2nd Letter from MTC

Oi everybody!

Can't believe its already two weeks! How crazy is that...?  Alright well what to say about this week. 

Well classes have continued. For my doctrine class we have a new teacher named Brother Tautua'a. He is half Samoan and half Chinese. His voice is really quiet and gentle but when he teaches the Spirit is so strong! I've learned so much about myself and my roles as a missionary and also about how we are supposed to teach investigators. Due to the amount of Portugese teachers we got a new teacher and the new teacher was the Brother that was our past "investigator". How weird and awkward is that?! He's great though. His name is Brother Pinho and he is a native from Brazil. He's getting married this summer in Brazil and coming back to BYU. But yeah I'm really really struggling at this language and I've had a couple of nights where I've been super down on myself. (something I'm still working on) But I got the support from people in my District, teachers, and most importantly the Lord) Now we're starting to learn how to teach each individual lesson in Portugese. We did Lesson One yesterday and we'll get to Lesson 2 later this week.

The food is so good here. It's so evil... your sort of forced to start an exercise plan so you don't gain 100 pounds. Gym time is great as usual. I'm stocking up on those basketball skills. Might want to inform Bill Self I'll take that full-ride in two years. haha Sad to hear KU lost but I've found a lot of UNC fans here so I can enjoy my "taunting".

May I just say that last weekends conference was amazing?! I loved every single bit of it. The Spirit really was strong the whole time.

My Thoughts on Conference:

1) I'm sad Sister Dalton was released...she was amazing!

2) All of our homes must be Christ-centered. Elder Scott was the one that talked on that but if you listened to all the talks throughout conference that was the main message.

3) Every talk that was given had a certain aspect on the home. No home can be successful if one of these attributes are messed with or gone...that includes a worthy Priesthood holder(s), parents and children fulfilling their roles, the law of chasity, maintaining constant family scripture study, prayer, FHE, and so many other things that were mentioned in conference.

4) The final era of missionary work is just beginning (I'm super grateful to be a part of it). Can you imagine the reaction we had at the MTC when we heard the amount of missionaries on, training, or putting thier applications?! It's so cool!!! I'm pretty happy I'll be out of the MTC before the swarms of missionaries come in during the summer. They will eventually need a new MTC somewhere in the United States even though they are building a bunch around the world.

5) We got a true and living prophet on the Earth today! At the last session when President Monson concluded conference he said that he "evokes the windows of heaven on your homes with love, charity, etc." I can't remember exactly what he said but when he did the Spirit hit me like I just got hit by a freight train. I've heard him call down blessings before but if you think about what he said, he called down a whole army of angels to protect our homes, youth, missionaries, and everybody so we can continue to be that "light of the world". I was so amazed and it answered my prayer the night before. I've always had a testimony of the prophet but I asked the Lord to help me confirm that and he sure did! If there is anytime to listen to the prophet...it is NOW!

6) We're at the brink of the war. If you want a visual I got one for you. Jesus is at the front of the lines calling on His army. Thousands of people are standing at the front with him (missionaries/worthy priesthood holders). The Lord has instructed on this past conference on how we need to structure and fortify our barracks/training grounds (the home). With the new call of missionaries, more and more youth are going into training to go fight directly with the Savior. Satan has his army ready and he thinks he has the world under his control. But he doesn't. Sorry...I like visuals and I get a lot of Lord of the Rings references in my head when I think about what's going on here at the LatterDays. It's pretty cool if you think about it because I know the outcome.

I have a lot of thoughts on conference but I only used a couple today. I have over 15 pages of notes. Elder Uchtdorf's talk during Priesthood Conference took it's own page!! His talks are absolutely amazing even when he doesn't tell a pilot story.

Finally, I went to the temple this morning with a heavy heart about some things I'm struggling with. When we got to the Celestial Room I was prompted to turn to the scriptures and look up some things. My answers to my prayers came by ONE word... diligence. I encourage everyone to study that word like I am. It was mentioned many many times during conference. And I've run into it every single time I read the scriptures.

Anyway, I love you all! I love mail and stuff even though I'm slow to respond (just a thought)

Best of luck and Godspeed!!

Elder Esteban Mateus Untch (oo-n-ch) <---Thats Portugese