Elder Rincon's First Week in the MTC

Wassup familia! 

This week has been amazing! I have so much to tell you! Sooooo since I said bye to everyone, I chilled with a bunch of other missionaries who were returning home from Argentina and on my same flight, which was shweet. I arrived at the the SLC airport fine and when I landed it felt like I was already in the MTC. There were hundreds of missionaries leaving and coming home. I was able to talk with a bunch and see where everyone was going. I then got onto my shuttle(ferrari limo), and was driven to the MTC by my chauffer (chives). That was cool because I met a Sister who is also going to my mission. When you arrive at the MTC you have to wait in a long line of other cars (filled with families) who are dropping of their kids. It's funny because all of the parents are kind of in shock. When you get dropped off there is a long line of other missionaries, all going to different places in the world who are welcoming you in their own missions language. You really feel the love in the MTC and you get even more excited about being a missionary. You and your missionary tour guide person then get all off your information including name tags,room keys, books, manuals, mail stuff and then head off to your new room. You drop your stuff off at the room( which was really fun because I was able to carry my 90 pound suitcase up 3 floors with a sketchy handle) and then your helper guy drops you off at class. This is when you start living that real real. In class I received my first ever companion (Elder Murphy, he's from Southern Cal., a volleyball player and is going to my same mission), I met two other missionaries going to my same mission, and eight other missionaries all going to Argentina. ( All of the missionaries I have met so far in my mission, have had the exact same visa problems and were suppose to go the DR MTC). I met my new teacher sister Christensen and then we got to work. So in the MTC you have schedule, which is planned out every hour of the day.( Ex: it could say like personal study, then language study, then GYM, then lunch, then classroom instruction.) The schedule is nice because it gives you a lot of freedom of what you want to study and how hard you wanna go in everything, most of the time it's just you, your companion, and your district. So for most of the week I have been learning a lot about missionary work and a lot of spanish. The spirit has been amazing and my district is really close to each other. Were all like brothers and have been motivating each other while having tons of fun. It's nice to be in a whole district of guys because you don't have to worry about holding in farts for sister missionaries. Anyways, this Wednesday my companion and I were asked to take a spanish oral test at the resource center. They then sent me, my companion (Elder Murphy), and another elder in our district who is going to the same mission, to the intermediate spanish class. We were all originally in the beginner class and were promoted to the intermediate spanish class. This was like a sad/ happy moment, sad because we were so close to our old district and were like brothers ( We even had nicknames, one missionary "Elder Merkely" we call him conejito because he only eats salad and fruit. conejito means little rabbit.), and happy because our spanish has gotten a lot better and are going to be challenged more in a harder class. We had to pack up, move out of our old building, switch classes, districts, zones and get a whole new schedule. It's been nice because I stayed with my companion and we are pretty close now. My new district has been great also. I have only been in it two days but we are all building a relationship and the teacher is great. My new district has been really spiritual and my teacher is great. My testimony is strengthening everyday! I'm attaching some pictures of both districts! My new district is the one with the three sister (who are all going to Argentina) and my old district is the one with all the guys. So heres a little bit more of what i have been doing. I have been studying my scriptures, studying spanish, teaching investigators in spanish and praying for a lot of help. I have been playing sports, eating a lot, working out, going to devotional, singing in choir at devotional, laughing and praying for even more help. My spanish has gotten a lot better and i'm learning a lot of gospel words. I can remember giving my first ever spanglish prayer on my second day at lunch. I couldn't stop smiling because I was so happy. My prayers have become a lot more sentimental since and are now all in spanish. My companion and i have been working hard. We memorized the first vision, our missionary purpose and have taught multiple 40 min. lessons completely in spanish. The Lord is helping us out a lot. Sorry about not writing back soon enough, this is because we were moved to a more advanced class and we missed our P- day and had to wait 9 days for our first P-day. to end this long e mail I wanna share with my family one more experience. On my third day I can vividly remember one night after my companionship prayer asking my heavenly father (in spanish) for his spirit and for my family to feel my love and be protected. He testified to me through his powerful, overwhelming spirit, that brought me to tears, that he loves me and that my family will be blessed because I am serving him and his children. I love being a missionary! I love representing Jesus Christ in all that I do. I know that this is his work and i am just an instrument of his to bring this gospel of happiness to the world. I know the Lord has a plan for all of us and that he loves us all so much. I also love all of guys so much! I think and pray about each one of you daily! I love reading about what is going on in your lives! My time in the MTC has been really special and i'm learning that everything I do is for my investigators and the people in DR. As for writing me in the future. If you can, please write me back through dearelder.com! This way I don't have to wait to read you letters on P-day and I can write you a hand written letter back! Mom and dad know how to do this. Receiving any kind of letter makes me so happy! I hope to hear from everyone soon! 

LOVE,
Elder Rincon.

PS: It was so weird introducing myself as elder to everyone I met, but now it has become my first name. kind of.