two hour long break for lunch and told us to write an email. So here I am. Today is not my P-Day. I may be able to write again tomorrow on my real P-Day but I don't know how kosher that would be.
So I am leaving the MTC next Wednesday, and I can tell you that I am STOKED. I actually have to leave the MTC at 5 in the morning. So anyone that I would call at the airport (My immediate family) take note, you might be receiving a phone call at like 6 or maybe 7.
So things back home are changing rapidly and stuff, and oftentimes I get kinda worried about what is happening with the outside world. This can lead to me being a tad unfocused and stuff. so my new goal for my mission is to eventually reach a state of mission nirvana. I dunno how familiar you guys are with Buddhism, but Preach my Gospel gives a very brief definition: "...Nirvana (is) a state if oblivion to care, pain, or external reality." I guess I don't wanna do exactly that and be oblivious or anything, I guess I could define "Mission Nirvana" as totally getting lost in my work, and stop worrying about things that I haven't got one iota of control over that happen 100's of miles away, and to find joy in what I am doing. Well, that's my goal. I'll have to see if I can do it or not.
I'm not trying to say I don't care about you guys, or that I don't want letters anymore. In fact I just got a letter from Shannon Kelson, thanks Shannon, that really cheered me up a bit. I also got a package from an absolutely awesome group of people, you guys are awesome and I greatly, greatly appreciate the contents of that package. I wish I could reciprocate.
I'm sad to say for the last week or so I've abandoned the push up thing. Well, it had a good run. I learned lots of Spanish.
sometimes i think I might miss it here. But probably not. I've always had a bit of a problem with being restless, and the thought of having an entire area with which I can do whatever I want with is pretty exciting. I mean I can walk out the door of my apartment, and go north, south, east, or west, and preach the gospel to whoever i come in contact with. It sounds like a dang fine life to me. I know mission life isn't gonna be exactly like that, and it would probably suck if it was, and that I've never been in the actual field, but that's just the image and attitude I have in my head.
Anyway, I appreciate you all, pray every day and read the scriptures and stuff.
Elder Call.
Editor's Note: "Mission Nirvana" Joe, it seriously sounds like a military operation. Merry Christmas!
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Fake Mustache, Man.
Hello people,
So in response to the letters I got from people this week, I have never worn a fake mustache (You know who you are. This same person, thank you so much for what you send me. It brings great happiness.), and I love you too grandma.
Not a whole lot happened this week, I got my travel plans, I'm gonna be flying out to San Fern (Don't get it confused with San Fran) on the 28th. Also, if you want to send me a package, the last day the mail room will accept them is the 23rd. To clarify, in the last entry I said that I did 300 pushups over the course of 2 days. So it was like 150 or so a day. But I do much less now. Maybe I'm getting into a Spanish speaking groove. Let me say though, it sucks. I mean, I know it is very beneficial for me, but it still sucks.
They also got a new weight room over here. Jordan Kennedy, rowing is hard. I have a new appreciation for what you do. I now do it often because it reminds me of wrestling workouts (but not as hard :))
These past 2 weeks or so have been tough for me. Yeah, I know I have only been out for 8 weeks, and I can extrapolate and figure out that it's gonna get much harder. But you know what, I enjoy it anyway. Also, I think that I have also grown the most over this hard time. I guess that's life. When faced with a hard time, you can either fall into a pit or spring up, right?
I am very excited to get into the field. I know now why my brother calls the MTC "the joint". I feel kinda like a caged animal in here. I think the other elders can feel the same way, it can get kinda interesting sometimes. But hey, on the bright side I don't have to cook any of my own food and I get to hear general authorities speak once or twice a week and I am growing spiritually a lot. Actually, I shutter to think about what kinda teacher I would be without the MTC. I mean, I'm still not all that good, but I am much better.
Well, I love you all. Sorry if this was a little scatterbrained.
Elder Joseph Call.
Editors Note: Fall into a pit? That's a little dark. *chuckle*
So in response to the letters I got from people this week, I have never worn a fake mustache (You know who you are. This same person, thank you so much for what you send me. It brings great happiness.), and I love you too grandma.
Not a whole lot happened this week, I got my travel plans, I'm gonna be flying out to San Fern (Don't get it confused with San Fran) on the 28th. Also, if you want to send me a package, the last day the mail room will accept them is the 23rd. To clarify, in the last entry I said that I did 300 pushups over the course of 2 days. So it was like 150 or so a day. But I do much less now. Maybe I'm getting into a Spanish speaking groove. Let me say though, it sucks. I mean, I know it is very beneficial for me, but it still sucks.
They also got a new weight room over here. Jordan Kennedy, rowing is hard. I have a new appreciation for what you do. I now do it often because it reminds me of wrestling workouts (but not as hard :))
These past 2 weeks or so have been tough for me. Yeah, I know I have only been out for 8 weeks, and I can extrapolate and figure out that it's gonna get much harder. But you know what, I enjoy it anyway. Also, I think that I have also grown the most over this hard time. I guess that's life. When faced with a hard time, you can either fall into a pit or spring up, right?
I am very excited to get into the field. I know now why my brother calls the MTC "the joint". I feel kinda like a caged animal in here. I think the other elders can feel the same way, it can get kinda interesting sometimes. But hey, on the bright side I don't have to cook any of my own food and I get to hear general authorities speak once or twice a week and I am growing spiritually a lot. Actually, I shutter to think about what kinda teacher I would be without the MTC. I mean, I'm still not all that good, but I am much better.
