Week 7: Will Be Singing in General Conference!

Hi family and friends!

The first thing that happened to me this week is I hurt my ankle pretty badly on Saturday playing volleyball. Someone tried to block my set and jumped through the net and I landed on his foot and rolled my ankle. Luckily I've done this enough times that I knew what to do and I did everything I could the first 24 hours to get reduce the swelling and the pain and everything   Then I wore an ace bandage as a brace for a couple of days and now my ankle is perfect again.

I finally met some people in the MTC going to Sacramento!  There is one Tongan Elder and one Tongan Sister and they are English speaking but they are still the first people that I've met going to the same mission as I.

I met someone here who knows Forrest.  I was standing in line waiting to get some food and the Elder in front of me saw my tag and asked if I lived in Budge Hall this past semester and after some discussion we figured out that it was my brother he was thinking about. I don't remember what his name was but I think Forrest's first roommate switched rooms and became roommates with this Elder.  He is going to Houston and I haven't seen him since that day.

I read a talk this week that I really liked called the 4th missionary. I would recommend that everyone reads it because it can be applicable to ever person and not only missionaries.  It was given by Lawrence E. Corbridge on June 22, 2002.  If you guys manage to find it and can get a copy of it I would love it if you could send me a copy. The copy I read was a sister's in our branch and unfortunately I couldn't keep it.

We finally found out about the MTC choir for general conference and I got in! (As well as Elders Perez and Jackson.)  I am pretty sure we will be singing in the Saturday afternoon session, but I'm not 100% sure.  We got the music already and all the songs will be great.   We have to get up early every morning to be ready for choir practice every day at 7am until conference but it's worth it.  This is going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm really excited to be a part of the choir!

I got a nice compliment from one of the new Elders in the advanced district from Argentina.  He told me I sound like a real Mexican when I speak Spanish, which (I guess) is a compliment because most of the people can speak the language but they have a really strong American/gringo accent.

Elder Dallin Oaks came and gave a talk this week and it was really great.  It was nice to have another apostle come to speak to us before we leave.

We got to host yesterday and it was a lot of fun.  Unfortunately I didn't get to host Daniel Woolley and I still haven't seen him across the campus but I have my eyes peeled for him at all times.  I can't wait to see him.  I also got sunburned while hosting yesterday (as well as my other two companions).  We were only outside about 2 hours but I guess that goes to show how much of the sun we see: none.  We spend every minute of the day inside and only see the sun through windows.

I got my Spanish scriptures engraved and got them back today and they had misspelled my name!   They spelled my last name 'Gaskil' and I can't get it fixed because it says 'Gaskil lll' and since there is only 1 space if they put another 'l' in it would just look like 'Gaskilllll' instead of 'Gaskill lll' so I guess I will just have to live with it.

I forgot to bring my letters with me so I will have to try my best to remember all the things I wanted to say in response to your letters.

I’m glad that you guys get to come to Utah for spring break and go to conference.  I got a package this week from Grandma.  I’m jealous that you all got to go skiing and it sounds like everything went well! I can't think of anything I need at the MTC. Everything I need is in the bookstore here and I can use my money to buy things like a scripture case for my Spanish scriptures. I think I should be getting my travel plans either this weekend or the beginning of next week. Less than 2 weeks now and I plan on finishing out strong! We have been doing lots of Spanish fasts here so I’ve been learning really well but I have a lot left to learn. 

Hope all is well!

Les Amo!

Elder John Gaskill