20 June 2016 - 16 Hours

Dear friends and family,

Elder Karthigeyan usually gives me a funny random word to start my email, but he left last night, so I guess I gotta pick one today: "twinkletoes"

So, now has passed my last week of training here at the MTC. It has been such an amazing experience. I have learned and grown so much in so many ways. I leave the MTC in about 16 hours (at 4am with about 8 of us total that will be travelling to our mission, all of us Lisbon-bound. It will be fun, but I'm sure just like all the other times I've flown early in the morning before, I will just be exhausted all day, and travelling days are long days, especially when you have to cross a continent and an ocean.

(As I said earlier) Elder Karthigeyan left last night, so he's off for his mission in Porto. I'm sure he'll do really great. Him and some other Elders stayed up really late with him playing cards and chess (shhhhh) and apparently they were really loud, but I guess I was out cold because they didn't wake me up from my hibernation.
I'm still with Elder Francis until I get to Portugal, then I get a new companion, which is exciting.

So this week was kinda the usual. We had a Pday, then all sorts of class and study time throughout the week. Once again, I just learned so much each time. Our teachers really just provide such amazing insight and help with both the language and learning the gospel. On my own language study time, I memorized all the conjugations for all the irregular verbs in portuguese. So, some odd 10-12 verbs, each with 6 forms, in present, preterit, imperfect, present subjunctive, past subjunctive, and future subjunctive. So, like 10*6*6 right? So yeah 360 ways to say the same 10 or so verbs. Lovely.
Admittedly, my memorization wasn't perfect, but I basically got them down. There are some patterns in the irregularity, in other words, there's a method to the madness. At least I'm not learning English, man.

On Tuesday night, Elder Soares, from the presidency of the Seventy spoke at the MTC. It was a really good talk, but the coolest part was the fact that him and his wife are Brazilian. So, Sister Soares didn't speak, but bore her testimony at the beginning of the meeting in Portuguese. Her husband translated after every sentence or so, but I understood virtually everything she said! But, I'm sure in the field I will have to definitely train my ears for not only native Portuguese and their speed, but also expand my vocabulary greatly. Either way, it was pretty cool!

So last week I was sick and didn't get to do TRC (teaching recent converts I think, but it's actually teaching members while we're here) because I was sick. I had done it earlier weeks, but it was with RM's who knew portuguese, and they were in person. We did teach a brazilian though in person, it was really cool. But this week and last were Skype TRC's, in other words, we skype call a member who has volunteered to participate, and we teach them. On Thursday we called a lovely lady who lives in Portugal now named Delila, and it was really cool! Unfortunately the call quality was pretty bad, and because of that it was often hard for us to understand her, but when it did work I understood her pretty decently haha! I'm just super excited to get to portugal because I hear that not even my mission president speaks english so I'll just be chucked right into the deep end, which is great (no sarcasm intended). Maybe I'll even get a Brazilian companion or something like that! That would be sick! (too many exclamation points, I'm starting to sound like a teenage girl)

One of the last activities we did with our teachers was really cool. Normally we teach investigators (teachers role-playing as such), but this activity was different. We were assigned to teach our companions. Me, being in a trio, obviously made a problem, so I was paired with Br. Workman (the super smart and spiritual yoda-level teacher). We had 5 minutes to talk with our companions, to figure out what they need, and how we can help them, 10 minutes to study and plan what we would share with them, and then 15 minutes to teach them. I was pretty intimidated, Br. Workman has been teaching me so much since I got here, and now it was my turn to teach him. Oh, and all of this was to be done in Portuguese. So, I was kinda nervous. I thought that I couldn't possibly teach Br. Workman, an RM and spiritual giant, something he doesn't already know.
I made a decision. I put all that away, and  told myself "I'm a missionary, and if I'm doing my part and follow the Spirit, then nothing can go wrong, and the Spirit will teach Br. Workman something, even if I know not what it is."
So, with that new gumption, I studied, found some scriptures to share with him according to his needs, and taught him. It was really cool. It was crazy because he actually did learn. He said stuff like "I've never thought of it that way before", or "I've never noticed that part/word before" and it was great. He then taught me, and I learned a lot to. But I honestly learned more when I taught him.
I learned not to doubt myself and to just put my trust in Christ for help, and welp, it just worked, the end. The church is true guys.