Well, I love you all. Sorry if this was a little scatterbrained.
Elder Joseph Call.
Editors Note: Fall into a pit? That's a little dark. *chuckle*
Friday, December 9, 2011
World Record
Hey Everybody!
A lot of stuff happened this past week. I heard from a lot of you, which makes me happy. First of all, I've had a lot of time to think lately, because I've kind of started this "incentive program" where if I speak a sentence in English to a Spanish speaker, I have to do 5 pushups. The first two days I think I did something like 300, but today is the 4th and I've only done like 30-40 today. I think this may be defeating the purpose, but now I just don't talk much to anybody, and thus I've had a lot of time to think. On the bright side, my Spanish is greatly improved over the course of just a few days, and so has my ability to do pushups. I think I might have to increase the number to 10 soon.
Also I met a guy who holds the world record for one of the craziest things ever. He had to drink a cup of eggnog, run 400 meters in less than 90 seconds, and repeat until he threw up. He did it 16 and 1/2 times and thus holds the world record. That's right, he drank a gallon of eggnog and ran 4 miles. The guy is a beast, I think his name is Elder Adams.
Also, a nice gift the lord has given me here on my mission is that I never seem to go to bed frustrated. During the day at times I feel like I'm swimming upstream, and I get frustrated, but come bed time I always pray and the feeling of "Hey, it's alright, calm down." comes over me. I enjoy it greatly.
My companion left for Peru a couple of days ago, but do to a housing situation, I got another one, so I'm still in a threesome companionship. The new guy is pretty awesome, he was at the MTC before but he had to get knee surgery and take a medical vacation for a few months, but now he's back and with me. Oh, and the aforementioned housing situation is that parts of the MTC are under construction, so we have 6 beds in a room instead of 4. So it's pretty crowded, and since we just had a guy leave we had some room in our residence.
Anyway, I love you all, please continue to write me and be all nice like you guys are.
Hasta la vista, bebe!
Elder Joseph Call
Editor's note: Eggnog! A gallon of EGGNOG! I think i would just throw up drinking that without doing any running.
A lot of stuff happened this past week. I heard from a lot of you, which makes me happy. First of all, I've had a lot of time to think lately, because I've kind of started this "incentive program" where if I speak a sentence in English to a Spanish speaker, I have to do 5 pushups. The first two days I think I did something like 300, but today is the 4th and I've only done like 30-40 today. I think this may be defeating the purpose, but now I just don't talk much to anybody, and thus I've had a lot of time to think. On the bright side, my Spanish is greatly improved over the course of just a few days, and so has my ability to do pushups. I think I might have to increase the number to 10 soon.
Also I met a guy who holds the world record for one of the craziest things ever. He had to drink a cup of eggnog, run 400 meters in less than 90 seconds, and repeat until he threw up. He did it 16 and 1/2 times and thus holds the world record. That's right, he drank a gallon of eggnog and ran 4 miles. The guy is a beast, I think his name is Elder Adams.
Also, a nice gift the lord has given me here on my mission is that I never seem to go to bed frustrated. During the day at times I feel like I'm swimming upstream, and I get frustrated, but come bed time I always pray and the feeling of "Hey, it's alright, calm down." comes over me. I enjoy it greatly.
My companion left for Peru a couple of days ago, but do to a housing situation, I got another one, so I'm still in a threesome companionship. The new guy is pretty awesome, he was at the MTC before but he had to get knee surgery and take a medical vacation for a few months, but now he's back and with me. Oh, and the aforementioned housing situation is that parts of the MTC are under construction, so we have 6 beds in a room instead of 4. So it's pretty crowded, and since we just had a guy leave we had some room in our residence.
Anyway, I love you all, please continue to write me and be all nice like you guys are.
Hasta la vista, bebe!
Elder Joseph Call
Editor's note: Eggnog! A gallon of EGGNOG! I think i would just throw up drinking that without doing any running.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Meh...
Hey guys
This week was pretty uneventful, I can't really think of anything interesting that happened. Chuck and Tacy sent me a nice package, and I am very grateful to them. Anyway, my Mom asked me to describe MTC life. The food goes both ways, for instance, I think I learned the right way to make shepherds pies. Oh man, I hope to get more of those. there are other times when the food makes me a little sick. either way, I've gained 10-15 pounds since I've been here. I haven't been able to do that over the course of my entire life. So because of that I spend most of my time running or working out during gym time. Occasionally I play basketball or four square but I'm not very good. Mormons tend to be good at basketball, I don't know why. the hardest thing about it is that I feel kinda like a caged animal, I really want to get out in the field. I dunno if I'm ready, but I'd be willing to take that plunge. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll need me for some reason. I usually have lots of energy, I think I'm gonna keep to this schedule the rest of my life. Ha ha, JK. for those of you who don't know, I spend all day studying and I get half a day off each week. The people here are pretty fun. I love how spiritual it is. another thing I love is just sitting down and talking to people every once in awhile. it's quite fun. Everybody's got some kinda story they are just dieing to tell you. Anyway, I feel like this isn't a very good description of MTC life, but meh.
Thank you all for your letters and kindness. I appreciate it greatly. It brightens up my day.
Love you all!
Elder Call
Editors note: Sounds like the MTC is not that bad, hee hee.
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