Hey everyone.
Things are good here. The MTC is an awesome place.... but I cant wait to get out of it ha ha ha. Im excited to go to the feild and get to work. I have learned a ton here in the MTC and its kinda hard cause I'm confident in my abilities to teach in English but Spanish I'm for sure not so confident. But its still coming a long. I hope that everything is going good for everyone I pray for you all. Thanks for everything that you do for me. Its great to have this much support.
Elder Esplins birthday is today. Thanks for the package mom. We all got him an alarm clock and a card for his birthday and I think it is going good so far.
Hey mom if you would forward these little messages to whoever they need to go to i dont have time to write them all today.
Zach
Hey bro!
The MTC is pretty sweet and im having some cool experiences. It's crazy how much more you can feel the spirit here. At least for me. Liza has such a tight hold on my heart ha ha and when i hear stories like that it gets me pretty good. I love her so much and would love to be with her every night. You are one lucky dad. Happy anniversary man! I sure hope that everythings is good with you guys and I love you all so much!
Makayla!
Happy birthday soon i love you so so much.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
February 16, 2010
Hi Everyone!
Tell Jordan that is so exciting that he was able to go to the temple and i hope that he enjoyed it.
The Language is coming so so much this last week. We have taught the Restoration a few times now and today we are going to do it a few times more so that we can do good in the TRC tomorrow. I hope everyone is going good!
Sorry I sent my tape player to Brook I just knew she didnt have one and i borrowed my roomates. I ate your mint Valentine heart in like 5 minutes. I got released as District Leader this last Sunday. The new one Elder Wilkes isn't really making people happy cause he is being super strict about things that arent rules ha ha but that is ok i guess. Hopefully I don't get glued to my companion ha ha cause for the exceptions to the sight and sound he is saying no. Its funny but kinda weird.
Well i sure do love you all and hope that you know that this church is true..
I can't think of what else to talk about sorry.
Yo se que Jesucristo vive y es my salvador se que mediante Jose smith Jesucristo restorado su inglesia.
Elder Archibald
P.S. Sorry it isn't too much this week! Thanks for everything that you have all done for me.
Tell Jordan that is so exciting that he was able to go to the temple and i hope that he enjoyed it.
The Language is coming so so much this last week. We have taught the Restoration a few times now and today we are going to do it a few times more so that we can do good in the TRC tomorrow. I hope everyone is going good!
Sorry I sent my tape player to Brook I just knew she didnt have one and i borrowed my roomates. I ate your mint Valentine heart in like 5 minutes. I got released as District Leader this last Sunday. The new one Elder Wilkes isn't really making people happy cause he is being super strict about things that arent rules ha ha but that is ok i guess. Hopefully I don't get glued to my companion ha ha cause for the exceptions to the sight and sound he is saying no. Its funny but kinda weird.
Well i sure do love you all and hope that you know that this church is true..
I can't think of what else to talk about sorry.
Yo se que Jesucristo vive y es my salvador se que mediante Jose smith Jesucristo restorado su inglesia.
Elder Archibald
P.S. Sorry it isn't too much this week! Thanks for everything that you have all done for me.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
February 11, 2010 tape from the MTC
Hola,
It's 6:30 am and I'm going to take you through a day of missionary work. Normally I would be showering right now but we have gym so we're going to go get a sack breakfast and we don't have to get dressed up but I am going to get into warm clothes because it's cold. Well I lost my blue card and my key so I'm going to have a cinnamon roll for breakfast and my companion is very distraught chiste (joke). We're just walking over to breakfast and it's nice and chilly. Oh and I gave away my coat so I just don't have anything chiste (joke). All of the dorm buildings look the exact same here and every once in a while either me or my companion go to the wrong one. And today he went to the wrong one. Elder Esplin says "I didn't go all the way to the door like you have" Taylor "he got pretty close though" Elder Esplin "10 feet is hardly close". They are laughing....