So yeah.

I wish I would've kept better track of what happened this week, hope you guys aren't disappointed. I often keep a little journal with all sorts of little bullets I want to share, but I forgot to do that this week. I don't want to imply that this week was lame or boring, in fact it was probably my best week here. I just learned and grew so much this week. I was put to the test quite a bit in lessons and in teaching, it was really leaps and bounds.
But I guess that's all I've got to share! I've got a ton of packing to do today.

Ciao,
Elder Ward

 Thanks for the donuts from DearElder mom! they were great!

 Here's my district posing with one of our teachers, Sister Schill (white name tag)

 Here's us with our other two teachers, Brother Lemperle (back left), and Brother Workman (middle). Then there's Brother Mason, a MTC teacher in-training who is just great too (back right)

Brutally cheesy, sorry.

16 June 2016 Cough + Bednar

Dear Friends and Family,

This week's starting word is "doritos"

I'll get right to it. So Monday (pday) last week, after finishing up with writing, my companions, some elders from my zone, and I all had some down time in the residence before evening class started. I can neither confirm nor deny that we may had wrestling matches.
Nah don't freak out we stayed on hands and knees so people were less likely to get hurt. Everybody got really bad rug-burns that are now lovely scabs on our elbows and knees. Oh and a side note, no one beat me. (we have an elder here who wrestled at the air-force academy, but luckily he wasn't there at the time, then someone surely would've cracked a skull)

As for the usual news, I'm still a busy bee. Still up at 6:30am, and studying and eating until 9:30pm. It's funny, every minute of class is usually filled, but sometimes our teachers still give us little homework assignments, which are super hard to find time to do, because we just don't have time (except pdays ok gimme a break)

At some point this week, some Mission Presidents in training came to our class to teach us a little lesson... and they were Brazilian! So for the first time I got to hear some Portuguese (albeit, brazilian variations) straight from the horse's mouth! It was really cool and strange to hear it. I understood a lot, not perfectly, but a lot they said, but they spoke simply, and were there to practice english too. It was still really sweet though! It was strange, Portuguese is a language spoken with the throat and nose, whereas english is a language spoken mostly in the mouth. It will take some getting used to.

Sooo, Tuesday was a big day.
We ate dinner, and left a bit early to head to the gym/conference hall for choir rehearsal. Everyone piles up outside the entrance in this hallway to wait for them to open the doors. They keep them shut so they can do sound checks inside, and elders and sisters wait outside so they can get good spots in the choir (everyone knew Bednar was coming, so they wanted to be in the choir, we were probably 800-900 people, in a hallway).
So were sitting there, it's crowded, it's hot. There were some Elders and Sisters with me form my zone, so we were chatting, the usual, when an idea came up. We thought up the idea to start singing to see if we could get the whole crowd to join in. So I took the lead, and gave a countdown, and then the handful of us in the middle of this massive crowd started singing "The Spirit of God". It was a little awkward at first, people looked at us weird, and then it took off like a rocket. Within 30 seconds every missionary (like I said, hundreds, in a little hallway) started singing. It was awesome. We sang loud and proud, but stopped before the 2nd verse (well nobody knows it well enough) Some people clapped at the end, it was hilarious.
But that's not all. We brainstormed, and then got the everybody to sing "Army of Helaman", "Called to Serve", and then finally, the good ol' "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam". Whenever the sun-BEAM part came all the missionaries in the hallway jumped at the same time like back in primary, it was hysterical. Y'know, the spirit was nice and strong too.
But THEN, this guy came out and made us be quiet to make an announcement and then let us in, didn't even have the courtesy to let us finish...

