Red Dots

Hey there everyone,

Great job last this week with writing!  On Tuesday I got swamped with 7 letters, thanks a ton!  I apologize that there haven't been any photos as of yet, I tried downloading them from my camera to this email but there wasn't any luck, but I promise they will come. 

So this last week’s been great, the Spanish is coming along in leaps and bounds, the spirit is as strong as ever, and all of us in the District are becoming good friends.  In answer to your question about the red dots, each missionary wears a red dot on the first day in the MTC to designate them as new.  Elder Mickel and I took ours off within a couple hours however, because having concourses of Elders and Sisters hounding you everywhere you went with "welcome to the MTC" started to become obnoxious. 

Sunday I prepared a 3-5 min talk in Spanish because the Zone President calls on two missionaries at random each week to give a talk from the pulpit, thankfully I wasn’t chosen this week.  It’s good preparation however, if I get into the field and ever am called upon by the president to fill in with a talk for someone then I’ll have nine available by the end of the MTC. 

After church we were given the opportunity to go for a temple walk.  We were all sprinting out the gates to get to the almost real world and escape the claustrophobia of campus.  One missionary arranged to meet with his sister during the walk and they went off to talk privately.  Well needless to say tons of Elders and myself followed and got a good laugh from the awkwardness of the moment as he completely broke the rules.  That night I had the opportunity to hear from Bro. Steve Allen (the managing director of missionary affairs) and then watch the new Joseph Smith movie. 

On Tuesday I again had the opportunity to hear an amazing talk, and this time it was Bro Duncan from the Quorum of the 70.  His whole topic was upon the typical missionary growth, from self centered to selfless and having the pure love of Christ.  One quote that stuck with me was that we must lose ourselves in the work to find ourselves, or in other words, to reach our fullest potential as servants of Christ. 

Wednesday I had probably the last opportunity to feel like I'm racing that I'll have the rest of the mission.  The gym keeps various MTC records for I think the entire year, and with the new year past the board was cleared and new records began.  I had been eyeing the mile record (5:08) for awhile and finally decided to tackle it.  I beat it with a 5:04 and will hopefully have my name posted on the board with that time in a week.  I wanted to make it way faster, and I could make all the excuses of why it wasn't, but I'm just not in racing shape at all right now.  I'm only in maintain and control mode, but still it felt good to make that final accomplishment.

Thank you so much Gram!  I got your package on Wednesday and loved it (and so did my roommates). 

Finally, yesterday Elder Mickel and I finished teaching our mock investigator Marco.  We new he was already a member, but we still felt such sincere love and urgency that he came to except the gospel and find its joy.  When we finally were able to commit him to baptism we were completely overjoyed.

Anywho, I have no more time, love you all and I hope to hear more from you,

Elder Harker