Almost out of here!

I have no idea where to start. This week was crazy!

I guess I'll start by talking about the devotional last week. So after President Heaton asked me to participate, I never heard back from him. So I didn't worry about it. But then the devotional came, and he called up me and 5 other elders to come up to the stand a take a seat. His talk was about recognizing the spirit, so he had a bunch of missionaries in the audience go up to a microphone and tell a story of a time that they felt the spirit and then me and the other elders with me had to find scriptures that go along with their story, and then apply it. So I had to speak in front of the entire MTC like 10 times. It was so scary! But it was a reminder that I need to always be prepared as a missionary! Fortunately, I had just so happened to have hardcore studied the spirit that week, so I had plenty of scriptures that I was able to find quick! It was really nerve racking, but also really fun! We did that for about an hour during the devotional. I'll never forget that experience!

In the Tuesday night devotional, we got to hear from Sister Rosemary Wixom, the General Primary President. Her talk was amazing! She talked mostly about the example of Nephi, and how we need to be obedient in accomplishing the work that we have been asked to do! It made me so excited to be a missionary in the field! Following Sister Wixom's talk, it was completely neccessary that we end with a primary song for the closing hymn, so we sang We'll Bring the World His Truth. Here in the MTC and in the field, we change the lyrics a bit in that song. Instead of singing "and we will be the Lord's missionaries" we sing "and we are NOW the Lord's missionaries". That was the first time I've sung that song here and it was so powerful!! We ARE missionaries! Ah I'm just way excited to go serve!!! I had chills throughout the whole song. The spirit was so there!! After the closing prayer, I was able to go shake her hand, and you can feel the incredible amount of love she has for the missionaries!

Ok the best thing ever happened yesterday! As you all know, I LOVE the piano and making music and everything. Well, yesterday I had the opportunity to audition to perform a musical number in the MTC! I came up with a simple arrangement of Be Still My Soul, and then headed to the audition place! I filled out a form thing and then they took me to the audition room, where i found the judges: the MTC presidency and their wives. Scary stuff. So I played my song, and they said it was so amazing! Normally, I would get a bit nervous performing, but I felt so much confidence! I was just so happy to be able to play!! They told me they would let me know the results in the mailbox later that day, and within a few hours, there it was! I'll be performing at the new missionary welcome devotional next week! They said there will be close to 1000 people, so please pray for me! I'm so grateful for this opportunity! And as always, I want to express my appreciation and love for music!! I'm so grateful for the gift of music in my life and I love how we always sing hymns to start meetings. They invite the spirit!! The piano has taken up most of free time in my life, and I just love expressing myself through music!

The Tongan elder on my floor left this week to Missouri. It was so hard saying bye to him! He was awesome! We tried telling him some jokes the other night and his responses were gold. I think I said this last week, but he didn't know any English before the MTC, and here in the MTC you learn languages quick, but we're really only taught how to teach the gospel. So when we asked him why did the chicken cross the road, his response was (in a thick Tongan accent) "the chicken cross road to die! To get to his Heavenly Father and to return to his chicken family!" Oh man you guys had to have been there!!! Then some said what did one window say to the other? "He say I love you. I love you like Jesus Christ love you. Jesus Christ love all the people here. That's what he said to him." He didn't even know what a window was. I love that dude! He's gonna do great things in Missouri!

Elder Hendrix and the elders in his district.

Elder Lords and I were an hour late to class on Wednesday morning, for a completely valid reason. While we were in the showers, everyone else went ahead and left to class early. I guess that they assumed we had our keys, so they shut the door. They were wrong. We did not have keys. We did not have our keys at all. We were the only ones in the building, we didn't have phones, and we were wearing nothing but towels... Long story short, we eventually made it to class...

Elder Martin (Barcelona), Elder Hendrix (Madrid),
Elder Hammond (Argentina) and Elder Sant (Malaga, Spain)

We had our last lesson with Elias yesterday. He was such a cool dude! It was so awesome watching him progress! For our last lesson, we taught him about enduring to the end and pressing forward. And then we looked at Madrid on google maps on his ipad for half an hour. I'm gonna miss that guy!

Elder Kitchen left for the field this week! It was hard saying bye to him, but he's gonna kill it in England! I'll try attaching a picture of us... these computers are weird..

Missionaries from Gilbert Vintage Ranch Ward: Sister Lee, Elder Hendrix and Elder Kitchen

Only one P day left until I'm off to Espana! I'm so excited to get out there! I know that this gospel is true and I love it and I'm so excited to share it with the people of Madrid! Once again, thanks so much for all the love and support! I miss everyone so much!

Elder Hendrix

One more thing!! I just got my flight itinerary literally 5 minutes ago and I'm out of here on the 28th at 3:30am! 16 hours to get to Madrid! YEEEESSSS!

The paper chain with a link for each day
left in the MTC