Feliz Dia de Amor y Amistad!

Hola familia! Como les va? (does that make sense?)

Happy late Valentine's Day! You'll be glad to know that even here at the MTC we still get lots of Valentine's candy! I got a package from my good friend Emilye Messerly that had a lot of cookies in it too! It was my first package! Just so you know, sending packages to Colombia is nearly impossible, I hear, so now's the time to send me packages! That is, if you LOVE me.... haha jk:) Well, I haven't had much time recently to respond to yall's emails cuz I usually take so much time talking about what happened during my week, so today, I'm gonna make the topic of "me" a little more brief. 

This week, we explored some Narnia holes! That's what they call random holes in the walls or furniture throughout the MTC where you can find hidden messages from missionaries past. We found a miniature Christmas tree and some funny notes with encouraging advice. Also, yesterday we tried our best to talk in Spanish all day! It actually wasn't that difficult! And we're doing the same thing tomorrow and Friday, and starting next week, all of our classes are in only Spanish! This week we've started teaching the Plan of Salvation, which is such an amazing topic, but it's really hard to teach in Spanish! We role-played a lesson and we were wanting to teach it mostly in English first cuz we wanted to get used to just teaching the principles, but the guy we were teaching wouldn't let us speak English! But it went pretty well! I know without a doubt that God is our Father and that He loves us and wanted us to have all the joy that He has, and that's why we are here on Earth - to get a body, to learn, to grow, to have families, and learn to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This message has such amazing truths in it, and I'm so grateful that I know my purpose in life!

I love you all, but im outta time! Bye!

P.S. Oh, and i've gained 2 flipping lbs since I've been here! Sucks! Its cuz ever since I broke my finger, I have to ice it for 20 mins during gym so I dont get to exercise as much.

Jesus es mi Luz

Hola familia! Gracias por todos sus cartas! No tengo much teimpo para escribirles, pero todavia les amo mucho!

 

First off, Happy Black History Month! Second, this week I heard so many good talks from church/MTC leaders! Kevin R. Duncan talked to us about how missionaries are bridge-builders, creating bridges that connect people to Christ. And the cool thing is that these bridges last for eternity! Not only will the ppl I teach cross the bridges I build, but all the posterity for many generations to come! I also listened to a talk by Pres. Bednar online and it was THE MOST POWERFUL talk I've heard him give! it was about recognizing the Spirit and how oftentimes, if we are doing what's right, we will do things to help others and not even know why we are doing those certain things, but it is the Lord using us as an instrument in his Hands. We may not even realize that it was a spiritual prompting, but as we look back on the incident in future yrs, we'll realize that it was a prompting and that it led to much good!

 

So this week my companion and I taught a teacher who was pretending to be an investigator, and it was really difficult because he didn't speak or understand any English, but we are supposed to keep visiting him each week to give us some practice. I know that the Lord will help us as we continue to teach him! And this past saturday, we taught some other pretend investigators the first lesson about the restoration of Christ's gospel and it started off pretty BAD. For a couple seconds, I couldn't even remember what I was teaching! But I said a silent prayer, and as the lesson continued, and we taught about how God calls prophets again today because he loves his children, the Spirit became so powerful and the Spanish words began to flow out of my mouth! We taught the whole lesson in Spanish except like 4 sentences, and I can testify w/o a doubt that that was a miracle! The Lord truly blessed my companion and I!

 

im outta time bye!

Pinky

Hola!
Ok first things first. The most exciting thing that happened this week is that I dislocated my pinky playing basketball like on Friday! It's making typing this email a bit more difficult, but it's not as bad as trying to write. I'm not sure how it happened, but I think a kid named Elder Harris hit the ball into my pinky. It felt just like a normal finger jam, but then I looked at my right pinky and it was all crooked and bent at a 45 degree angle to the right. So the I went to the MTC health center and a doctor there twisted my finger back into place, which hurt some but not really. It's not a big deal, mostly it's just annoying cuz the doctor said that I can't play basketball for the next 3 weeks, whereas another Elder in my district sprained his ankle and sprains heal pretty fast, so like 5 days later, he's playing basketball now as if nothing happened! Anyway, it was pretty cool though cuz they told me I had to get an X-ray at the BYU health center, which meant that my companion, Elder Weekly, and I got to LEAVE THE MTC!!! We were in our gym clothes already, so we just ran there and got the X-rays. And while we were running back, I lost my name tag, so we ran back to the health center looking for it, and then ran back to the MTC and we couldn't find it, but we were glad because we got to run outside and experience the real world for a bit! It was a good bonding experience, and Elder Weekly was grateful cuz he ran cross country and track like me, so he also likes to run. And as we were walking back to our room after that incident, we were behind a guy and he turned around and stared at us as if he had just heard the whisperings of the spirit and asked me, "Are you Elder Bogdan?" He had found my name tag and taken it to the front desk. Chevere! Also something cool, I saw the actor who plays the dad in the movie The Testaments and also the dad in the Joseph Smith Movie. This week, I have gotten to role play teaching the first lesson a decent amount of times and my Spanish is getting better! I can introduce myself, get to know people, and teach a little bit of the first lesson in Spanish. My and my companion are able to feel the Spirit strongly when we teach, and we are able to feel God's love even for these "pretend investigators". I'm still way tired everyday, but I can proudly say that I have not wasted any of my time here by taking a nap!
-Elder Bogdan