Preaching in Puerto Rico: MTC life and a recipe for Tanner

I'm doing really good but for the first few nights, my sleeping was really bad and I couldn't get to sleep for until like 12:30. Now I'm tired when we go to bed and I fall right to sleep and sleep peacefully through the night. Waking up is so hard! I'm happy, it's only when we have down time or right before bed that I seem to think about home and how much I miss everyone. It's getting easier. Elder Morris is a good companion and we work really well together when prepping for lessons and such. He's nice and laughs at all my jokes, so that's cool haha.

Most rooms have 4 missionaries, but somehow Elder Morris and I only have us in our room. Next week, we are getting more missionaries in the MTC and may get 2 more put in our room but that probably won't happen, is what Hermana Romney said. They do church in one of the larger classrooms in the building with all 60 missionaries, and then split into English and Spanish priesthood and Sunday School lessons since there are so many Latino missionaries here too. We went to the temple this morning, and will go on every P-day in the morning before we can do anything else. It's a really pretty temple and I'll send some pictures. Super cool to be in the session with all the missionaries. They did two sessions, one for English and one for Spanish.

I'm glad it sounds like you guys had fun for the 4th. We celebrated the 4th here on Friday the 3rd with a big dinner and lots of decorations and stuff. We did it on the 3rd because the MTC fills with people on the weekends who are going to the temple. The food here is really good, tell Tanner that it's basically a lot of rice and beans with a little bit of meat on the side. Usually chicken. They have fruits and lots of bananas, and we've discovered that if you take the sweet bread rolls, cut them in half, spread peanut butter on it, put four Oreos in, add some chocolate sauce, fold it back up and then put it in a waffle maker or some kind of hot press, it makes one delicious desert. Maybe Tanner can try to make one.

Spanish is hard. We speak it constantly but some things are just so hard to pick up on. Although hard, I have improved so much. I can pray, bear my testimony, and basically go through the first lesson in Spanish. Sometimes typing this email is hard because I try to spell things in Espanol. About every other day at like 8pm, we go across the street to a park and practice our Spanish by talking to random strangers about the Restoration. We introduce ourselves and then talk about the message of the Restoration and ask if they'd like a pamphlet. Then we bear our testimonies. It's pretty simple but it helps with our Spanish and teaching so much. The spirit is so strong when you can sit down with a random person and share your beliefs with them.

Each day is basically the same so there's not much to say there, but the teachers are amazing and are so invested in us missionaries even though they too have to work 13 hour days plus go to school. We are truly blessed to have them as our teachers. President and Sister Romney are the MTC president and wife, and they are extremely nice. They love the gospel and are really concerned for the teaching and well being of the missionaries.

We only have 45 minutes to email so this is all I have for now, and if I think of more at the end of my time I'll send another. I love you all so much I know this gospel is true and that I am in the right place. I miss home but thankfully that has not gotten in the way of my learning and the spirit I have felt here. I truly want to be able to share the blessings of my life with others. The mission is a hard but rewarding thing and I have already seen that. You are all in my prayers every night and before every meal, even in Spanish!

Thank you guys for your prayers.

Anyways, I love you guys and I can't wait to hear more from you!

Love,

Elder Nelson