August 26, 2011

Everyone is starting to get pretty banged up this week. Elder O. got his surgery for his finger this week. He asked me to give him a priesthood blessing the night before, so that was pretty cool. He has been spending a lot of time in the sick bay, trying to feel better. They gave him a lot of painkillers, so it makes things quite interesting. Elder T. has been getting a lot of stress headaches, lately so we went to the doctor this week to get him some meds. It doesn't surprise me that he is getting a lot of stress headaches. He is putting a lot of pressure on himself here, and he stays up until all hours of the night, studying his flashcards. As for me, I was going hard in the paint, playing some ball, when I jammed my finger the worst I have ever jammed a finger. This happened on Tuesday, and its still pretty swollen. But when you go as hard in the paint as I do, you have to be willing to accept the consequences. Elder R. got released as our district leader. We were all pretty excited for him to be released. He did this really obnoxious thing where he would pick up all our mail, and lock it up in his desk all day. It really was starting to get on everyone's nerves. Luckily, Elder B. was assigned to be our new district leader. He also had a problem with the mail situation, so he changed the rule. Now we get our mail as soon as it comes in. Order has been restored in district 32-B. I had a pretty fun encounter with one of my dear friends last night. I have been looking for Jeremy everywhere this week. However, last night when I was walking through our residence building to our rooms, I glanced into the room where the vending machines are, and did a major double take when I saw a very familiar face. Elder Lieber lives in the same building as me. It was a big surprise for both of us. His room is on the third floor (mine is on the first floor), so after I changed my clothes, I went up to his room and kicked it with him for a while. It was so good to see him, it's awesome that I know exactly where I can find him now. I'll be able to see him off too. It's crazy that I will be here for the entire MTC stay of 3 of my best friends. Makes me really anxious to get out to California.

Love,

Elder Facer

August 19, 2011 Continued

Ok now to answer your questions:

Yes I have been writing in my journal everyday.

No, my drawing hasn't improved.

Yes, the shirts are awful. The guys in my district wear Stafford SuperShirts. None of the guys are from Utah, so I'm not sure if you can get them at Mr. Mac or not, but I bet you could. I think we got the 16s, but they seem pretty tight.

I think I'm going to try to send the ruined clothes home. You should let Missionary Mall know how crappy their stuff is. I wish we had gone to Mr. Mac.

Yes, I do laundry every week. I'm doing it as we speak.

Basketball is good. I had my first MTC injury. While I was driving the lane, someone's fingernail came up into the mouth and sliced my gums big time. There was a piece of my gum just flapping there. I went to the training room and the athletic trainer just cut it off with a pair of scissors. It was pretty gross (maybe include that story in my weekly update, I forgot to do so)

Anyways, I love you very much. I'm glad you and Grandpa each had a nice birthday. Will you apologize to everyone for my crappy letter writing. I don't have a very good attention span for letter writing.

Spanish is awesome. I think I'm by far the best in the district.

Will you send me a list of some birthdays I should remember? Other than that, I have no other demands, besides new shirts. I'll let you know if I think of anything else. ;) Thanks for the stamp. Tell Grandma thanks for the ties. They are my new faves. Tell Sam to go the DI and get me some sweet older ties?

Out of time.

Love you. Talk to you soon!

Your favorite missionary,

Elder Facer

August 19, 2011

Time continues to fly by. This weekend will be the one month mark. I can't believe it. This week especially has disappeared in a heartbeat. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was sitting here in the laundry at the MTC, telling you about my week. Anyways, this week hasn't been quite has eventful as the past couple weeks have been. Brett and Colten both left the MTC this week. Brett left for Alaska Monday morning, and Colten left for the Dominican Republic MTC on Thursday. I had the chance to say goodbye to each of them the night before they left. It was very brief and full of suppressed emotion. I am so grateful that I got to share at least part of this exciting time with them. I will definitely miss them. But I know we will be right back to our crazy antics in a couple of quick years. They both will do great things. Its weird to think that next time I see Colt Dogg, we will be able to communicate in a different language. That should be pretty sweet. I'm excited to see Jeremy this week. That should be pretty cool. I don't think I'll be able to pick him up, but hopefully I'll bump into him while he's here. Our district is doing pretty well. Elder O.'s finger is pretty messed up, due to a past injury from his football days, which keeps getting worse. He went to a Provo hand doctor to have them take a look at it, and learned that he would have to get surgery. He'll probably get it sometime next week and he'll probably have to either serve in SLC or stay in the MTC for a couple of weeks after the rest of us leave. He is a little bummed, but he is staying pretty upbeat. It was pretty cool that he got to go into the outside world for a couple of hours. He even brought me back a Mountain Dew. It was the best tasting Dew I have ever had. Other than that, not a lot went on this week. Just watching the clock. Getting ready to go to California.