Then the devotional started, and just as planned, Elder Bednar walked in. It was a really cool devotional. I would love to elaborate on what he spoke on, but I'll keep it simple. He talked about the Savior's ministry, and different examples through the scriptures where the Savior ministered to people "One by one". His message was that our Heavenly Father and Christ love us infinitely, but most importantly, one by one, or individually. It was really cool, and I'm not doing it justice. We performed his song, "One by One" after his talk, but he told us the reason he was letting missionaries perform his song, and it was because he wants us, the missionaries, to be the first to know and hear the message, that we are all loved, one by one. Sniffles everywhur.

Change of topic, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I was sick with a lovely cold. It wasn't horrible, but the main problem was that it made it really hard to get good rest at night, and have energy in general. So, I missed quite a bit of class time so I could rest. I did not like it. The worst part was missing class, and having to stay in a boring dorm all day. I would study, but class is just so much more fulfilling. It was a bummer. I'm feeling quite a bit better now, but I've still got a residual cough and headache, but nothing major.

Random fact: Elder Karthigeyan has never seen a live pig.
Speaking of companions, well, it's the same old story. Elder Karthigeyan still works hard, but still has a bit of trouble with the language. Elder Francis is still not leaving home behind. He prints out his emails and re-reads a lot of them every night, and looks at photos of loved ones every night before bed... and if that doesn't make someone homesick I dunno what does. Elder Karthigeyan and I encourage and let him know they're just fine, and that doing things like that can be a distraction. He says "yeah I know they're fine, it's not distracting me" ... well i dunno. Maybe I shouldn't even mention things like that, but it is what it is. We still appreciate and uplift him though in what ways we can.

We recently got our flight itinerary for our departures to the mission field. I haven't looked mine over super thoroughly, but I'm heading on June 21, like 4am (uggggggghhhh) to Cincinnati Ohio, then Paris (hey I was just there like a month ago) then Lisbon. Should be fun, I'll be going with like 8 other missionaries. I'm taking it normal, no stress, and I'm pretty excited. It's going to be a huge change for sure. I'm kinda pampered here, in many definitions. Elder Karthigeyan is going to Porto, the northern half of Portugal, so he's leaving a day before us. Elder Francis (has the same itinerary as me) got his and was just (practically) jumping for joy. He's super excited to call his family at the airport, excited to go to paris, excited to see new places, try new foods... I'm excited to teach people and speak portuguese.... He still really struggles with the language. Yesterday I reviewed present tense normal conjugations (week 1 stuff) with him and Elder Karthigeyan because they really needed it. I did it because it actually started to bother me, hearing only infinitives in sentences.
Okay I'm sorry, I shouldn't talk so negatively about him Disregard the last two paragraphs. I just really hope and pray that he has the gumption to get things done when the time requires (and it will). In no way, shape, or form do I think he's a bad kid, or a bad person. He's got good desires, just sometimes I think his heart lies in the wrong place.

Anyways, there is more to say, but not a ton of time. I should call it, before I start ranting more.

Hope you guys enjoy the email, I love to hear from you guys.

Ci vediamo,
Elder Ward

Fun fact/ps:
"esparar" has two definitions in english. It means "to wait" and "to hope". I think that's pretty cool and teaches a lesson at the same time. Think about it.

Thanks for the package Aunt Kim and you guys! Love the ties! I'll wear Dustin's with pride!

 A good ol' pday time. Yeah, someone got a mini-bowling set into the MTC.

 Elder Robinson, the one farmboy kid I talked about a while back, thinks it's fun to play a (stupid) game where you punch your opponent in the shoulder until the other quits... Anyways here's the aftermath. He said he had fun. (I didn't play, it was someone else.)

 My view from the dorm window. I know it's a bad photo, but I was sick and bored, the point is them moun'ins anyways

And a sweet photo to top it off.

