Hey mom,

I just got back from the temple, and it was great.  The spirit was way strong.  I think it may be the last time I can go for the next 2 years because the Provo temple is closing until the day before we leave for Albania.  So that's a little bit of a bummer.

Anyways, I got a dear elder from Jason saying that his friend Natalie was going to be here, and I ran into her yesterday at the devotional.  That was fun.

Yesterday I got a mysterious box with my name on it in front of my room that was filled with candy, gospel stuff, a picture of the Boise, Idaho temple, and a toy robot spaceman thing.  It didn't say who it was from, so I have no idea who to thank for it.

The letters don't sound too much different than English.  And all the letters always make the same sound, so that's nice.  The language is fun, and I'm finally memorizing the past tense of verbs.  I found a really easy way to do that too.  The way I found, you only have to memorized the verb, the participle, and the You plural present form, and you have all the past forms.  That has helped my progress.

When I call people at the RC, I am always pretty nervous.  Sometimes it's really hard just to click the dial button to call people because you never know who is going to answer.  Plus, I just don't like telephones very much.

Hey Caleb, how are you today?  I miss you a lot.  I don't have anybody to play the pokemon board game with anymore.  I hope someone at home is able to play that with you or else you wouldn't be able to play it either.  I am doing good here in the MTC.  It is really cool, and I am learning Albanian really fast.  Soon I will actually be in Albania.  I don't think it snows in Albania very much, so I won't be able to make very many snowmen.  It has been snowing a lot at the MTC though.  I hope you are having fun at home.  I love you.

Hey Tyler, that's great that you're learning how to play those instruments.  One thing I should have done during piano lessons and in Belgium was practice.  Going too long without practice doesn't help very much.  Anyways, I learned how to say "My Boy" in Albanian recently.  Here you go: "Çuni im" pronounced (choo-nee eem).  Anyways, have fun at home.  I'm getting pretty antsy to get to Albania, but I still have 4 weeks.

Recently, we've been having substitutes teaching our class because Brother Krumwiede had to be in this Christmas around the World thing.  One of the teachers told us how they had a phrase in the MTC that was "Kill Babylon" which pretty much just meant not to focus on anything worldly or anything that was back at home.  We have been told several times that we need to not worry about anything at home because if we do what we are supposed to here, then our families and everything will be blessed because of it.  It seemed a lot easier to kill babylon in the first couple weeks, but it started getting more difficult.  I think I'm doing better though.

This week we teach the first lesson again in Albanian, and so that's something I probably need to work on.  We actually teach it tomorrow.  It's a little exciting but I'm a little nervous as well.

Lately, our district has set goals to speak only Albanian, and we all seemed serious and devoted to it at first, but then it just all dies down and we all speak English again.  This week, we even assigned a consequence to whoever spoke the most English.  That worked for half of Monday.  It makes it more difficult to speak Albanian when nobody seems to have the drive to do it.  I'm going to try to do a lot better at SYL, so maybe they will be able to do it as well.  None of our goals seem to mean too much come preparation day each week, and they all just kind of die off.  It's kind of disappointing.  I have gotten a little annoyed at times because it seems like some of my input is just tossed aside by some people.  I'm getting better at not being quite as annoyed with those things though.

Anyways, I think our companionships are the way they are for a reason.  I can relate with Elder Castro-Guzman quite a bit, which really helps now that we can somewhat communicate.  It seems like Elder Smith has a hard time relating with us though, and sometimes it seems like he is annoyed with us (and not for the same reason Logan was typically annoyed with me and john).  I think this will help teach us both patience and how to feel the spirit more often.

Recently Elder Moyes' companion was sent to quarantine, so Elder Smith jumped at becoming his new companion.  He was so excited, he didn't really tell anyone else.  Luckily, we caught on pretty quick when he just randomly disappeared.

Love,
Elder Wallentine