Week 3 (August 12, 2011)

Dear family,

Well its my third time to email home and I am trying something a little different so hopefully I can get a little more content in my email. First I'll address some questions that have been asked. Dad wanted to know about my ward here and they are just branches here. We are branch 35 district D. Reminds me of being in BYU 153rd ward. They cycle people through here so much that everyone just has a number and a letter. We do not have any culture classes which totally stinks. We have a fireside every sunday night and a devotional every tuesday night. No one amazing has come but it is nice to have a break from constant study.

After every fireside they show different movies and its optional if you want to stay and we have both sundays and I am glad we did. We have watched the Joseph Smith movie and The movie the Testaments. The Joseph Smith movie is great, it gets me every time he rebukes the prison guards when they talk about killing mormons. I know I will never come as close as to having a testimony as strong and powerful as his. He just saw the Father and The Son, no big. Then the testaments when Jesus appeared unto the people in the America and I tried to imagine myself being there and what I would have done if I saw Jesus. Its crazy to think what it would be like if you actually saw him and got to feel his presence so strongly. Just imagine what heaven will be like, it blows my mind.

We have had to teach so much its ridiculous. We did this work shop thing where people sat facing eachother and one person watched a video of a person and then one person just listened. The listener was the missionary and the viewer was the investigator and it was wild to turn around actually see what these real life people were like. They were not members and have some pretty rough stories and we as missionarys had to try and really listen to them and develop a Christ like love for them and then relate their life to the atonement and how it can help them. I did not like it at all but I did learn that we should not judge people by their appearance. One of the Guys was a really poor man with a huge beard and long nasty hair and looked like he would rob you if you ran into him but he said "I would give the shirt off my back if someone asked for it and reallly needed it" Everyone is a child of God and some people have just been prepared to hear the Gospel and we should not limit who we teach because of looks.

Has the family gathered around while reading this? Is Brittany there? I bet it is so much fun there but school is kind of hiding just around the corner. I loved your package mom. Yummy cookies! My pokemon sticker book is a huge hit here. Read Doctrine and Covenants 25:12. I dont know what it is but I wrote it down so it must be good.

Love,

Zack

Week 2 (August 5, 2011)

Hey Family!

Its finally P day and I am loving it. We slept in until 8 and it was so nice. I am trying to attach pictures and I cannot get it to work so I will try later because I dont want to waste what little time I have left haha. I might just have to print out pictures and send them home while I am in the mtc. I took a bunch today and I really wanted to share so it makes me sad. Oh well.

So everyday I add notes to a piece of paper about what I can email home about so I'm afraid my email will be way random but it will all be good stuff, sort of. I will start with some happy stuff. I finished the book of mormon! Read it all the way through by myself finally, I was reading like 30 pages a day here. I already knew it was true but now my testimony is that much stronger. I am going to read Doctrine and Covenants now.

I also signed my papers for my permiso so I think I will be able to get out of here on time! Half our district is going to the Dominican Republic and they leave in 3 weeks so our district will be way small soon. Not to mention, here comes the bad news, one of my roommates/distrcit members, went home on tuesday. It was a sad couple of days. We prayed, gave him a blessing, but ultimately he just could not handle it. We miss him. He gave me a sticker that I put on the back of my name badge (along with pokemon and starwars from lauren) and it reminds me everyday of him and a silent testimony to never give up. I dont feel like I am improving at all, teaching in spanish is really tough but luckly carla is really nice and pretty much agrees to everything except baptism haha, she wanted more info. I have been trying to teach by the spirit but I get a mental block from nervousness and it just hasnt come yet but I am trying to do better.

I need brittanys address so I can write her letters! And I need Greggs address too please! Oh! I got your letters today and it was so fun.

Tayor- Your dancing picture is on wall, I will take a picture to prove it. In your last message to me I believe you said you cried a little when you got home!? Taylor, crying, I just dont believe it. Wear my starwars shirt proudly and think of me when you wear it.

Lexi- Thank you for the letter, it is about time. You have to write me on dear elder! I want to hear more from you. Wear my pokemon shirt and think of me, plus battle lauren and halli in my stead. Quit saying your last name is fredette. Wear the name Romero proudly!

Halli- I always think of you when I put on my mission shoes. I miss my nice dress shoes. Thank you for the picture of gnomes in palm trees, it is awesome and for sure deserves a place on the wall.

Dad- Thank you for the drawing, I started to notice a Gnome theme between you and halli. I love gnomes so that made me happy. Draw me more things!

Mom- Thanks for keeping me updated on family affairs through dear elder. I like being invloved in all your lives. You guys can never write me too much so dont be shy.

I got a dear elder from Ryan, Mark + cami, and emilee over the last few days. Plus lauren has been sending tons of stuff and even Linda Sulzen sent me a little package. I definetly take the prize for the most mail of the gang.

I saw Elder yarro this week and now I see him all the time. We are friends and he tells me he loves me everytime he sees me haha, he says we have to be best friends because our dad's are friends. It is fate that we are here at the same time. Funny story- My pen exploded on the first day of class all over my face because I was chewing on it. So now everyone brings that up practically everyday during class. Max is in the same building as me so I see him all the time now as well.

