Happy Almost 2011!~

Heya family,

How is everyone doing? I hope Christmas was a blast, wasn't that so cool that Brother Penalillo called? Such a cool idea, he is so flippin awesome, words can't even describe. Not too much has gone on this week, some missionaries from the District above us left this morning for L.A. and some more leave on Monday so we're almost the oldest missionaries in our zone now. It's really strange. We've gotten to know the Elders in the District right below us because their rooms are close and they're all really cool. We've had the opportunity to teach them a few times in Spanish and it's crazy how much Spanish we know compared to them. It's insane what three weeks will do with the language. Elder Summers and Elder Sargent are now Zone Leaders and I'm the new District Leader so that has been interesting. Right now the biggest change is just that I choose people to do hymns and prayers and a spiritual thought at the beginning of class haha. That's about it for now.

Our District had a goal of three days straight in Spanish and it pretty much completely failed I felt like. haha. It was kinda frustrating because whenever we couldn't say something we'd just get frustrated and switch to English which defeats the whole point because we need to figure out how to say the stuff we can't express right now. But me and Sargent talked about it and we have some ideas for how to make it work. The most exciting thing this week might be that I accidently said 'templo' instead of temple when talking about how we couldn't go because it was closed. It was super strang but awesome at the same time. I think speaking spanish as much as possible is so important because it helps you actually start thinking in spanish. Sometimes it's hard to think of what you want to say in English and then try to translate just because they do things differently, like order and different past tenses and stuff so skipping that step and thinking in Spanish is important. The hard thing is that even when you make that progress, it goes away if you don't keep speaking as much as possible. Elder Sargent and I both kinda feel like we've almost lost some stuff since that one day we spoke probably around 80% Spanish so for these last couple weeks I'm really going to encourage our District by example to speak as much as possible. It's insane thinking that I have less then 20 days here so we're both motiviated right now to step up the spanish like crazy haha.

Sooooo Christmas! I'm sure you're wondering what all we did. Well it was fantastic. In the morning Elder Summers and Sargent and I put shaving cream on our faces (Grandma and Grandpa Lounsbury sent me this kind that gets SUPER foaming) so it looked a white beard and then I put a pillow in my shirt and put on my long johns and we went around throwing candy at everyone in our zone. It was so much fun. I wish I could send you pictures because I looked so legit, my beard was awesome. Then we opened up presents--thanks for the sweater and tape recorder by the way, I haven't listened to all of it yet but I love it, and thanks especially the pictures! I flippin love those pictures. We have such a hot family haha. After that we went to breakfast and then a MTC Talent show in the Gym. It was surprisingly incredible. Like it blows my mind how much talent is here. The sisters especially brought the heat on a couple vocals. Man. Like probably 5 or 6 people there could have legit albums and I'd buy them. The last song like gave me goosebumps, it was awesome to listen to some music after being deprived for so long haha. After that we had some firesides through out the day by the MTC presidency and then Elder Nelson! It was cool that he came, he's a genius and kept going into detail about the Greek different words in English came from and just talked about the historical background surrounding Jesus' birth. It was pretty cool. Then the next day we had a special Priesthood meeting with him which was interesting as well.

On a different note, you all should watch some Mormon Messages. Like I don't know if it's just because I'm a missionary but they are they so incredible. Probably my favorites so far are Lifting Burdens, Come What May and Love it, and one called Forgivness: My Burden was Made Light. That one is an incredible story. Also, they just came out with a new one for the new year called Look not behind thee which I think is really cool too. All of them are awesome so if you have free time just go through random ones. Also, read Mosiah. haha. I'm obsessed with that right now. There are so many cool phrases and cool ways they explain things that blow my mind every day and give me insight. Do it. Right now. Pay attention to the smalll things.

Well that's all for now, I love you all lots, I love being able to hear your voices on that tape recorder, it was especially cool to hear Noah and Enoch-those guys crack me up. I hope you all are doing splendid!

Love, Elder Lounsbury