We went and stood in line for half an hour and then a lady let me still get breakfast even though I didn't have my blue card but she wasn't too happy about it. I think I left it back at our class though. On the way back from breakfast that's when the whole door incident happened. Then we just finished eating back at our room and now we are going to get ready and go play some volley ball or what ever we're doing at the gym, should be fun though. Elder Wilkes and Elder Olsin finally came back from where ever they were. I didn't' even see them I rolled out of bed and they were gone and then we came back and our beds were all made super nice. Did you do it Elder Wilkes? "Oh, maybe..."
Now we are going to go to gym because it's in 10 minutes but I can't take my recorder there cuz there's no where to put it. I'll go over what we do. We get in our gym clothes and we run like crazy because it's freezing cold out there and we are in our gym clothes and then we play volleyball and do whatever we do and then we run back.
Just got back from gym and it's a race to the showers right Esplin? After you...
Now we are heading out to class. We had to get ready in our suits and what else did we have to do? Elder Esplin says "you had to make sure you have your belt". Yeah, today's a really off day for me I feel like I'm forgetting everything. It's not good because today's a busy day, just like every other day actually. Now we are going to class and study our little brains out cuz we have to have a ton of Spanish memorized by this afternoon that we haven't even worked on yet. So it should be a long day. "Are you ready for this Elder Esplin"? "Not particularly". Yeah, me either, so it should be really fun..
Well, we're headed to a T.E. which is a Teaching Evaluation. What you normally do is you have a lesson that you want to teach and you go and teach a teacher who is pretending to be an investigator. But today we decided to be a little wild right Elder Esplin? "I think we got the idea from somebody else". Si, but we are going to go and find out what this teachers needs are and then teach accordingly. So we don't have anything planned but it's going to be interesting because we don't have a lesson to stick to we just have our scriptures and Preach My Gospel that we probably won't end up using, so it should be fun.
We just got done with the T.E. so how did it go Elder Esplin? "Far better than our first one probably". Yeah we need work still but we will keep working and it went ok I guess. Now it's time for class. Well we walked into class and realized it was lunch time. So we are going to go to lunch and we should be there right on time only to stand in line for at least 15 minutes to eat. There is some unwritten rule that we have wait forever to eat. But sometimes I play it really tricky and I don't have to wait in line for lunch, except then it doesn't taste very good. I don't know why, I guess waiting makes it taste better, who knows. Well we just got done with lunch and I totally forgot today was ice cream day, but I still got some amazing ice cream. How was yours Elder? "Well I intended originally to grab one of those mini pizza things that they had but I decided I didn't have room but I had a nice bratwurst with sauerkraut". I was actually trying to get the bratwurst but I got the pizza so we switched. But now we get to go pick up the mail. Hopefully there is something for everyone. Well I got Mallari's package and I'm excited to see what's inside. It's pretty heavy. And I got a letter from Brook so it was a good day. Mom and whoever is listening to this, Elder Esplin has this story about a blue tie that was really just a great tie but was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Tell us about it Elder Esplin. "It depends upon your point of view it could be in the right place at the right time and honestly too incoooooonnn....I speak perfect English I swear. Inconsequential story at the most". Taylor goes on...what happened is he just sat down and his tie flew forward right into the hot fudge he just served up so we are headed to the laundry mat so he can get it dry cleaned. Now off to class to deliver all these people's mail.
Things got little busy for a little while. We went to the TRC. Hey Elder what does TRC stand for? "Teaching Resource Center". Teaching Resource Center it's where we go and today we picked someone up went to a room and pretended that we were on a bus speaking Spanish the whole time. We had to ask them tons of questions and talk for probably 5-10 minutes. "15 minutes total" Elder Esplin says. And we had to understand what the other person was saying which is a little hard at some points but it was really good actually, I feel like we did well. Uno momento por favor. Where are you guys going? Oh bummer... (Taylor continues) And then after that we taught the plan of Salvation, or the plan of happiness or the plan of redemption it depends on how you look at it. Elder Esplin says "It depends on how you look at Christ". Yeah. It went well, we need work, but I think it went really well. We had a cute little Chinese old lady, "Japanese old lady" yeah, Japanese lady that spoke Spanish but we taught it in English. She spoke a little bit of Spanish, Cantonese, Japanese, Mandarin, yeah she was multi-lingual. And now we are about to stand in a huge line for lunch, I mean dinner, they all seem the same here....
