HALF WAY INTO THE MTC!!!

Well this week we hit our half way mark! Which is super crazy and super exciting!! I cant wait to get to Argentina!! 

Well Christmas dad was soooooo awesome here!! Elder Oaks came and brought his family to perform a musical devotional! It was awesome! His grandchildren are really talented!! After dinner time I got to call home!! It was so awesome to hear their voices! Then from that we went to the Night Devotional! We got right in the front row and guess who came! David Archuleta!!! He was soooo good!! The voice of an Angel! The spirit was so strong when he sang Glorious!! It was so gooood!! At the end he started shaking peoples hands and so Obviously I decided to hug him! It was such an awesome hug! I am not tall at all but he is seriously like 5'4 hahaha it was hilarious! But yah after the devotional we decided to have a snowball fight! This is because it finally snowed! Like the entire Christmas day! First time since I got here haha! But yah it was so much fun! On my team we had about 12 missionaries and on the other there was at least 50! The teams were not fair..for them ;) We seriously had so much fun! It lasted like 30 minutes haha!

Well the rest of the week was pretty normal... We spoke a lot of Spanish and taught a lot of lessons haha! In one of the lessons with our Investigator Dianna, I quoted the first vision and it was so powerful!!! The spirit testified of the first vision so strong!! I know Joseph Smith saw God the father and his son Jesus Christ without a doubt in my mind! I invite you to read Joseph Smith History if you have any doubt of this! 

As always, Hermano Becerra, our teacher, helps me feel the spirit all the time! He is so awesome! We had a 1 on 1 interview just to get to know each other a little better and something he said was so awesome. He believes asking questions is a divine characteristic of Christ! The desire to know more is so important! Before my mission, I would fall asleep reading the Book of Mormon all the time! Now every time I pray I ask for the desire to learn and falling asleep has not been a problem! This isnt just in the church! Ask questions in everything! Dont just let people tell you things. You will learn more when you ask! 1 questions turns into 2 then into 3! If you dont know for sure, ask! And if you dont get the answer you are looking for, research it yourself I love all the advice Hermanno Becerra gives me!

I love you all and miss you all mucho! Have a wonderful New Years and make this year better than last! Look for an opportunity to serve someone ever day just Christ did! Feel free to email me about your christmas, if you have a question, or if you just want to talk!!! 

-- 

Con Amor,

Elder Zaugg

ELDER HANSEN AND I CHRISTMAS MORNING WHEN IT SNOWED!!!(CHRISMAS MIRACLE)

MY STOCKING CHRISTMAS MORNING! Clayton, Santa came to the MTC too!!!

Christmas Presents :)

Treats from Gaga!!!

 One of the many gifts from Grayc!! Its a head scratcher :)

SNOWWW

WE GOT SO LUCKY

Hola everyone!!! Hope you are all have the best Christmas this year!! I am so happy to be here in the MTC for Christmas!! It is seriously such a great place to be!! I know this is super long and im sorry but it is a great story! Please at least read the second story about the boy caught spray painting! :)

Soooo my district go sooo lucky!!! Why? Because we got the best teacher in the entire MTC! Hermano Becerra is one of our teachers! He is such an awesome guy and teaches so well! The awesome thing about him tho is he can instantly bring the spirit into any room when ever he wants to! One night we had an hour left of class and he told us to just ask him questions. So me, being the lazy person i am ( or was before the mission ) asked him to give me a quick summary of the bible so that I would know it better. What he said to me hit me like a brick in the face! First he said you just can't be lazy and you have to read it. The whole thing. Not just part of it but all of it. Then he gave our whole district this pep talk,

"You have to be hungry! You have to actually want it! If you want it, and its good, God will help you! Pray for the desire to read and to comprehend and God will bless you! Know what you want and go get it! Nothing cometh to those that wait! Have faith! Act first for the power will come after you act! Not before! Faith without out works is dead! Be obedient to all the rules and God will bless you!" 

He then began to talk about his first companion in the field. This is what his companion said to him,"We don't have a chance. No one in this area wants to get baptized. No one has been baptized in this area in the past 2 years. But that doesn't matter. We are going to work harder than we ever have worked. We will know every door 5 times, we will walk until our feet cant take it anymore. And then, we will walk some more. We wont stop. The mission is not suppose to be easy. And this isn't going to be easy but we will give 100% for that is what we are here to do!"

This was so strong to me! These 2 elders ended up baptizing 2 people in this area in the 6 weeks of being there and changed how other missionaries thought of missionary work! I love this so much! No matter how hard it gets, dont quit! Satan only wins when you quit, if you keep trying, you will win and be blessed! 

Everything Hermano says to us is so strong! We are so lucky to have him as our teacher!

Since it is Christmas tomorrow we all need to remember Christ in our lives! One night while we were at choir, the conductor shared this story!

