Jaguar You?!?

I would say that week two in the MTC was a success! All my pants still fit, Elder Bowen and I haven't killed each other, and I haven't missed a day of shaving.

So let me tell you a little about my companero Elder Bowen. What a stud. He is such a nice guy, I'm super glad that we are companions. He comes straight out of Hooper Utah. He even taught me how to say it right... It's pronounced "Huhper, where the cows say muhhhh" hahahahaha. I can't quite say it right but he said if I ever go to Hooper, I'll fit right in. He is so in tune with the spirit all the time. He comes from a family of a ton of kids and he is missing a tooth. He has never kissed a girl but regrets not kissing his janitor co-worker before he left. Hope he doesn't mind me sharing all that ;) hahaha. We have some really good talks about life, we are both really similar.

I have a spanish joke:   Que dijo un jaguar al otro?  (what did one jaguar say to the other?)

               

                                  Jaguar you?  (Jaguar is pronounced "hagwahr" in spanish)

There are 8 guys in my district. Elder Bowen and I are going to Guadalapromisedland east, Elders Holt and Wilhelmson are going to Mexico City, and Elders Jacobson, Barret, Rollins, and Brown are going to Montarey. We are a happy bunch. We like to have fun but also work really hard.

What a spiritual Sunday! By far the best sunday of my life. It started out with a priesthood meeting with all the Elders and mission presidents in the MTC (almost all of the newly called mission presidents were here). Next was sacrament which was half of the MTC and there were 6 huge sacrament tables, probably 50 passers, and each passer had two trays. It was amazing. After that was choir practice and we practiced forever before the broadcast, and then of course was the broadcast. My favorite part by far was the missionary medley video. I felt so close to my mom right then and I knew we were thinking the same exact thing :) Love ya mom...

If you go back and watch the Broadcast at lds.org you can see me in the choir at 3 minutes four seconds, and also 1 hour 54 minutes 18 seconds on the far right of the screen ;) my camera won't upload photos on these computers but I'll try to send them from Elder Jacobson's camera later today.

Other than that, life has been pretty sweet. I get my district all fired up about exercising, they all watch me and sometimes try a couple exercises I do haha. And Elder Brown and I wrestle every night in hallway for a little bit. He is super cool, he played soccer at Westminister before his mission. He swears he is going to take me down before we leave this place. The dang Elders going to Brazil on our floor always tell us to stop and that it's not safe but we just tell them that we only wrestled when we were kids and that we are messing around. The biggest thing that I've learned is that you gotta make your mission fun or it's not going to be fun. Obvious right? but really, you just gotta have a good time every once in a while.

Well, I'm learning a lot, I'm having some fun, I'm still Kadyn Del Toro, and I absolutely love what I'm doing.

Thanks for all the support :)

Elder Del Toro

A Smile from Ear to Ear

Hello my family and friends :)

Wow, I have the biggest smile as I am beginning to write this thing. I miss you all so much. Week one in the MTC was so great! I love this place. My companions name is Elder Bowen. What a stud. We get along so great and we already work so well together. It hasn't been even a week yet but I swear it feels like I've been here for like a whole month! It goes by very fast but at the same time you look back at the end of the day and it seems like the morning was so long ago. I have to look at my schedule when I write in my journal because I forget all that happened that day.

They really drop you into the fire here at the mtc. We were already praying in spanish the second day and by the third day we had our first lesson with an investigator that only speaks spanish. Elder Bowen and I just pray our little hearts out that we will be able to say the things we want to say and somehow it just comes to us. It isn't perfect spanish by any means but we are able to have a discussion that lasts over an hour without using any english. The investigator we are teaching is a return missionary who plays the role of Juan de la Rosa. He plays that role because Juan de la Rosa was someone who he taught on his mission. I know it sounds strange but it literally feels so real!! The first lesson went ok, he didn't believe that God loved him because of some things that happened in his life. We made small talk and then taught him about the restoration and about how Joseph Smith prayed to know what church to join. We prompted him to pray to God to know that he loved him. Thats the lesson in a nut shell. The next day we had a follow up visit and we brought our A game. We told him how God gave his only begotten son who he loved so that we could return to him. It was so powerful when I read that scripture in spanish. I promised him, through some tears, that Jesus Christ loves him and that God loves him. Elder Bowen talked to him about how we can have faith in him and then we asked him to follow Christ's example by being baptized  He was unsure so we asked him if he would pray about it with us right then. It was such a good prayer. He said that he knew our Heaven Father and Jesus Christ love him and asked if this was the Church that he should be baptized in. After the prayer we bore our testimonies and then he said he wanted to be baptized. It was such a great experience.

My District is so sweet. There are 8 of us and we all work really hard and our spanish is improving every day. Our teacher, Brother Urqhart is also such a good teacher and I love learning from him. The MTC schedule makes for a long day but I feel so accomplish at night after I give Elder Bowen knuckles after our companion prayer.

Just a couple fun things that happened, I hung my hammock up in our room!! We also played volleyball the other day for exercise time. We got to walk the temple grounds yesterday, and attended a session this morning.


All is well, All is well :)

Love your Elder,

Elder Del Toro

Adios Amigos

Elder Del Toro has officially left for the Missionary Training Center! Feel free to write him letters or send him emails throughout the next two years! His contact information can be found in the "Current Address" tab.