Went to the temple today and as always I love sitting in the celestial room. That peace is so nice, no where else in the world can you have that kind of peace and just be left to your thoughts. I treat my self to mormon messages some times when we are in the computer lab and "choose this day" made me think of shawn so send him the link if you can. It talks about choosing to serve the Lord today and not just putting it off saying you will do it later. I also watched "come what may and love it" I am trying deeply to love being here but I am not even close haha. Random thought but I could use a couple more pairs of normal socks for gym, only like 3 more pairs.

Five more minutes, what to talk about. I miss all you guys and you are in my prayers daily. "Teach people, not lessons" I have learned that while studying to think about the needs of others and how we can help them. To tailor our lessons to what the investigator needs. It has really helped and often I now think "oh this would really help this person" I appreciate everyone who is cheering me on. Tell me everything that is going on at home. The days are blurring together so you'll have to write me so that I have something to write you back about. Should I be a cliche missionary and end with my testimony? This email has not flowed very well so I dont think it fits here but I think there is some good stuff in here. The Gospel changes lives and just pray for missionary experiences. Sing how firm a foundation and think of me!

Love,

Zack

Week 1 (July 30, 2011)

Hello Family!

There is a clock counting down on my computer so I will have to type fast haha.

They say here that days are like weeks and weeks are like days and I completely agree. The past couple of days have been so long. It's like EFY on steroids here. From 6 30 am to 9 30 pm we are doing church stuff. Constantly studying and reading this and that. I would be lying if I said I was having fun here but I think as time goes on I will get better and get into the groove of things.

I have seen Max and Zack king here. I also saw Emilee's sister Alicia here and that was fun, she is going to Spain. I am loving getting "Dear Elders" like every day (mainly Lauren of course haha) Everyone is jealous because when mail time comes I am getting most of the mail. I had a letter waiting for me on my first day from Lauren. Am I lucky or what? I have already gotten two packages from Lauren and I think I got one from Brittany. I haven't had time to open it. I need her address so that I can write her! and Oh, I need my camera usb cable to I can upload pictures. I might have it but I haven't checked my suitcase.

My companion Elder Jones is pretty cool, we get along well. We are reading the book of Mormon together and Spanish and it is slow going right now because we stop and try to translate everything we don't know which is pretty much everything. We have been practicing and learning how to pray and bear our testimonies in Spanish. Our teachers literally speak zero English to us. Its nuts! We also taught our first investigator yesterday and we had to do it in Spanish and we bombed it. We did so bad, I was way too nervous but luckily she was a volunteer or we would have lost the investigator right there haha.

I got to play soccer which was really fun, I enjoyed being in the outside world. Most days we have spent 6 to 8 hours sitting in a class room. My butt literally hurts right now from sitting so much. I believe they make the chairs really uncomfortable so that you do not fall asleep.

I feel like this email is really scatterbrained but I am pretty much just writing everything that is coming to my head and not taking any breaks. My companion and I are now our district leaders, ugh, talk about more work already!

I feel like we are in prison. Our windows do not open, we spend all day inside, our room is kind of ghetto, and we are confined to an area that is less than one square mile. I am trying to not say anything negative but that is most my thoughts right now. Everyone tells me the first week stinks and then it gets better so I am really banking on that. I have already had to prepare a talk, teach an investigator, and do plenty of other things. They work you hard that is for sure. I have a hard time feeling the spirit and that has always been a problem for me in life but when we sang in Spanish I swear I felt it. Every time that I can remember feeling it in my life has been while singing and everyone knows I really do not like singing but now I am taking every opportunity because I really need to feel it to get that confirmation that what I am doing is the right thing. I did get a good feeling when I said I know my savior lives and loves all of us when I was giving my farewell talk. People here like mike said they wanted to read it so if you could forward my talk to the family blog or something that would be great.

I wrote half my thank you letters today and I wrote Lauren. I assume you will forward this to her. Hi Laruen! I love you! I have ten minutes left which actually a lot of time and now my brain is starting to slow down a little. Random question for Lauren- In her dear elder she "I just got the news... Eric is an AP now!" what does that mean? My mind may just be blanking but right now but I really don't know what that means.

I am writing in my new cool journal every night and we pray in Spanish together as a companionship which is really cool. Right now I still have to open my eyes sometimes and read what I want to say but I figure it's still something good to do.

I am a little homesick but not too bad because most of the time I do not even have time to think about it. I have Halli's picture she drew me saying "I don't know what this is but it looked cool and I thought you would like it" haha Halli, you are so random, I love it. I brought Brittany's card saying 18 reasons why she thinks I am awesome. I brought a few cards from Lauren and I am saving everyone I am getting from here and that makes me happy but I need stuff from Lexi and Taylor! write me cool cards and send your favorite picture of yourself. I want/need more pictures of my family and of Lauren!

We recite our objective everyday in Spanish which is on page one in preach my gospel. Everything we do here we try to relate to that message. The message of inviting people to come unto Christ through the restored Gospel, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. That is why we are here. To tell everyone about our objective. We are strengthening their relationship with their father in heaven. I will try to not break out in testimony every time I write but I have a feeling that it will happen a lot since that is pretty much all I do every day here. Keep writing me letters! I need that encouragement. I miss you guys. I hope all is well at home and that you can still have fun without me. I am already on my 4th day. Hopefully time goes quickly and I become a good missionary. I am worried but I go forward in faith. Pray for me! I'm sure you already do and know that I am praying for all of you as well. Until next week which will probably be on Friday!

Love you guys!

Elder Romero