Que Happening?

I have been tempted several times to start my blog posts with cool, mysterious Spanish phrases like Jaclyn does with Tagalog....but I just can't push myself to abandon some of the last English I enjoy! haha soooo I'm gonna meet it somewhere in the hideous middle.

               Que happening?....yup, thats pretty hideous. Anyway, I'm in the MTC!....Just like last week...and the week before! haha If you can't already tell, it's starting to get a bit repetitive and I'm running out of things to keep me entertained. Luckily, my district is full of hilarious guys and 2 sisters who can always provide some comic relief. The other night we were about to go back to our dorms after class ended and someone decided it would be funny if we waited for the sisters to come back and then scare them....if we are being really honest it was probably me who suggested it but hey, we did it, they loved it, I am still the DL so how bad could it have really been. But it was funny cause we had to wait in the dark for like 10 minutes hoping that they were coming back soon and before this all happened, I was under the impression that it was only hard for little kids to sit still...but CLEARLY I was very, very mistaken.

Panoramic of our Classroom

              Anyway, this week has been pretty good! Not much has happened, while at the same time sooo much has happened. On sunday we were watching the Joseph Smith movie in this big auditorium and during the movie I had this overwhelming sense of guilt come over me. I have never read the Book of Mormon all the way through at one time! I always claim to love Joseph Smith so much and I tell people I believe in him, heck, I'm even out serving a mission telling people that all they need to do is read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and yet I MYSELF haven't even done that truly!! I have just taken it for granted for so long and so right then and there i decided i was going to read the whole book of mormon from cover to cover while I am in the MTC. I am currently on page 157 and it has already been an incredible experience for me. As I've been reading I have kept a list of the scriptures that i want to remember because they are either cool or applicable or powerful and I want to use them with investigators/teaching. So far I have used sooo many of them! And i've gone deeper into stories in the scriptures, pulled new insights and meanings from the parables, and even had times in class where I'm just craving to read it more! Who knew the Book of Mormon could teach you so much?! ;)

              So I am happy to announce that my basketball has improved. You may think this is something not very relevant to being a missionary but I begggg to differ haha when the only things you look forward to each day is mail and gym, your performance in those areas starts to weigh in the balance haha but it's been better...jussayin.

               We got to go on a temple walk on Sunday, although it felt more like a temple mob. There were like 400 people there...and then some. And everyone had friends coming from BYU to say hi and there were directors trying to send those people away and it was chaos.....or in other words a much needed break from the regimented schedule of the MTC haha the other elders in the district and I realized just how sad our lives have become in some ways, when we noticed that there were different pictures in the slideshows shown on the tv's in the cafeterias. That and the fact that the Joseph Smith movie that we watched had a kissing scene in it and I'm pretty sure i blushed....YOLO.

My first self-done haircut!

               I have been really doing not much else! I've been working on faith this week because I lost my DOP kit or whatever you call it with my toothbrush, toothpaste, ect. Which isn't that big a deal except then i realized that it had my retainers in it :( So I've been trying to track it down but without much luck, but whenever I pray I feel pretty comforted for the most part so maybe I'll find it or maybe I'll just have to hope there is someway to make/send some more...not likely but a kid can dream!

               But that's about it for this week. Things aren't bad and I ended up getting a package from my family AND one from Evan and Tracey's family which made my week! It was full of chips and a hand drawn picture addressed to an Elder Hamm in very careful handwriting. haha of course the best part was when Jenna asked if the weather was warm where I was cause it had been snowing at her house....well 5 minutes can make a world of difference, but I think it's been fairly cold here too ;) Everyone in my district is excited to be going to Mexico and we're always talking about how they can't wait. I'm excited too....but I'd like just a bittt more time with the language. But i guess it will come with time. My branch president said the gift of tongues is real but it can't work within a frustrated heart so I'm doing my best to keep a positive attitude.

Elder Hamm and Hermano P

               Anyways, I always like to kinda end on a spiritual note with my blog posts and this week has had plenty of them. My favorite teacher ever in the MTC, Hermano P. is unfortunately/fortunately getting married in 8 days and so he is gonna leave us soon :( It's really sad and so last night we were taking pictures with him and then he sat down and began to talk to us. As he was talking, he told us about what a hard time he had after his mission and spoke about very personal trials he had to deal with after his return. He said "Once you've gone through so much pain and anguish to birth your misery, you will die to protect it. The more people tell you something that you know is wrong is wrong, the more you'll protect it." I've found that's really been true in my life. It's kind of like the need to rebel. Good ol' Rexburg Idaho reaches as cold as 25 below 0...clearly you would not want to be caught dead in shorts in such weather. But I found that just because BYUI forbid the wearing of shorts on campus, it made me want to wear the shorts even more! And the more people told me that shorts were going to very literally get me killed, the more I fought against my better judgment, and claimed shorts were awesome, even if my legs looked like two hunks of frozen beef by the time i got home. We have to learn to let those things go. It may seem like our self-righteous cause at the time and it's some huge deal, but if you try to give up whatever it is that is weighing you down so much, you will find your burden is more than relieved. The other thing he spoke about was worth. Everyone wants to feel wanted. Nobody, and I mean Nobody, has ever said: "Man i really wish more people would dislike me, or not accept me for who I am." It's hard to love people unconditionally and sometimes it seems impossible. But I know it isn't, because Jesus Christ does it for me everyday. In the story of Peter walking on the water, the lord doesn't run to Peter's aid. He doesn't rebuke Peter for looking away from what really mattered. He didn't ask him to beg for help. Instead, Jesus waited. He waited for Peter to realize that he could no longer help himself, and the veryyyy second that Peter cried out for Christ, he grabbed his hand and pulled him from the crashing waves that were pulling him under. We sometimes don't want, sometimes don't ask, nor are we worthy of our savior's love...but he gives it to us anyways. He loves us that much. The atonement is the physical manifestation that YOU are worth it. It's a beacon of hope in the darkness of doubt, when your self-worth comes under question. "I feel my savior's love, the love he freely gives me.