9-25-14

Hi everyone!

So week one at the Mtc is complete. i only get one p day while im here, which is a little frustrating. i am leaving the mtc on monday morning at 3 am. thats too early. 

So in my district there are 8 missionaries. Elder Murray, Elder Thornton, Elder young, Sister Moe-tufaga, Sister Jacobs, Sister Jones Sister Weaver, and myself.

Elder Murray is my companion. He is from atlanta georgia, but does not have an accent. shame. he and i get along fine but between you and me, hes a weird guy. he has mood swings all the time. one minute he will be happy and energetic, the next he will literally turn his desk around and stare at the wall for a few hours. no joke. its hard getting anything done that has to be done in a companionship because he doesnt really like to talk. and when he does, he sounds like a robot. and he shows mno emotion. 

elder thornton is from montana. he is pretty cool. hes pretty quiet but he still likes to talk to people. 

elder young is from nampa idaho. he likes to talk a lot and its really hard to stay on task when hes in the room. we started a brotherhood called to brelders. because he kept mixing up bro and elder in the first few days. he has had the flu the whole time. i feel really bad for him.

Sister moe-tunaga is from hawaii. she is halarious. we even made up a secret handshake. her first name has like 50 letters. its vbilavbjfvouabfe;gvouiare. thats her name. Sister Jacobs is from South carolina. she has a really thick southern accent and likes to talk ALL THE TIME. which is ok i guess. shes entertaining to listen to. and when she does it usually brings the spirit. 

sister jones is from washington. she is super funny. we all try to get a picture of her smiling. but she has like a 6th sense and quickly makes a face. 

sister weaver is from somewhere in idaho. she was pretty quiet. the second day here she got really sick. and it turns out she has mono. so.. she went home. 

im glad i have sister missionaries in my district though. they really bring in a different kind of spirit that i dont think a class full of elders would have. 

so my teachers. they are Brother Leah and Sister Borland. Brother leah is awesome. i love his lessons. for some reason, whenever he teaches, i just feel like everything makes sense. He is from england and has an awesome accent!! he played lacrosse a little and said he got really bruised all the time. his right wrist is fused together, so it cant move. and once he told me that i could help but notice that he does things a little differently. Sister Borland is a great teacher too. but i dont connect with hers as well as i do brother leahs. she is getting married in a few weeks so i think shes a little preoccupied. she was my practice investigator as well. which was going horribly because Elder Murray doesnt know how to talk to people and pretty much just shoves lessons down her throat, and gets out of there as fast as possible. but once he finally cooled his jets and let me just sit and talk with her and get to know her, things went pretty well. she agreed to come to church and even get baptised. one of the other elders in my district, Elder Coesens (cousins), and i get along pretty well. we quote nacho libre, king of the hill, regular show, spongebob, ace venture and a bunch of other movies all the time. it would be sweet if the two of us got to be companions at some point. he reminds me of Justin a little bit. and not just because hes a ginger.

Im glad that i made the decision to go on a mission. being here is something a really needed to do. it feels so right. even though im always tired because of elder murrays excessive snoring, theres gotta be somthing wrong with this kid. i have a head cold. so i got to leave the MTC and go down to the pharmacy to get some meds. and i was like.. woah! i forgot theres life outside of here! and i saw an f350 driving down the road and asked my companion what he thinks ford stands for. he didnt get it. i then proceeded to tell him that the chevy silverado is made out of bruce lee movies and pure tornadoes. he didnt get that either. bummer.

oh! i forgot to mention that sister Jacobs and Sister Weaver are going to the bakersfield california mission. isnt that the same mission as Morgan? 

well my time is about up. but i want to say that since i got here, i have felt the spirit so strongly. my testimony has grown immensely and i cant wait to get out there and bring the people of tuscon the gospel. i wish i could write more. hopefully ill get to write on monday! i have some stories to tell! 

  i love my family (Beards too). miss you all a ton. but i know that this is where im supposed to be. 

Love, Elder Nick Erekson

 ps mom will you forward this to everyone? i lost my paper with all the addresses on it. so maybe tell me their addresses also?