June 4th, 2009 Ryan;s 2nd Letter

Hey Friends and Family,

So yea life is still good, all is well. In case you havent seen the recent church news, ever since I have gotten here the MTC has had a huge swine flu/influenza watch to th point were we cant shake hands, hug, or do anything with contact pretty much. We have quite a few individuals here who have swine flu and other things, and are in quorantine (spelling?). But I havent gotten it yet, and i dont plan to. It has got to the point that the elders who were leaving like this week and the next got postponed a week. oh well, i dont leave for 7 weeks.
I have had the opportunity since I got here to sing in the MTC choir for the devotionals. The music and the spirit are so strong with the choir, that having the choir and a devotional speaker are like two devotionals in one night!! At times it sounds like there are angels singing with us, and I would not doubt that their are. Also either this sunday or next, I am singing in sacrament meeting. Me and 2 other guys are singing "i need thee every hour" as a trio". I am excited.
I had the opportunity this week to start going to the RC (referral center). This is where missionaries in the Mtc have the opportunity to do real missionary work, with REAL people. Its cool. If you go on mormon.org or a site like that, and you see a spot to chat with a church representative, or talk to one on the phone, or request a free book/dvd or somwething that the church gives out, this is where all that stuff is directed to, Us missionaries!! So the last time I went I called a bunch of people confirming that they got the dvd or book or whatever, and then inviting to send over church representatives (missionaries!!!) to share more info about the item! I got a lot of answering machines and talked to one person, and they agreed to have the missionaries come over, it was so cool! Saturday we are going to be instructed on the chatting service, so we can start chatting to people online who have gospel questions about life, and the church. Its cool because I can go back as much as I want on my freee time. Its exciting stuff.
Our branch president is trying to get us over the fear of asking people to be baptized, because a lot of missionaries are scared to even after teaching them a while, so he is making us go around just talking to missionaries and asking them to be baptized to get over the fear of asking people; Becasue Fear is the opposite of Faith. Our goal for last week was 100 committments. And by the end of the week I only had 29(i wasnt the only one), so when we had our district meeting he made us go out and get our goal....so i went out and had to ask 71 people in like 20 min, it was fun. our goal for this week is 120.
Church is cool here becasue every week EVERYONE has to write a talk on the same topic, then the Branch President picks two random people to speak. and it is kind of scary cuz there are only like 30 of us.
Spanish is fun. It was weird I went to pray in english the other day at dinner cuz i was in a hurry, and i could not say my prayer in english, i was speaking spanglish. not matter what i did spanigh came out with some english, even though i was thinking english. It was weird. COol but weird.
Yes Dear Elder.com, works really well. I love it. real letter are cool , but dear elder is faster. Just make sure to give me your adress if you want me to write back, cuz i only have 30 min on email. But yea i get your letters from Dear elder on the same day. Also mom and dad, I am excited to get the packege I am waiting for it, so yea I like packages and letters...hint hint....so give people my address if you would like..hint hint. Also you can add the youth to my email thing if theyd like...lauren, joe, whitley, ashley, etc.....
Ok I have 2 min....One thing I learned from the devotional this week from Bro. Gonzales of the 70, was this:

"thing of your investigators not as they are now, but as they can be, as temple going active members of the church" this really hit me, because the best way to teacc someone the gospel is to show them that you truely love themand care about them.!!1


Ok love ya all!! talk to you next week......30 sec left...have people write me!!!

Adios

Elder Chapman