We just got out of dinner a little while ago and went and got mail and went to the bookstore for a few cheap things that I needed and now we are going into our class building. Is it study time right now? It is now study time. We went to Hermano Samons class and learned a bunch on how to teach and some Spanish stuff. We learned future tense today for commitments. Then we cleaned the classroom and sang "Angels we have heard on high" in Spanish for the three millionth time since we have been here. It's getting old! Now we are back at the residence hall or dorms and I am getting undressed and then redressed for bed. Oh yeah, and Brook today in her letter she said that she wants to know what goes on throughout the day for misisonaries which is kind of a coincidence which is what I am doing right now with you and her as well. Elder Day, say hi, "Hello, who is this?" I don't know whoever listens to it. "Family, Novia?" Probably both. "Oh, you have a Novia? Oh Hello Novia, Hello Family." Elder Day is lonely his girlfriend doesn't write. "It's true, seven and a half weeks it's ridiculous! Ridiculoso!!!" Yeah, it's pretty bad. Why are you looking through my shirts??? Gracias, Porte! I guess that one of my shirts is being stolen. Dang it I can't chase him cuz I'm in my garments. Elder Wilkes is releasing gas out in the hall. hahaha. Elder Wilkes does a mean George Bush impression. "Is it George Bush, it's just a Texan....Listen this is America and in America we have big steaks and we don't get them small and skimpy like ya'll at the Golden Corral so give me a big steak".... Taylor is laughing "And Elder Wilkes you stink! You did not let that settle out in the hall"...
Taylor continues... but Mal and Zach sent me a package with a bunch of goodies in it. I'm going to put some clothes on and then I'm going to go get my shirt back and then I'm going to write in my journal and then I'm going to go to bed after prayer of course. But that's for the most part a missionaries day. Hopefully I'll send this off tomorrow. I love you all! Bye...
Well just when I thought that the day was over, I took a big handful of Mike and Ikes and swallowed it..... Taylor is now yelling "No no me gusta don't throw it at me" he then explains that Elder Wasden is throwing a thing with needles sticking out at people.
Anyway I took a handful of Mike and Ikes and there was a spider in it. I felt it in my throat and I hocked a lugie and it landed on my journal, but luckily I don't like this journal so I've already been copying it to a better one. So luckily I won't have a giant spit mark on the journal that I actually like, but that was pretty gross. Oh, and I did find my blue card. Oh and Elder Day was just ironing my shirt for me he wasn't stealing it. Elder Wasden is throwing things at people. I don't know if as District Leader if I'm supposed to stop him or just lock our door. But I think I'm just going to lock our door and keep writing in my journal. I think that's it. I sure do love you. Oh yeah, I was going to maybe do a full week of missionary work, or at least a few days, but tomorrow is a speak only Spanish day so that wouldn't be very fun for you or me. So we'll just call it one good day. Adios!
It's 6:30 am and I'm going to take you through a day of missionary work. Normally I would be showering right now but we have gym so we're going to go get a sack breakfast and we don't have to get dressed up but I am going to get into warm clothes because it's cold. Well I lost my blue card and my key so I'm going to have a cinnamon roll for breakfast and my companion is very distraught chiste (joke). We're just walking over to breakfast and it's nice and chilly. Oh and I gave away my coat so I just don't have anything chiste (joke). All of the dorm buildings look the exact same here and every once in a while either me or my companion go to the wrong one. And today he went to the wrong one. Elder Esplin says "I didn't go all the way to the door like you have" Taylor "he got pretty close though" Elder Esplin "10 feet is hardly close". They are laughing....
