I'm going to zoom through responses so I can give you as much info about experiences here at the MTC.

Yes I go the hair putty and it's the exact kind I like. Thank you. I'm not sick any more. It was really just a sore throat and a runny nose. I've put on 5 lbs already but I'm putting a stop to that. I only have a bagel and chocolate milk for breakfast and usually a wrap or sandwich for lunch, with a salad or entree for dinner. But its really weird that I don't get hungry with so little food. Oh, and I have ice cream a couple times a week. Every time I have some it goes to waist...my waist :) Yo bromeo.

The cupcakes were a delight! I shared them with my class in celebration of our teacher's birthday the following day. And the brownies from Emma were a total surprise, too. My district loves her now.

Erin- You spelt it correctly. Ideally it's "niños" but no worries. That's awesome Dennis published his book. Let me know when it hits the bestseller list :) Keep up the job search too. Look at the last verse in Ether chapter 1. Dad do you remember the FHE lesson you gave about that verse? It was probably ten years ago so I doubt you do.

Jessi, you little anklebiter! I hope you enjoy physics as much as I did. And I bet you can come up with some other good names for Ying Tang - with his permission of course. Have fun being an upper classman! Good luck with school and life :) By the way, Jess, at the MTC we are always told to Speak Your Language whenever you can. Your email was a perfect model for what they mean by that. My Spanish is coming along but I have to use it more. I need Spanish to come to my mind before English does. And that will happen if I speak more often.

Carrie is quite the thinker :) Thank you for your letter. I really appreciate the advice you sent. I thought about it during the week. I'm learning from the missionaries here. I feel like the Orlando Temple is my temple, too. Although I'm only 19, so I don't know if I've got enough experience to really claim one yet. Anyhooligans...

It is really nice to have the cares of the world pushed aside. I actually enjoy not having a cell phone. And I love having so much time to dive into the Book of Mormon. Mosiah is a complicated chapter because of all the history, but I'm figuring it out. Maybe in two years I'll be a scriptorian like Mom and Dad.

I don't have my study journal nearby, which is like my treasure chest (Speaking of treasure, I've traded for some awesome ties recently. I now have 3 more ties than when I came into the MTC, and I haven't purchased any...), but I'm learning all the time. There's a promise on page 185 of Preach My Gospel that was pointed out to me yesterday. If we "listen with love" to those we teach or interact with, then the Spirit will tell us what to say. That is so important. I desperately want to ask better questions in the lessons so that our investigators with open up more and so we can know how to best help them. Listening with love is important as a missionary and as a family member. After all, we should always be looking for how we can help the other person.

Cool thought then I have to go: The two most important events in the history of the world started out with prayer - the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Restoration of His gospel. There is no substitute for prayer. Read Enos 1, verse 13 I think. Pray diligently and you can experience revelation through prayer.

I love you all, por siempe y siempre. I think about you all and what you mean to me. I am so glad that I have a wonderful relationship with each of you, especially as a missionary called to teach how the Gospel blesses families. I want to live with all of you forever. Podemos hacerlo.

Elder Joshua Gathro

Week 1 Over

Hola familia!

I'll try not to use as much Spanish in the email, but sometimes it just comes out. I was writing in my journal this week and looked back at what I had written and noticed that I spelt "instruction" as "instruccion" but I didn't remember doing that.

No the food isn't gassy, yet. But they say the orange juice and potatoes will get to you after awhile. And at night in our residence halls it gets pretty hectic, pretty much a party. We even have cookies getting passed around from boxes that elders get from their families. Tie trading here is crazy, almost addicting. Every night you can trade out a new tie if you want. I managed to snag several good deals, it's awesome:)

El CCM is the MTC in Spanish. The TRC is still here with it's same name. "Pues" is "well" in Spanish. It's also a filler word. "No me diga" means "No way!" And "Diga me" means "talk to me."

Special note for Tyler: Brother Porter Ellot is a teacher for one of the districts in my zone. So I see him regularly and I bore my testimony to him in Spanish one day.

My Spanish is continually improving here which gives me a lot of hope. My companion struggles more than I do with Spanish and I try to help him. We get along well and are working on becoming best friends. Last night we had our third leccion with our practice investigator Mario about el Plan de Salvacion and we couldn't use any apuntes (notes). But it was so exciting because we were able to use the limited Spanish we know to communicate to him. We inviting him to be baptized as well and he said yes, and that he wants to learn before being baptized.

I'm sorry to hear that Padre is having a rough time with his back. That's not good news. Pero con fe in Jesucristo, podemos be healed physically. I'll pray for Dad. Keep my updated por favor. That's so exciting Meshak has been baptized! I never met him but he's my brother, too.

Tuesday night we had a devotional with Elder Cecil O Samuelson and his wife. Because of the Spirit, I walked out feeling inspired to be better and with a realization of what things I can change in my life. It ended up being a real teaching moment for me when I reflected on how I felt. To feel the need to be better and then to act is to repent. Even if my actions before still allowed me to feel the Spirit. But having a refocus in life and feeling fresh in my resolve to do what's right is a great feeling. And that is repentance. Repentance brings happiness.

My physical mailing address is

Elder Joshua Gathro

MTC Mailbox #389

AZ-TEM 1004

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604.

But, there's a website called DearElder.com that lets anyone write to me here and I get the letter that day. It's more convenient than taking time during my 30 min of computer time to read emails. Feel free to look into that. Carrie knows how to do it. She sent me one yesterday. Thanks Carrie!

I'm not sure if there's anything else I need to respond to. I love you all and I'm having a great time! I get to go to the temple today which I'm super excited for. Have fun when you get to Utah!

Elder Gathro

Hola!

Hola mi familia!

I'm loving it here! I was feeling overwhelmed on Tuesday and Wednesday before I came in, but I think that's due to the fact I had a lot of time to think about how permanent this change is in my life. But now that I am here and have something to do, I am soaking it all in without hesitation. Wednesday night, they divided our incoming group of elders y hermanas (500 came in on Wednesday, the largest group all summer) into two groups and we each were in a room with practice investigators. We were introduced to them and got to see them in character (investigators came in individually), then the floor was ours to teach and discuss based on their needs that we recognized. It was powerful and the Spirit was there.

We've jumped right in with Espanol. It is so much fun to hear Espanol todo el tiempo y practicar cada dia. Something that frustrated me yesterday though was that we were told we would not be taught the basics of Spanish. The system is for us to have personal and companero estudio based on what we will be teaching our practice investigator, Mario, then learning the Spanish necessitamos ensenar el. Mi companero, Elder Fife de Cedar City, UT, y yo already had nuestro primero meeting con Mario yesterday. We had to speak to him in Spanish which was scary but so much fun. We'll be working with him for a while here. At el CCM, we plan, study, and teach. I believe it's inspired and I trust it will be the best preparation to enter the mission field.

So far we've had gym time twice, both times spent playing futbol. It's a lot of fun interacting with other misioneros aqui. I have run into probably 20 other elders that I recognize, mostly from Utah State but also three from Florida y Georgia. Meals here are good, especially the wraps! I love those! Yesterday at lunch the elders in my distrito managed to tap into my uncontrollable laughter, for all those who are familiar with it.

I'm not sure what else to mention. Just know I'm having a great time and I am excited to be here! My preparation day after this week will be every Thursday. I like everything I have experienced thus far. Please forward this to Carrie as well; I don't know what her email address is. Also if you could check that the other emails are correct that would help. I love you all. La Iglesia is verdadero. Christ is our Savior.

Con amor a todo,

Elder Joshua Gathro