6 June 2016 Lots

Dear friends and family,

I never know how to start my email so I'll start with the word "bingo"

There, now that's done.

So yeah right to it. This week has been fun. Kinda the usual, lots of classes, lots of lessons, all sorts of jazz. Language is still progressing. Yesterday for sacrament meeting we had fast and testimony meeting as a branch. We're organized into branches according to our zone, so all the Portuguese speakers are in a Sunday meeting together. Our branch presidency all either served in Brazil, Portugal, or are from one of the two places, so the meetings are held in Portuguese entirely, well, american Portuguese. But it's still good practice. I got up and shared my testimony entirely in Portuguese.

Wednesday, 460 (give or take) new missionaries arrived and I got to host again. It was a great time. It's so fun watching the new missionaries arrive. A lot of the new ones are Elders who literally just graduated from high school. We would kinda play "spot the criers" and kinda have a, uh, solemn chuckle? Nah, but it's just great seeing so many fresh kids ready to serve. I hosted 4 new Elders this time, and one of them was from Australia, he was pretty cool.

So my district has 3 teachers, Br Workman (he's like yoda, he's only like 25, but he's short and he just spews wisdom), Sister Schill, and Br. Lemperle (I think I already mentioned he's in Vocal Point, he just got married too), anyways they're all great examples and leaders. They only speak to us in Portuguese, as I have mentioned before. Anyways, I got in trouble with 2 of them. Pause for a second, and see if you can guess why. Got and idea? ... I got in trouble for speaking too much Portuguese. Huh? No, I didn't really get in trouble (but I kinda did). Brother Workman said I am no longer allowed to translate anything for my companions. In lessons, I would often speak for 90% of it, well, because my other companions couldn't say what they wanted to. They kinda let me take over sometimes, and I didn't want to let our lessons slack, so if I had to I would take the reigns myself. So, when my companions would try to share something, they would turn to me to ask for every other word, often asking for the same word more than once. Br. Workman made a good point though, he said that they are developing a dependency on me, so from now on when my companions ask me how to say something, I have to shrug. It's a good idea though, it will make them start -- for lack of a better phrase -- to pull their own weight.
Then the next morning Sis. Schill pulled me aside and told me that I am only allowed to share my testimonies in lessons, I can no longer teach them, I can only share some thoughts at the end. This definitely puts some more pressure on my companions, which is a good thing.
So since these "punishments" have been placed upon me, our lessons have been... kinda rough, it's like watching a car crash is slow-motion, and I often can only sit there. But it's ok, actually a really good thing, because Elder Karthigeyan and Elder Francis are recognizing the need for their improvement, and making progress because of it.

Anyways, rewind a bit. A couple weeks ago, Elder Karthigeyan (my companion from India) and I received invitations to take a "field-trip" so to speak, to Salt Lake Temple Square. We went on Friday, it was a blast. We went with probably 20 other international missionaries, a Frenchman, a New Zealander (from Auckland, I asked if he knew you Chase, but he didn't, he was Elder Simpson), some Korean, Chinese, and Thai Elders too, and the rest were South Americans. It was entertaining. A really nice senior missionary couple led us on our little expedition, starting on a coach bus to the train station here in Provo. We took a 2-decker train ride for an hour to Salt Lake. While we were waiting for the train, I heard some shouting, and one of the South American Elders was goofing off on the tracks, and our leader guy was just confused and got him off, quite entertaining. The way to SL, I chatted with the NZ'er (he's never seen a desert before, fun fact), then we took a tram to temple square. We had a nice tour, saw the temple, Joseph Smith Memorial building thingy, other statues and buildings. We had a nice tour of the Conference Center too, man that thing is huge. The couple that showed us around busted out some home-made chocolate-chip cookies at the end, and all the foreign Elders and sisters devoured them.