"There once a boy traveling in another country. In this country, there was a wall, with spray painted names all over it. One of the boys friends convinced him to join him and add their name to the wall. He said " Everyone does it. We will be fine" As they started to add their names, Lights flashed on and the cops were surrounding them. The police wanted to make an example of this boy so that no one did this again. They decided to nail his hand to the wall forever so that everyone would see him there and never spray paint again. The boy instantly started to cry. He didn't want to pay for his crime in this way. He just wanted to be able to see his family again. After lots of crying, the police agreed to let someone else take his place on the wall. And this person could also rip their hand out of the nail so that they could leave and return home after the punishment. So the boy instantly called his older brother pleading for him to help him. Without hesitation, his older brother said he was already on his way. When his brother got off the plane, the guard began to beat him. They said this was part of the punishment. They spit on him and even whipped him. After much suffering, they commenced with the final part of the punishment. They placed his hand on the wall and drove a large nail through the middle of his palm. The older brother after much time in much pain ripped his hand from the wall. He instantly went to his little brother and hugged him. The boy felt so bad and repeatedly asked him to forgive him. The older brother just said, I would do anything for you. You didn't even have to ask. 

This story is so strong! Jesus Christ did everything for us! He suffered for everything we have done or will go through and he didn't complain. He loves us and will go do anything for us.He already suffered everything that we will ever go through. Remember this story this holiday season and try to be like Christ! Show love for others, be king, and remember the true meaning of Christmas! 

-- 

Con Amor,

Elder Zaugg

Thank you so much for all the letters and packages this week! Shoutout to my mom, Sister Barney, Sister Quack, my GAGA, and Graycee! Love you all so much! Merry Christmas!

Awesome to get this picture from Tanner Erickson of Cutter and Ally

Sister Poulson, Sister Murphy, Cutter and Elder Hansen

Ally and her companion with Cutter and his companion at the Provo Temple

Question and Answer WEEK 2

1. Where is  Elder Hansen where is he from?

Elder Hansen is from Las Vegas!

2. Are they all going to Córdoba?

Elder Mann and Elder Rogerson are also going to Cordoba with us!

Elder Gappmayor and Elder Smith are going to Bahia Blanca so thats in Argentina!

Elder Moyer and Elder Holt are going to Bolivia

Elder Butler and Johnson are going to Mexico!

3. How is the food? What has been your favorite?

The food is great here! i love it! 

4. What is been the most spiritual thing that you have experienced?

 to listen to elder holland!

5. Favorite thing to do each day?

Volleyball and teach investigators for sure are the best each day!

6. Do you get to exercise everyday?

1 hour of gym time each day!

7. Have you seen anyone else you know?

There are a few people here from byu hawaii which is cool!

WEEK 2!!!!! Surprise visit from one of the Apostles

Well this week was so awesome!!!!!!! Having our first sunday was so cool! Most of it is in spanish which is awesome! I loved it! Monday was pretty much a normal day here! Lots of class and lots of spanish! Nothing crazy!

Tuesday was when the week got amazing!!! It started out with a service project for our district which was cleaning up another building at 6:25 in the morning... Im pretty sure thats against the rules to make Elders wake up before 6:30 but i guess they dont care here in the MTC. Hahaha im just kidding it was actually awesome! It started the day off perfectly! Then we had a lesson with Cesar, our investigator ( or so we thought ) It went super well! We always felt the spirit and he understood us really well which is crazy because our spanish is just mediocre.  But the best part started with choir!! We learned this awesome song that really brought the spirit and sounded amazing! We didnt know this at the time but we were learning this for a very important reason!! We are waiting for the devotional to start, because this is when we perform the song, and all of a sudden ELDER HOLLAND walks in!!!! It was soooooo cool!! I love him so much!! We performed the song for him and he loved it! He then spoke for an hour! His message was awesome!!! A few great points that he made were how the Book of Mormon is the best way for conversion! If you dont have the strongest testimony or you just want a strong one, READ the Book of Mormon! It is so true! I love it! He also said some awesome things about the savior and his atonement! He said that a lot of missionaries get discouraged when something goes wrong in their mission. But what we have to know that our mission is not meant to be easy! The saviors life was everything except easy. We should not expect our life to be easy! What we should know is that when we are experiencing hard times, we always have someone that knows exactly what we are going through! Jesus Christ is always someone you can turn to!

 The rest of the week was pretty much the same day after day! Lots of class and lots of Spanish haha! I did get to give Elder Hansen a blessing for comfort this week tho so it was super awesome! The spirit was so strong and I have a strong testimony of blessing now! 

