Week 1 in the Mexico MTC

Ollo, my wonderful family!

Yes I did arrive in Mexico safely, and I met lots of missionaries at the Atlanta airport going to the MTC here, I´ve become good friends with all of them of course, and I will miss them as we part ways to go on our missions when it is time. The flight was wonderful! I did very much like the take off and seeing the ground from 35,000 feet. It was marvelous! I´m pretty sure I spent the entire flight just looking down at the ground. I actually did have a window seat on my first flight, but on my second flight, I had an aisle seat, which wasn´t bad, but I of course preferred the window seat. The MTC is wonderful! I love it here in Mexico! the first couple of days it was warm, but for the past couple of days, it has been quite cold! But it is still very amazing here! I love the people, I love the missionaries, and I LOVE the spirit here! Every time we as missionaries sing a hymn, whether it be for a devotional, beginning of class, or whenever, I am always filled with the spirit. Even though we always sing in Spanish, I know what song we´re singing, and it´s very powerful! I love hearing the hymns in spanish now!

On my second day here, I got to meet all the missionaries that are in the same District as me, they´re all newbies like I am of course, and I think they are wonderful people! they´re lots of fun to be with, and they´re filled with the spirit! That same night, our District got to meet our Branch Presidency. The President´s name is Presidente Torres, but I can´t remember the names of his counselors. But they are wonderful people! I always feel so happy when I´m around Presidente Torres. You look at him and you see happiness in his face, and kindness in his soul. To me, I think of him as a big teddy bear, I don´t know why, I just do haha. 

But anyway, the District got to meet them, and we got interviewed by them to find out a little more about us, but also to call someone to be the District Leader over this District. After all the interviews were finished, and the whole presidency came back into the room, the second counselor announced, after the bit of praying that he was able to do, he called me to be the District Leader for my district, District 6B!! Everyone was happy for me, and I was happy to be given this opportunity as well. I was a bit surprised, but kinda not. After my interview, I had a feeling come inside me that they were gonna call me to be the District Leader. But I was very humbled to be given this opportunity to be District Leader. I must say, when I was flying to Mexico, I didn´t have a thought in my mind to expect that I was gonna be called to this position haha. The Lord has been working with me very much in this calling. He´s calmed my fears and anxieties, and questions I´ve had concerning my calling.

My companion´s name is Elder Emerick, and He´s a pretty cool guy! He´s from Pennsyvania, and he´s turning 19 in a couple of weeks, so of course we´re gonna sing happy birthday to him as a district when it´s time! We get along really well, and we don´t have any issues with each other at all! I think we´re a good companionship, and we´re becoming better friends day by day.

I pray for my District every morning and night to become more unified in purpose, and as friends, as a family, as missionaries, and in God. I see my DIstrict in class every day, and see the Lord answering my prayers. It is truly an amazing sight! I am very grateful to the Lord for answering my prayers and strengthening this district every day.

The language learning could be going better, but it´s going somewhere haha. Of all the people in my district, I´m the one the knows the least amount of Spanish. I am struggling with it, but I think I´m getting a bit better at it! On our third day, we got the opportunity to teach our first investigator! His name is Fernando, and he´s a really good guy. He wants to learn more about our church, and about God, and the Book of Mormon. Elder Emerick and I have been teaching him about the restoration, and about God´s love for us. The first two lessons we had with him, Elder Emerick did most of the talking, since he knows a lot more Spanish then I do. I did a tiny bit of talking, but not a lot at all. I do believe Fernando feels the spirit when we teach him, and wants to learn more. But in our third lesson with Fernando, he told us that his family doesn´t want him to listen to us anymore. That was very heartbreaking for us. and we told him that if he prays, God would help him through anything. I only read one short scripture that night, and neither one of us felt good at all. We felt disappointed in ourselves and were just very sad about it. When we went back to the classroom afterwards, our district could see it on our faces. At one point, as Elder Emerick and I were walking back to our house that night, I began feeling something inside, something good. When we got back to the house, and I was writing in my journal, the spirit revealed to me that the good feeling that was growing inside, was the love and prayers of the members of our district. It was the first time that I really felt prayers in my behalf. It was in incredible feeling! As it continued to grow, I realized it wasn´t just my district´s prayers and love, it was yours and the family, it was the members of Morrilton, it was Megan, it was my Savior. I felt your love and the love of our savior so profoundly that I was crying as I wrote in my journal that night. It was the most amazing feeling I had since I´ve been here. I find myself even closer to my savior now than I was before, and I am grateful for that.

 When we went back for a  fourth lesson with Fernando the first thing he asked us was why we´re out here doing this, being so far away from our families. At that point, the Spirit just took me away, and I was forming whole sentences in Spanish. I was so amazed! there were still a few words I couldn´t think of, but my companion helped me out with that, and there were some words Elder Emerick couldn´t remember, and I helped him with that. It was the first time in our lessons that the talking was equal between us. I felt the Spirit so strongly in that lesson, and I know that Fernando did as well. I came out of that lesson so happy that night! I am so grateful for the help of the spirit, and for the help it gives. It is truly amazing!

Katie, thank you for thinking and praying for me! I am touched that you use my blanket now to stay warm at night. It makes me warm inside just thinking about it. I´m glad that you are continuing to draw, please send pictures when you can! I love you very much and I do miss you! please continue to write! I would love to hear from you!

Mom, I do use the oils I have. I especially use serenity when I go to bed, and it´s very helpful, I take Digest Zen, and I use the OnGuard beadlets, still waiting to use more haha.

I have to go now, but I love you all! Please continue writing and emailing when you can! It makes everything better!

All my love,

Elder Patrick Wockenfuss