Wednesday is Riley's P-day, so he was able to e-mail us. It's so exciting to see how much Riley has grown and changed in the week he's been gone. We are so proud of our missionary! Here's what he had to say!
Hey Everyone!!!!
Wow it has already been an entire week! Isn't it pretty ridiculous? Well sorry I haven't really been saying much in my letters, I hardly have any time to write, so I will try and fill you in as much as I can now.
Well my first piece of interesting news.... Elder Christofferson in our District got the Swine Flue! He has been moved into quarantine for 5 days and our entire district has been put on Tami flu to help prevent us from getting it too. Pretty Crazy huh? The swine flue really is hitting the MTC hard, there are sanitization booths everyone and they encourage you the use it every time you go past. Don't worry though, we are all ok and none of us are showing any flu symptoms.
Ok now let me tell you about the food because I know that you are dying to hear all about it. It is actually pretty good. So far I have had some burgers, baked chicken, chicken cordon bleu, pork ribs, and stuff to that effect. It is good but I think I will definitely get old fast. I have been limiting myself to trying to eat healthy stuff (I know crazy right?) so hopefully I can stay at my same weight :)
Me and my companion are getting along great. Elder Mohlman and I have been having a lot of fun. Also we have adopted Elder Ashcroft (Elder Christofferson’s companion) into our companionship until Elder Christofferson is out of quarantine. A threesome is definitely hard to get used to but we will try to make it work. We have taken some funny pictures that I will have to show you, but I have temporarily misplaced my camera. I will find it and print some out maybe and send them to you because pictures here are dirt cheap.
Ok Mom, I know you are dying to hear about my devotionals so far. Sunday night was just one of the branch presidents here in the MTC, but Tuesday night we had Bishop Richard C. Edgley of the Presiding Bishopric come and speak to us. His talk was great but honestly the best part to me was when we were singing right before the meeting started. We were singing "Praise to the Man" when suddenly I just got slammed by the spirit telling me that Joseph Smith really was a prophet and that he really did restore the gospel! It was another testimony to me that this is the right thing for me to be doing! What else than a group of 2 thousand missionaries singing hymns to invite the spirit to testify to them!
Being the District Leader has proven to be pretty tough actually. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal but it turns out that I have a lot of responsibilities. The first is that I gather the mail everyday during lunch and dinner, and can't give it out until we return to our rooms at 9:30 at night. This is only a rule in our branch and most of the Elders hate waiting that late for their mail so it is a hard rule to follow, everybody wants their mail. But that’s ok, it's no big deal. Also i am responsible for conducting every meeting, making assignments for Sunday lessons and devotionals during the week, and I have to interview all of the senior companions every week to see where their companionships are at. Basically it just means that I have even less free time than everybody else to do anything because I always have something I need to be doing.
Today was our first Temple trip! It was pretty cool to go with a large group of missionaries, and see all the people wave to us and honk as we walked by and say "Hi Missionaries." It's crazy to think that i am a missionary. Like when we are in the gym in our regular clothes playing basketball, i see two elders walk in in their suits and I think, "Hey there are the missionaries!" Think I think, "wait, I am a missionary." It is still setting in that I am a full time servant of the lord.
Wow, Spanish is coming so so so fast. Today later I am expected to have a continuous 15 minute conversations with a volunteer "investigator" to practice making contact, only it’s entirely in Spanish. Talk about pretty scary. But we are learning at ridiculous speeds so that is pretty cool :) Kenzie I sent you a letter with a little Spanish in it. See if you can translate it!
Anyways I am out of time but keep the letters coming and I will write you again next week. I am only allowed to write on P-days (Wednesday) so probably don't expect anything till then. Just now that I am doing great and things are well! The church is true!
I love you guys!
Elder Leigh
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