We went and stood in line for half an hour and then a lady let me still get breakfast even though I didn't have my blue card but she wasn't too happy about it. I think I left it back at our class though. On the way back from breakfast that's when the whole door incident happened. Then we just finished eating back at our room and now we are going to get ready and go play some volley ball or what ever we're doing at the gym, should be fun though. Elder Wilkes and Elder Olsin finally came back from where ever they were. I didn't' even see them I rolled out of bed and they were gone and then we came back and our beds were all made super nice. Did you do it Elder Wilkes? "Oh, maybe..."
Now we are going to go to gym because it's in 10 minutes but I can't take my recorder there cuz there's no where to put it. I'll go over what we do. We get in our gym clothes and we run like crazy because it's freezing cold out there and we are in our gym clothes and then we play volleyball and do whatever we do and then we run back.
Just got back from gym and it's a race to the showers right Esplin? After you...
Now we are heading out to class. We had to get ready in our suits and what else did we have to do? Elder Esplin says "you had to make sure you have your belt". Yeah, today's a really off day for me I feel like I'm forgetting everything. It's not good because today's a busy day, just like every other day actually. Now we are going to class and study our little brains out cuz we have to have a ton of Spanish memorized by this afternoon that we haven't even worked on yet. So it should be a long day. "Are you ready for this Elder Esplin"? "Not particularly". Yeah, me either, so it should be really fun..
Well, we're headed to a T.E. which is a Teaching Evaluation. What you normally do is you have a lesson that you want to teach and you go and teach a teacher who is pretending to be an investigator. But today we decided to be a little wild right Elder Esplin? "I think we got the idea from somebody else". Si, but we are going to go and find out what this teachers needs are and then teach accordingly. So we don't have anything planned but it's going to be interesting because we don't have a lesson to stick to we just have our scriptures and Preach My Gospel that we probably won't end up using, so it should be fun.
We just got done with the T.E. so how did it go Elder Esplin? "Far better than our first one probably". Yeah we need work still but we will keep working and it went ok I guess. Now it's time for class. Well we walked into class and realized it was lunch time. So we are going to go to lunch and we should be there right on time only to stand in line for at least 15 minutes to eat. There is some unwritten rule that we have wait forever to eat. But sometimes I play it really tricky and I don't have to wait in line for lunch, except then it doesn't taste very good. I don't know why, I guess waiting makes it taste better, who knows. Well we just got done with lunch and I totally forgot today was ice cream day, but I still got some amazing ice cream. How was yours Elder? "Well I intended originally to grab one of those mini pizza things that they had but I decided I didn't have room but I had a nice bratwurst with sauerkraut". I was actually trying to get the bratwurst but I got the pizza so we switched. But now we get to go pick up the mail. Hopefully there is something for everyone. Well I got Mallari's package and I'm excited to see what's inside. It's pretty heavy. And I got a letter from Brook so it was a good day. Mom and whoever is listening to this, Elder Esplin has this story about a blue tie that was really just a great tie but was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Tell us about it Elder Esplin. "It depends upon your point of view it could be in the right place at the right time and honestly too incoooooonnn....I speak perfect English I swear. Inconsequential story at the most". Taylor goes on...what happened is he just sat down and his tie flew forward right into the hot fudge he just served up so we are headed to the laundry mat so he can get it dry cleaned. Now off to class to deliver all these people's mail.
Things got little busy for a little while. We went to the TRC. Hey Elder what does TRC stand for? "Teaching Resource Center". Teaching Resource Center it's where we go and today we picked someone up went to a room and pretended that we were on a bus speaking Spanish the whole time. We had to ask them tons of questions and talk for probably 5-10 minutes. "15 minutes total" Elder Esplin says. And we had to understand what the other person was saying which is a little hard at some points but it was really good actually, I feel like we did well. Uno momento por favor. Where are you guys going? Oh bummer... (Taylor continues) And then after that we taught the plan of Salvation, or the plan of happiness or the plan of redemption it depends on how you look at it. Elder Esplin says "It depends on how you look at Christ". Yeah. It went well, we need work, but I think it went really well. We had a cute little Chinese old lady, "Japanese old lady" yeah, Japanese lady that spoke Spanish but we taught it in English. She spoke a little bit of Spanish, Cantonese, Japanese, Mandarin, yeah she was multi-lingual. And now we are about to stand in a huge line for lunch, I mean dinner, they all seem the same here....
