Holy Cow!!! Haha i have had a busy schedule for the
past year, but being at the MTC makes it seem like i have been asleep
for my whole life!.. if that makes any sense.. Its finally P Day! I
didnt think this day would ever come! You will have to excuse my email
if it isnt grammatically correct or spelled right or anything like that,
because i only have an hour to email and it takes a quarter of that
time to read all the emails you have sent me! I have come to the
conclusion that i am going to write one generic email to everyone
explaining what i have been doing, and hopefully i have time to write
each of you individually. But for now, just be happy with this because i
am typing as fast as i can!!
My companion is awesome! If i have time i will upload a
picture or two and send it so you can see him. His name is Elder
Hacking and i have already seen a couple reasons why heavenly father put
us together. We get along great! he is from salt lake- also those of
you who were at the airport met his mom! We became friends right after
security and then figured out we were companions when we got here! It
was really cool!
My week has been completely packed full of ups and
downs! I really dont think i have ever had a week last this long in my
entire life! The first full day we had here felt like a month and a
half, so I guess thats Heavenly Fathers way of giving us enough time to
learn the language since we are only here for six months instead of nine
months! We have had class after class after class! The language really
frustrated me and elder hacking at first because we couldnt talk and it
was getting annoying! Especially because there are a lot of native
speakers here (including our four roomates) who really humble us when we
try to talk to them. We had to teach a lesson IN SPANISH our third day
here! It was horrible. But since then we have gotten much better. Me and
elder hacking are a great companionship because i can talk pretty well
and he has a testimony that can clean all the water out of your
eyeballs!!
We had an amazing experience on sunday. Both me and
elder hacking were extremely heavy and depressed because we spent all
our free time studying the language but we didnt feel like we were
improving at all. Also both of us were extremely homesick. That night
after our last class (9.45) we were walking back to our room feeling
very discouraged- elder hacking was on the verge of tears, I felt
impressed to ask him if he wanted me to give him a blessing. He said he
would love that. So when we got home we knelt down and asked Heavenly
father to help me to know what to say in the blessing. I then gave him a
blessing and had one of the most incredible experiences of my life. The
spirit told me word for word what to tell Elder Hacking. It also bore
testimony to me that the same things i was saying to him, were true in
my own life. It was incredible!! I wrote a lot more about the experience
and what was said in my journal, but i dont really remember now... The
only thing i remember is how strongly we both felt the spirit and that
we were both assured that we have the gift of tongues.
Since then i have had a new method of studying my
language- I dont study until after i have read my scriptures so that i
can have the spirit when i study. It has been incredible!! I can have a
basic conversation in spanish!... unless they are a native speaker
because natives talk 15 WPS. (15 words per second) Email is great here,
but letters would be really nice because then i dont have to rush so
much. I will try and find the address. see if its on the internet
somewhere?
I have seriously been looking forward to today since i
wrote my "im safe email" last week. It is finally here i cant even
remember everything i was going to say! We went to the temple today! it
was incredible! I thought i was confused during the session in english,
spanish was a little harder! ;) But it was an extremely spiritual
experience. The weather here is fantastic. If the city wasnt so gross
and dark, i would definitly move here! Its really entertaining being out
in the city because everything is so different! They have skinny parks
between roads, it would be like if we had a ten foot strip of grass
separating bangerter highway with swings and slids on it for kids to
play on!!
Thank you all so much for all your support and prayers.
You have no idea what it meant to me to get on my email and see how
many people had written me! It seriously has been an automatic cure for
homesickness! It still hasnt set in that i am a missionary- but i can
feel a new spirit that i couldnt feel before. almost like i finally have
a purpose!! I love you all so much!! Keep me in your prayers, i have
been keeping you in mine! Pay special attention to the blessings you
recieve in the next few days and weeks, and make sure you thank heavenly
father for them.
Love,
Elder Doman