On friday we found out that our investigator, Cesar, is not actually a investigator.... he is our teacher hermano Ah Su.... our whole district was shocked.... we were a little disapointed because he agreed to baptism hahahah! We are so naive lol! He is super awesome tho! I love him a lot!

One thing I want to leave you all with that is super important is what Elder Holland said. Be the best YOU, you can be. Dont try to be someone else because of what others think! The best way to convert people is first become friends with them by being your self!

I love you all and hope all your weeks are great! Have a Merry Christmas seasons!

P.S. I will send pictures on a different email!

Me, my companion and elder Johnson testing out my front screen camera  

District at the temple! 

Elder MOOOOOON 

The 4 going to Cordoba! 

 The missionaries in my district going to Argentina! 

 Matching!!!

We matched 2 days this week!  Elder Forsyth

Elder Hansen (right) and elder Forsyth ( left) The volleyball crew

FIRST WEEK

Hola mi familia! The MTC is so awesome! I seriously have loved it here!

 First I want to give a shoutout to my little brother Clay! Goodluck in your games today! Go score some goals!!!

Well the first day was definitely a different then normal life hahaha! WE got here and were instantly put in our class room and met our companion! I got super lucky! My companions name is Elder Hansen! He is so sick! We are very alike and get along great which is a tender mercy because i was very worried about my first companion! I was instantly blessed when getting to the MTC, I saw so many friendly faces from back home like ELDER MOON!!! He is doing so great and seeing his smile really helped me stay positive on the first day! Also seeing Ally as I was getting out of the car was a great blessing! I am so glad that we got to come the same day as well as Karigan! Seriously love them! We learned a little bit of spanish the first day but not too much!

The second day was the hardest day ever for me, mentally! It seriously was 9 hours of class!! And to make it harder it was ALL IN SPANISH! The first few hours were pretty rough but the gift of tounges is real! Spanish came back so fast! I am better at understanding and speaking spanish now in just 3 days then i ever was in 4 years of high school lol! But i gotta say, having the 4 year background helped so much so i definitely recomend it! Our district really got to get to know each other on the 2nd day! We were with each other the whole time! There are 10 elders in our district! We all get along super well! The day ended with at least a 4-5 hour meeting on our purpose...(not really 4-5 hours is just felt like that long.....) Im pretty sure our whole district was falling asleep which isnt easy in the chairs we got but hey I got tons of practice from Sacrament meeting back home :) 

Friday was the best day! I was finally more comfortable in the MTC and all the class was awesome! In the first 3 hours of class we planned a lesson for an investigator! This wasn't too hard but then we had to teach it in spanish hahaha! We were a little nervous to do this because we didnt know much but honestly it went so well! Cesar was an amazing guy! His spanish was actually pretty easy to understand which was awesome and probably because of the gift of tounges and I was able to communicate with him very well! Each set of companions in our district had a 20 min lesson with Cesar! Elder Hansen and I got to teach about God! We explained very basically that God exists and that he loves him!  We read from some scriptures and testified that we knew this to be true!  We then prayed with him at the end of the lesson and the spirit was very strong! I am so thankful for Elder Hansen! He is very spiritual and knows so much about the gospel! So luckily he was with me to plan the lesson! My strength in our companionship is just the language! Luckily i can speak and understand spanish pretty well now so holding a conversation is not too hard! We also had a district meeting with all 10 of the elders! We shared the hardest experience that we had been through! It was very awesome to hear everyone struggles and be able to comfort them! The spirit was so strong in the meeting! I almost cried which would have been a first! But i guess I'm still not in tune with my emotions enough yet so maybe it will happen this next week hahaha!

Its already pday hahaha! Only 4 days in and we get a pday! so lucky for us hahaha! We woke up at 630 to play volleyball! it was so much fun! Elder Hansen is a beast at volleyball!! He seriously the best one on the court! Unfortunately the mtc doesnt let us keep score because they dont want competition... this is pretty hard for me because I am so competitive lol! We get to go to the temple this afternoon! I am so excited! I will try and get more pictures of my district and my zone for you guys!

I love you all so much! I am so glad I had the most amazing friends back home to get me to where I am now! I invite you all to make someone elses day a little better by being a friend during this Christmas Season! Also feel free to shoot me an email or dear elder because reading them really lifts any elders spirit! 

Con Amor,

-- 

Elder Zaugg

 Sister Ally Murphy

 Sister Karigan Poulson

Elder Hansen (in the middle) is my companion!  I love him!

I MADE IT!

Hola mi familia!! I am safe and happy here in the MTC! I love you all! My companion is Elder Hansen! He is awesome and ill tell you more in the email next week! My p-day is saturday! I wont have a p-day this saturday i dont think but I will the next one! Just know I love you all and am very happy here! Spanish is coming back faster than I thought! lol Talk to you next week!

-- 

Elder Zaugg

December 7th 2016

MTC