Another letter (MTC)

"September 2nd, 2013

Dear Familia,

Hellllooooo...Sorry I haven't written in a while. Haven't had any personal time. SOOOOO much has happened. I've gone through so much. I've had crazy spiritual battles with myself. We went to the temple on P-day and saw the awesome video. So cool. Hope you guys have gotten around to seeing it already, if not, GO DO IT! It's a million times better. I went and watched films from Bednar and Holland, they really showed me how much a mission means. I've been struggling so much with being homesick, and not understanding anything, and not teaching well, and not knowing what I'm doing. I almost went home so many times. I'm so thankful I've got people here that love me, and people at home who love me. My branch Pres is amazing. He's helped me in ways I can't even explain. And all the Elders in my district, and zone, are amazing examples.

I've come to learn more that I'm not here for me, I'm here for the man upstairs! So yeah, I see Josh all the time. He's awesome. I've actually found a few more Murray people I didn't expect to see. Crazy, right? I also found a new missionary that is from Ethiopia. He speaks fluent Amharic. It's a cool sounding language.

Yeah, we've been super busy here. I never have time to write you! And I just wish I could send you pictures more. Haha, cause I've been taking a ton. Everyone is just so fun around here. We had a giant marshmallow dodgeball war thing in our residence. Tay sent me a ton of mallows, so I put 'em to good use. It's just way fun. I'm really starting to love it here.

I really just want to get out to the field but we have no clue about travel still. We were technically supposed to leave today, but there's huge problems with our visas. We've had to go talk to the travel office every day, and they're really unreliable...We've seriously tried talking to them twice a day, every day. The only thing I've managed to get out of them is we will either stick around the MTC if they think we will get our visas soon, or we will get temporarily reassigned to somewhere in the states. SO it's all up in the air. I think God is just trying to teach us humility and patience. Ya know, the whole "big, bad mission" thing. A mission is a mission, and we're on the Lord's time.

Oh, and yes, I've met Elder Bennion and Taylor. They're in my district. Both really cool. We are all unique, but similar. Our district is plain awesome.

So, we have a newer Elder who came into our zone last week. He's gone through so much to come on a mission. He's 25, and has some sort of disability I think. He's had to have lot of facial surgeries, and he's been adopted countless times. Hard life. But, he is probably the one I look up to the most here. He is by far the nicest person I've met, and he has such amazing insights on everything. I absolutely love the guy. Me and him have really hit it off.

All of our zone left on their missions already. The ones going to Georgia, already left yesterday, and the ones going to Salt Lake left this morning. All amazing people, and I'm gonna be writing them for sure. You'll have an email tomorrow, so I'll answer more questions then. I love to hear from all you, and your letters really mean a lot more than you think. You can go ahead and post my letters on that blog if you want. I've actually got time to write! Haha I love you all so much, and I'm praying for you!

Elder Beardall"