We just got out of dinner a little while ago and went and got mail and went to the bookstore for a few cheap things that I needed and now we are going into our class building. Is it study time right now? It is now study time. We went to Hermano Samons class and learned a bunch on how to teach and some Spanish stuff. We learned future tense today for commitments. Then we cleaned the classroom and sang "Angels we have heard on high" in Spanish for the three millionth time since we have been here. It's getting old! Now we are back at the residence hall or dorms and I am getting undressed and then redressed for bed. Oh yeah, and Brook today in her letter she said that she wants to know what goes on throughout the day for misisonaries which is kind of a coincidence which is what I am doing right now with you and her as well. Elder Day, say hi, "Hello, who is this?" I don't know whoever listens to it. "Family, Novia?" Probably both. "Oh, you have a Novia? Oh Hello Novia, Hello Family." Elder Day is lonely his girlfriend doesn't write. "It's true, seven and a half weeks it's ridiculous! Ridiculoso!!!" Yeah, it's pretty bad. Why are you looking through my shirts??? Gracias, Porte! I guess that one of my shirts is being stolen. Dang it I can't chase him cuz I'm in my garments. Elder Wilkes is releasing gas out in the hall. hahaha. Elder Wilkes does a mean George Bush impression. "Is it George Bush, it's just a Texan....Listen this is America and in America we have big steaks and we don't get them small and skimpy like ya'll at the Golden Corral so give me a big steak".... Taylor is laughing "And Elder Wilkes you stink! You did not let that settle out in the hall"...
Taylor continues... but Mal and Zach sent me a package with a bunch of goodies in it. I'm going to put some clothes on and then I'm going to go get my shirt back and then I'm going to write in my journal and then I'm going to go to bed after prayer of course. But that's for the most part a missionaries day. Hopefully I'll send this off tomorrow. I love you all! Bye...
Well just when I thought that the day was over, I took a big handful of Mike and Ikes and swallowed it..... Taylor is now yelling "No no me gusta don't throw it at me" he then explains that Elder Wasden is throwing a thing with needles sticking out at people.
Anyway I took a handful of Mike and Ikes and there was a spider in it. I felt it in my throat and I hocked a lugie and it landed on my journal, but luckily I don't like this journal so I've already been copying it to a better one. So luckily I won't have a giant spit mark on the journal that I actually like, but that was pretty gross. Oh, and I did find my blue card. Oh and Elder Day was just ironing my shirt for me he wasn't stealing it. Elder Wasden is throwing things at people. I don't know if as District Leader if I'm supposed to stop him or just lock our door. But I think I'm just going to lock our door and keep writing in my journal. I think that's it. I sure do love you. Oh yeah, I was going to maybe do a full week of missionary work, or at least a few days, but tomorrow is a speak only Spanish day so that wouldn't be very fun for you or me. So we'll just call it one good day. Adios!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Hey everyone!
Ok, Mom I am going to answer all of your questions. I have tons of food and candy that I don't know if I will ever eat, but I'm trying. Today me and my companion had scones for breakfast that Mal sent and they were great. The food here does get old fast....everything is tasting pretty much the same but I have gained 10 pounds since I have been here and then lost 2 pounds. I'm not fat or anything and I still have my 6 pack hahahah. I'm good on blankets I actually sleep really really good now cause I'm so worn out by the time I get to bed. With the Texas flag I'm going to hang it up either in our room or in our classroom hahahaha you have to Rep your state you know. :) I think they are switching me out of District Leader cuz it's almost the half way mark so I think they will probably do that Sunday. I like it but it is stressful cause I try and study but have to make sure everyone else is doing what they are supposed to and I have meetings and stuff so it will be nice to have a break but I still love it. The people that were struggling in my district have been doing better. I just wanted my blue suit. I missed it and here we have to wear a suit everyday but I will probably send it back when I leave cause I will just wear slacks when I get there. My tennis shoes are good I hardly ever wear them. Yeah lots of people write to me. I am doing really good the language is tough but is still coming. I love this work and can't wait to go to Houston. I don't feel like I'm in Utah anymore to be honest the only time that I feel like I am is when I go to the temple. It looks the same as the Ogden temple so every time I go I look for my mom on the other side and it's tough.
