The Rolla Holla!! Tuesday, 9-23-08 Field Ready

Such is life: I've just settled in to the routines of the MTC. Planning is effective and inspiring, study is deep and uplifting, correspondance is consistent and fulfilling. And now I get the opportunity to do it all over again. The challenge for this, the 'Greatest of my Transfers,' is to minimize the time spent in transition and maximize the time spent with my shoulder to the wheel.
SO, for any of you who haven't heard (and I don't know how you would have) I recieved my flight plans! Around here we call that day of the week "Flight Plan Friday." Now I know firsthand, why. So, with only 21 short hours of travel (3 spent in Atlanta Georgia, so I need to give a shout out to my boy Anthonie), and the rest in the smooth-sailing skies to Argentina and then to Paraguay, the land of the Elect.
All I'm saying is if you're going to send me a package, NOW is the time to do it. But seriously, I'm giving you all a challenge: take some picture of yourself with some people or doing something you love, and include it in a letter to me. After next Monday, at 8am, the only thing I'll be getting from you are tri-folded single sheets of paper (I'm not sure whether packages work or not, for more info on Pouch mail, please contact my EVER-selflessly giving mother). At any rate, i want something to remember you all by! And I love you all so much. I've made the commitment to write EVERY person that writes me, so if I haven't yet, you might be next! BUT, let's try to give me a little bit of a challenge this next week, lol.
Well, this week was filled with fun times and spiritual highs as usual. One class with Hno. Perez-Rodriguez, we had a lengthy and interesting discussion (all in Spanish, and I'm proud to say God has helped me to the point of my being a frequent, though far from perfect contributor) about the role, purpose, and components of Prayer. Then, we taught the things we learned, not worrying about the 4 simple steps (open, thank, bless, close) to some other, newer missionaries. We found that we covered all of the components and got at DEEP, human reasons why prayer is so important every day. We left them with a challenge, that was so inspired by the Holy Ghost that we did it ourselves and have seen the blessings: it was, to think of a recurrent difficulty that we have, in ANY thing in life (or the MTC), and think how we could overcome it through prayer. So, I've implemented that and WHAT a blessing it's been!
Anyhow, during that lesson, we also noticed one of the missionaries we were teaching was acting kind of wierd. He would set his hand behind some books on Elder Davis's desk right next to him, then put his hand to his lap, then he would yawn or scratch his nose or his mouth or something. Over and over again. After about 5 times, Elder Criddle asked, "Que esta haciendo usted?" which may or may not be the right way of saying, "what are you doing." Suddenly everybody broke into laughter as the caught-red-handed Elder opened his fist to disclose a Tic-Tac that he had slowly been taking from Elder Davis's plentiful supply on his desk. It was hilarious. I laughed for like 3 minutes. Yes, even that Elder kept the commitment and learned something new about prayer. This week has been SO great! I've tried to improve my journal writing, inspired by having watched "Mountain of the Lord," wherein President Woodruff said he "vowed never to let his head touch his pillow without first having made a record of the days work." I love that idea, and my vow is the same. I also strive to do it beautifully. My journal has been a great blessing in my life! Well, i love you all! no time left!
Have a great week! Elder McCarty!