Elder Facer

August 12, 2011

Dear Family,
This last week has gone by so fast. All the days are starting to just mold together. Its pretty crazy, but still really fun. I wish I had told you about this Elder in our zone earlier. His name is Elder C. and he is the man. He is only 5'5", but everyone in our zone looks up to him.  He just left earlier this week for Houston Texas. But anyways, he did something very very suprising on Tuesday. He pulled me aside and asked me if I would give him a priesthood blessing before he left for the field. I was shocked. You got to understand that this guy is the guy that everyone would go to when they had a problem, whether it was big or small, and here he was, putting his trust in my ability to give him a blessing that would put his mind to ease before he left for the big show. I was pretty nervous that whole day. I had never given a priesthood blessing in my life and I wanted to make sure I did a good job. So I had a prayer in my heart the whole day that I would able to call upon the Spirit to help me find the right words when the time came. The rest of that Tuesday was pretty normal. We had our weekly Devotional. We were hoping that there would be an Apostle to speak to us that week, but to no avail. Getting a seat at the Devotional can be pretty tricky, so we joined the MTC Choir to ensure that we got a seat. I'm sure you findthat hard to believe, considering my less than sterling singing abilities. However, there was no audition process and I just kinda sat there when the time came to sing. Anyways, the Devotional came and went.  Before I knew it, it was the time that Elder C had requested to receive his blessing. Before I laid hands on Elder C., me and Elder C. gave Elder T the blessing that he had requested. Elder C. gave the blessing. After he sealed the blessing on Elder T, Elder C invited the rest of our district to be a part of the blessing. So all six of us gathered in my room to lay hands on Elder C., our idol.  And wouldn't you know it, the words just flowed right out of my mouth.
It was an awesome experience. I sealed the blessing and again looked up to find tears in the eyes of everyone in the room. We all exchanged hugs with Elder C., after which he left us with some strong words of encouragement. He said that there was just something about each one of us that had drawn him to our district and that he was 100% positive that we were each going to a place that had been prepared especially for us. It was so awesome. Probably one of the best experiences yet in the MTC.
Anyways, almost out of time. I'm so glad that I was able to see my friends here. It'll be hard to say goodbye, but we will all see each other soon. I'm excited to see Jeremy. I don't know if I'll be able to host him, but I will definitely ask around. Happy birthday to you and grandpa this week! I'll try to find time to write a nice handwritten letter to you both. I could use some more letters and pictures from everybody. There is nothing better than getting some nice mail here. Miranda drew me a really nice picture this week. I hung it up right next to my desk. Well anyways, I sure do love you guys and I sure do miss you. But the time has gone by so fast, I'm sure I'll be home in no time.
I wanna go to California so bad though! Can't wait to get out there and do some work. Nice to hear from everyone. I'll talk to you next week.
Love,
Elder Facer.

August 5, 2011

Well another week has gone by in the MTC. I'm still having a great time and learning a ton. You remember that 'investigator' I told you about? Well last Friday, we were all surprised to see a clean shaven "Cristian" walk into our class in a white shirt and tie and reintroduce himself as Bro. Welch. He ended up being our teacher for a couple days. It was really cool to get some much needed feedback on our teaching. I think I our district has had the the toughest out of any other stateside Spanish speaking districts here. I say that because we have had 6 different teachers in the last 2 weeks. We just got new teachers this week and hopefully they will remain to be our teachers for the rest of our MTC stay. One of our new teachers is Bro. Larson, from Kaysville,(yes, he is a Dart) and he served in Columbia. Our other teacher is Bro. Frischknecht, from Provo, who served in Argentina. They seem like cool dudes and they love to help us learn the language. Now we have to teach a lesson to our teachers everyday in Spanish as a companionship. Teaching them is pretty tough. Our first time teaching Bro. Larson was super tough. Me and Elder T. didn't even make it through the door on our first attempt. But I'm getting better at Spanish everyday. I kinda like learning Spanish. Oh I had a very exciting day on Tuesday. I had heard rumors that there were multiple Elder Facers here and one Sister Facer, so I have been keeping an eye out for them. I finally ran into Elder Facer, from southern Idaho, serving in Houston, Spanish speaking, who was cleaning our bathroom in the morning, and Sister Facer, from Willard, serving in Ft. Worth, Spanish speaking who was in the bookstore. I took pictures with both of them and I'll send them later. It was pretty funny to have two Facer sighting in the same day. Last night was pretty interesting. Elder B. and Elder O were both extremely homesick, especially Elder B. Our Zone Leaders gave Elder B. a blessing. When it was time for District Prayer, I gave the prayer and asked Heavenly Father for a blessing of peace and comfort. When I finished the prayer and opened my eyes, I was shocked to see tears in the eyes of everyone in my district. We ended up staying up late, talking about how happy we were to be here and to be in the same district together. So that was neat experience with prayer. Well anyways, life is good here. Everything is going great. Love you guys so much. Hasta llego.

Love,

Elder Facer