I love you all and I know that this work is true. Have Jordan and Rylee write me I haven't heard from them lately. Oh and just a warning I need to say. Nobody try to come visit me hahaha that would be way too hard and way against the rules. I have already called kids out on it when we go on the temple walk and by them doing it we will all lose temple walk next week. Just see me in a few years. :) Love you all and I know that you wouldn't do that but just had to say it. Bye!
Ok, Mom I am going to answer all of your questions. I have tons of food and candy that I don't know if I will ever eat, but I'm trying. Today me and my companion had scones for breakfast that Mal sent and they were great. The food here does get old fast....everything is tasting pretty much the same but I have gained 10 pounds since I have been here and then lost 2 pounds. I'm not fat or anything and I still have my 6 pack hahahah. I'm good on blankets I actually sleep really really good now cause I'm so worn out by the time I get to bed. With the Texas flag I'm going to hang it up either in our room or in our classroom hahahaha you have to Rep your state you know. :) I think they are switching me out of District Leader cuz it's almost the half way mark so I think they will probably do that Sunday. I like it but it is stressful cause I try and study but have to make sure everyone else is doing what they are supposed to and I have meetings and stuff so it will be nice to have a break but I still love it. The people that were struggling in my district have been doing better. I just wanted my blue suit. I missed it and here we have to wear a suit everyday but I will probably send it back when I leave cause I will just wear slacks when I get there. My tennis shoes are good I hardly ever wear them. Yeah lots of people write to me. I am doing really good the language is tough but is still coming. I love this work and can't wait to go to Houston. I don't feel like I'm in Utah anymore to be honest the only time that I feel like I am is when I go to the temple. It looks the same as the Ogden temple so every time I go I look for my mom on the other side and it's tough.
I love you all and I know that this work is true. Have Jordan and Rylee write me I haven't heard from them lately. Oh and just a warning I need to say. Nobody try to come visit me hahaha that would be way too hard and way against the rules. I have already called kids out on it when we go on the temple walk and by them doing it we will all lose temple walk next week. Just see me in a few years. :) Love you all and I know that you wouldn't do that but just had to say it. Bye!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Hey everyone,
How are things going? Everything here is great! I love learning so so much. I found the coolest way to mark my scriptures this week, it has been the excitement of the week. I am still doing good with most everything but the language is getting challenging. I'm just not stressing over it because I know that if I keep studying that I will get it. It's just tough because you have to do so much stuff all at once here and its a huge part of why Elders learn it so fast. I hope things are going good at home. I pray for you guys every night. Thanks for all of the letters and packages. Getting mail is fun. Since I am the District Leader I get the mail so I get to play games with the Elders in my district. hahaha Sorry I can't take many pictures, we can only take pictures on Sunday and pday. There isn't much to take pictures of here anyway. I love you all and love hearing from you.
Elder Archibald
Yo se que el libro de Mormon es Verdadero
How are things going? Everything here is great! I love learning so so much. I found the coolest way to mark my scriptures this week, it has been the excitement of the week. I am still doing good with most everything but the language is getting challenging. I'm just not stressing over it because I know that if I keep studying that I will get it. It's just tough because you have to do so much stuff all at once here and its a huge part of why Elders learn it so fast. I hope things are going good at home. I pray for you guys every night. Thanks for all of the letters and packages. Getting mail is fun. Since I am the District Leader I get the mail so I get to play games with the Elders in my district. hahaha Sorry I can't take many pictures, we can only take pictures on Sunday and pday. There isn't much to take pictures of here anyway. I love you all and love hearing from you.
Elder Archibald
Yo se que el libro de Mormon es Verdadero
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