While waiting for the tram to go home, (fyi there are lots of homeless in SL), a homeless man approached us asking for money, saying he was starving to death. We were previously advised to not give anything to the poor here, and I wondered why. He continued to walk by us, until our leader fella said "hey, I haven't got any money for you, but there's a homeless shelter down the street that gives 3 free meals a day, we can take you there" and just like that the homeless man turned around and walked away, showing us his his favorite digits as he left. So yeah, that was the situation. Guess he wasn't hungry. On the tram on the way home, there were a bunch of homeless on it, and our leader fella started chatting to them. One of them started going on about drugs, and the other about how Christ was a false prophet and a fool. Our leader guy (idk what to call him ok) immediately managed to steer the conversation in to a nice friendly one about sports. It was really cool. I bet it left a nice impression on them, instead of us being stingy and recluse marmins.

On the long ride home, I chatted with a sister who is going to Hong Kong, speaking Cantonese, supposedly one of the hardest languages to learn, an Asian language similar to Chinese, from what I understand. Anyways, I asked her how the language worked, and she told me a lot about it. Cantonese has this concept called "tones". Words in Cantonese are said in one of 7 (or 8, forgot) tones. These tones are determined by how you say the word. She said the word "gouh" in cantonese in all it's forms. It was almost like your singing. If you say "gouh" with a high voice, it means one thing, with a low voice, another. If you say "goUH" with emphasis on either the beginning or end of the word, those are also different tones. If you change the pitch of the word, it's a different tone. If you emphasize the first half in a low tone, it's another type of tone. Anyways, it's just stupid complicated. She said there was a sentence (which she didn't remember) that consisted of 1 word, being said in all the tones, making a legible and understandable sentence. So if I said  gouh gouh gouh gouh gouh gouh gouh in different specific ways for each word, it would be a sentence, kinda like in english "Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo." Anyways, it sounds really weird and I probably didn't explain it in a sensible way, but I found it intriguing, I like learning how other languages work.

Then we got back and it was straight to class haha. It was a cool trip, but it was also weird, because I felt like a tourist in my own country...

So we have exercise time 6 days a week (guess which one we don't, super hard). We go play in the field just outside the MTC, literally the front lawn of the temple. You can toss a frisbee, throw a softball, soccer, etc. I would always jog out there, only about a 1/3rd of a mile, not really hard at all. But this week, I know not why, my joints just started to kill me. Maybe the whole "fish out of water" thing is catching up to me, because now when I run -- at all -- my ankles, knees, and hips all hurt. So, I'm taking it easy for a week or so, no big deal really.

We were playing kickball earlier this week, and one of the Elders in our zone did a tuck-and-role type thing, nothing major, to dodge getting tagged. His shoulder was a little sore, but he was fine he kept playing for a few minutes. Later, he got it checked and it turns out he broke his collarbone into 3 pieces (I saw the X-rays). It was funny though because he seemed totally fine. A few days ago he got surgery (luckily he didn't get sent home) and got 7 screws and a plate. How nice. He's had a miraculous recovery though, he can already use his arm again almost to the fullest, and it hasn't even been a week.

I also chat with those Italian twin Elder's when I can. It's always so fun speaking and hearing Italian again. I met an Italian sister too, who's going to Temple Square. They are a great bunch. I asked them if they new the Fossa twins, and whaddya know they do haha. Also, on Wednesday, about 30 missionaries arrived that are going to Italy, which is super cool. Whenever I see a tag with "Anziano" or "Sorella" on it I just walk up to them and start speaking Italian to them. They go wide eyed and freak out, it's hilarious.

In other news, I got called to be a Zone leader along with Elder Karthigeyan. Our zone is 35 people, soon to get 7 new mishies, it's a big, but fun responsibility. I'll be ZL for 3 weeks.
Last Wed we got 9 new missionaries who are going to brazil in our zone, and we retried our joke from last week, in which I pretended to be italian. Hear me out, I know I don't look it, but I can speak it so it turns out that most of them bought it. Once they caught me speaking English they went "WAIT I thought you were Italian!" It was a good laugh. But now I'm the zone leader, so I guess I'll cut it out for the next batch of missionaries.

