MTC Musings-- Andy's latest

Bonjour! Ma Famille! Comment sa-va? That's about the extent of my French. I'm working hard to learn, but there have been some new hirings and stuff in the French department. So, our district has not had a teacher for the last week and a half. It's been teaching ourselves which is not too bad cuz after all its really the spirit doing the teaching. We have actually been able to keep up with the other French district that has teachers.

Last Tuesday was awesome. Elder Oaks came to speak and spoke on how to teach with the spirit (which has been a big topic lately). Elder Oaks was freakin' awesome. He is the man. I can tell that he is one of those old guys that you would not want to fight; he probably has loads of old man strength. But, he told us that because of the sacrament we are able to have the spirit with us always as we stay worthy of it.... throughout the week. It's in the sacramental prayer where it says" and always to have His spirit to be with them". So that was awesome.

The guys in the district are awesome. We have one kid that cracks me up; almost everything he does. He reminds me of an LDS Tom Tallou. His name is Elder Fernieden. He's from Canada. My companion, Elder Brady, and I have been getting along great. We are good pals. He has gotten really homesick lately so I have been trying to help him through that. It's ok though; everyone gets at least a little homesick. But all the boys are way fun. So, last night was pretty fun! You could say I pulled a grandpa Keith. I hid in our district leaders closet for a good 15 minutes, right before he got in bed. When he turned off the lights to get in bed, I scarred the CRAP out of him! It was awesome. He is kind of anal, too, so it made it all the better.

Well that's all for this week. I just want you to know I am learning a buttload about the gospel (Nacho!). But really the spirit is so strong here. I love it and love you all.


Andy's cousin Maclaine reports about Andy:

I've seen Andy a lot more in the past couple of day. He is hilarious. The first day he was concerned about the food here so I told him to check out the wrap bar. Its where you go and they make you a wrap with basically anything you want in it. I've seen girls that eat it for lunch AND dinner everyday! Anyway, he came up to me a couple of days ago and said " So you got me going on the wraps, then I got my district on them... and now we all have gas". Nice. I met a sister in his district and she said that he's funny. She said that he can definitely be serious and very spiritual but he's definitely got a goofy side. Its really fun to see him here. I took a picture with him on Sunday but it was kind of fuzzy, so I'm going to try to get another one with him.

....And He's Off

Yesterday we took Andy to the MTC. It all started about 9:00 AM as we took the ride to Ephraim to pick up Tucker from football camp so that he could see Andy off at the MTC. Between Ephraim and Provo we stopped in Nephi just long enough to grab some highly nutritious fast food at Wendy's. We arrived at the MTC, took a few obligatory photos, and did our best to keep smiles on our faces. The meeting with the MTC presidency was uplifting, but didn't quite quell the feeling of impending doom. After we tearfully said our goodbyes, Andy chose to move quickly towards the sign marked "Missionary Exit Only".