Our last e-mail from Riley. Sounds like he's doing great! He sure loves his mission ... here's what he had to say. And, FYI ... I don't edit these. It would take too much time. So, here's his letter, misspelled words, improper grammar and all. Good thing we love him!!!Hey family!
Greetings again from the MTC. Well here when we email they put a timer on the screen. We get 30 minutes exactly, and if we haven't clicked the send button by the end of those 30 minutes it doesn't matter, they just close the window. So i will get straight to it.
Mom you are going to be so jealous of what is going on this week here at the MTC. It is the new mission presidents teaching week, so all of the new mission presidents will be here at the MTC for the rest of the week to be taught. The awesome part is who will be doing the teaching. For the rest of the week, all of the First Presidency and all of the Quorom of the Twelve that are in town will be here teaching them. AMAZING right? Well the rumor is that it is fairly common to see some of them just walking around campus or even occassionally popping in to some classes for a minute or two to talk to them. Guess what the best part of this is, Elder Christofferson is in our District. He has already said that his uncle is going to come see him personally, so the odds are very good that our whole district will get to meet him, and since Elder Christofferson knows all of the Apostles, perhaps even more than just him. Man isn't it great to have some hook-ups? Hopefully this week is an awesome one, especially since one of them at least (probably 2) will be speaking to us in devotionals. So next week i should have some good stuff for ya in the email!
Other than that nothing really exciting is going on... We have just been studying and learning spanish and the lessons basically nonstop. Ok dad, since their are no memorized discussions, we really just go in and teach whatever we feel is important. I know, crazy right? We just kind of have a few guidlines about what we need to cover, like in the first lesson we need to cover the need for prophets, the apostasy and the need for a restoration, Jesus Christ and his atonement, and the restoration of the Gospel, and the book of mormon. We can do it in any order, and emphasize any one idividual part according to how we feel the investigator will receive it. So that is why everyone here is so huge on making sure you have the spirit with you so you can know the best order for each specific person. It is good, especially when you and your comp are on the same page. We both just talk when we have something to say, and interrupt each other if we feel we have something to say and just go. We don't plan stuff like "ok i will teach this concept, then you teach the next," we just teach and speak when we feel we should. The system works so well!
Ok well the food here is really good.... But it gets old fast. Like yesterday, i just made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich and it was amazing! Just something simple like a PB&J was so great compared to the gormet food we get here. Oh and Cola, thank you for mentioning the fact that you had salmon and ribs without me... Actually its not that big of a deal because i have had salmon and ribs in here already. That is the bad thing though, the meal schedule just switches out every two weeks, and so i have been in for two weeks, which means i am just going to go and eat the same food again and again and again. Ya... It gets old quick.
Me and Elder Mohlman are having a little competition to see who can find the most people they know while we are in the MTC. So far i have seen 11, and he has seen 15. I think he is probably going to win.
Ok so the schedule for classes: Usually we start class with a song and a prayer and a spiritual thought. Then the first 2 hours or so of class are usually dedicated to learning spanish, and the second two hours are dedicated to lessons and stuff like that (because we typically have 2 four hour classes in a day with teachers, the rest is our personal study time and that kind of stuff). Wow, spanish is coming way fast. Our teachers plan was to basically teach us every single grammar principle as fast as they can, then go back and review, so now we have learned almost every single grammar principle. I can listen to a conversation by native spanish speakers and understand pretty well, but the problem comes in speaking my own words. I can put sentences together, but i still have to think of what i want to say in English and then translate the words individually, so i am definately not fluent or anything like that. We have been told that our class is WAY ahead of a normal district learning spanish though and so i am not to worried, it will come. It's only been 2 weeks.
They gave us spanish Preach My Gospel (Predicad mi Evangelio) and Spanish scriptues (spanish scriptures are so cool! The bible goes through and lables all the different parables and topics and stuff like that in the middle of the chapters with headings! It is intense). The scriptures are very hard to read, very hard. I have to read it with a dictionary and still translate nearly every word. Preach my gospel is way easier to read, i can almost read it fluently, only look up 2 or 3 words a paragraph. But that kind of goes along with us being taught to teach the gospel "not so simply that our investigators can understand clearly, but so simply that it is impossible for anyone to misunderstand." So that is fun as well :)
Ok well my time is basically up! Thanks for all the support. Yes i have been getting all of your letters and packages, i am second in the district for letters :) One missionary gets like 8 everyday... It's pretty ridiculous. Anyways, thanks for everything, keep the letters coming!!!!
Love,
Elder Riley Leigh
We had a good time remembering fun times growing up and talking about Riley’s mission. Then we got to the MTC. We were a little unsure what to expect because we’ve never had a missionary in our family and we didn’t know how the curb drop-off would go. We took pictures in front of the MTC sign … and didn’t share many tears. That isn’t true for this other mom saying goodbye to her son … she was sobbing … loudly. I felt bad for her poor son, who was so ready to just GO! 
Oh, and it’s incredible how much room there is in the back seat now that Riley’s gone!
