Rolla Holla!! YIKES, only 3 weeks left!

Another beautiful P-DAY! Well, here we are again. Another week has come and gone: funny how time has a tendency to do that. I don't know how the time has passed out there in your little part of the world, but here on the MTC campus, it feels like the blink of an eye! My beloved Sister Calley wrote me and asked if I could believe I'm almost done here...I can't! I think the MTC has been a lot like every other part of life, only CRAMMED into a tiny package that explodes in your face when you open it. It takes at least a little while to recognize what just happened, and then comes the work of making it a good experience. But boy has it been. Some more good times this past week: last night our District sponsored a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening), to accomplish one of our goals of serving other members in the zone. So, we invited all of the members of the zone, and I conducted the meeting, and we had various lessons and games and scripture chases from members of my district. It was AWESOME! Some people in our zone are fluent, native Spanish speakers. So, they broke out in laughter when, while conducting in my 70% fluent Spanish, I said things like "Nunca Mente," literally translated as "Never Mind" but makes NO sense in Spanish, or "Ahora, nosotros comenzamos la campion-ship round!" Anyhow, it was a blast! We played catch phrase in Spanish and ALL of us struggled to describe words in Spanish, using ONLY Spanish. It was a GREAT language learning excercise. At the end of the night, the whole zone was feeling CLOSE and excited to work, and maybe MOST importantly, happy to be HERE, in THIS zone, at THIS time. Nothing brings people closer, in a more lasting way, than feeling the spirit together. Well, we got our new teachers, and things have been interesting with them. One is a bit of a hard-liner, and the first day did a pretty good job of offending EVERYONE in the District that was offendable (some people have determined to respect and love our Teachers NO MATTER WHAT they do, and how much happier they are because of it). But, they had us pick up our books off the floor by our desks and straighten everything up, and straighten the shelves, and generally do what we usually do on Monday nights before cleaning checks, but at NO other time. Though he was a little overbearing, I generally agree that the cleaner the room is, the more the spirit can be felt. Most importantly, I appreciated the loving attitutde with which he gave the correction. I guess some people will choose to be offended no MATTER how small the offense, while other will love regardless. It was a great opportunity to ask myself: "Kyler, which are you?" A substitute teacher that we had, Hermana Ampun(y)o, was a very funny Hna from Ecuador. She is TINY and "pun(y)o" means fist, so we'd always joke about how she rules the class with an iron fist (which was only part true). But, one day she came back from the Technology Assisted Language Learning Lab, which we all call TALL Lab, here, and announced she had just come from the Tall lab. Elder Hermansen turned to Elder Palmer and was like, under his breath, "Did you hear that....hehehe, TALL lab...Hna Ampun(y)o," and then immediately, EVERYBODY, including the Hna broke out in laughter, at what could possibly have been the least funny joke of my life: and I laughed to tears...again. It is amazing how quickly we come to love eachother here at the MTC. Hna Ampun(y)o was a sub for maybe two days, and my district and her have a bund that will last for the rest of our stay here and who knows how long after. Other than the hardliner, we got another teacher who is so sweet and caring that everybody loves her. Last night, actually, she told us the story, in SPanish (so I may have some details wrong), of a 90-something year old woman that had like 8 grand-children on missions. She couldn't read, her eyeseight was blurred and unclear. So, Hermana Smith, our teacher, would go read her letters from her gradn-kids and write them back as the old woman dictated. Well, after a few months, the woman's condition got worse and worse, and the night before she died, Hna Smith was with her. The Elderly woman told Hna Smith about her husband who had been a Violin maker, who had studied ALL his life about the art of crafting violins. He'd study WEEKS about the formation of the bridge or the width of the neck. After her near century of life, the woman told the Hna, "We need to learn EVERYTHING we can about WHATEVER it is that we're doing." We only have so much time. Here in the MTC, I plan EVERY minute and still feel like I come up short. But I'm learning...we ALL should be. I love that story! A wise friend of mine told me before I came out here, "Kyler, you're very mature," (and my head swelled a little) "and you're going to have to deal with a lot of KNUCKLEHEADED 19 year olds out there in the mission field." Well, guess what? Because I came out with the expectation to do exactly that, I did! Yep, I've been able to see a lot of immaturity and high-school-like behavior here, because I've been looking for it. THEN, my beloved brother, Josiah, in his HFL form (which, if you haven't filled out, you'd better! ;-) told me about how important it is to FOCUS on loving people. You see, the fact is that, sometimes, I get so caught up in what I'm doing that I don't LOOK for things to love. But, I've started the change. I have chosen to FIND things in each missionary that I can FIXATE on and admire. I love this Elder for his giving heart, and this one for his Quick, to-the-point nature. The simple fact is, both of these men were right. The world is full of knuckleheads....but also of heroicism. WE get to choose which we will view. It's as simple as that! And so, my challenge to you all is to do that today! Find something to love in EVERYONE! It helps me to pray and thank God for that thing every night or to give a compliment. I know that as you do that, YOU...not them...will be SO much happier in you life. I love you all! Thanks for your love and support! Eldre McCarty