As for my companions, Elder Karthigeyan is still doing good, working hard and that's all that matters. But once again, not necessarily the same news for Elder Francis, unfortunately he hasn't made much progress. We learned to pray in Portuguese the first week, and he still can't do that, at week 4. He still dozes in class, I'm not sure how I can help him more, he still greatly lacks motivation. But he is still a good guy and I hope he will do better, we still encourage and uplift him.

Anyways I think that's everything. I'm just about out of time so yeah. I love your guys' emails, and the DearElders are really nice to get during the week to.

Tchau,
Elder Ward

ps I get to see elder Bednar tomarra hehe
oh and I got like 20 compliments on my suit this week, italians man

I thought that was funny ok, it's a Utah thing

 I laughed out loud when I saw this one

 A shot from the train ride, 2 temples, one photo

 The conference center

 then I cackled when I saw this.

30 May 2016

Friends and Family,

What can I say? Another week has crept, yet flown by. It was a cool one for sure! I'll just get right down to it.

Tuesday night, Elder Dale G. Renlund came to speak to us. He gave a pretty good spiel. It was pretty cool seeing an apostle though! I was in the MTC choir as usual (no skill required, so everyone comes, it's basically an organized congregational hymn each time haha) and we got to "perform" our song. Because it was an Apostle speaking, they broadcasted/recorded it for all other MTC's around the world to hear too, meaning they filmed the choir performance too. So yeah I'm super famous now. Not really, there were so many of us, unless it did a close up of me, you couldn't even tell I was there. Funny thing, a Sister from our district/class had a close-up shot happen to her. She saw herself on the big projector screens and just went totally white it was really funny.

Language is still coming along well. I'm starting to learn the different tenses of verb conjugations, it can be a bit tricky at times, but it's just a matter of practice and memorization. We recently were assigned 3 new investigators! So now we're super stressed constantly planning lessons and constantly teaching. We're teaching Ana, an inactive member, Geraldo, a guy who knows nothing, I mean nothing about religion (which isn't a bad thing), and Bruno, an RM who is struggling with some doubts. It's quite the challenge. Needless to say, they all speak Portuguese as well.

In class, when we aren't scheduled to have a teacher, but we have extra time, I help everyone with their language studies. I help them pronounce, spell, conjugate, you name it. Once again, Italian is just so helpful. The other day I read a page from PMG in Portuguese and translated it to english as my companion checked my accuracy. He said I basically did it perfectly. Understanding (at least now) isn't much of a challenge, but I'm sure it will be stupid hard when I get out to Portugal haha.

Every Wednesday, new missionaries arrive at the MTC, and this last Wed. about 300 arrived. My zone was asked to help out with a task known as "Hosting" which is where you are assigned to help the new missionaries who arrive. For example, we put on a sticker that says "Host" and we escort a missionary away from his car and family, to the different check-in and move-in procedures. It is so much fun. It is so exciting seeing the new missionaries drive in by the dozen, in their Ford F150's, their Chevy Suburbans, and all sorts of obnoxiously huge and bulky american cars (if you can't tell, I'm still not used to that yet). One missionary arrived in a massive ford truck that I've never seen before. It sat probably 5 or 6 people, then there were probably 3 brothers in the back, and, they brought their dog too. It just screamed Utah and America all over it. I also saw Aubrey Pennock (she's headed to Jacksonville Florida mission btw) get dropped off too! It was really crazy! Her uncle (who is a spitting image of Bishop Pennock) dropped her off, so I was really confused when I saw him, and because he wasn't the Pennock I knew. I got to catch up with her a bit. It was pretty sweet. She told me James Sorge is also leaving for an MTC soon, but she couldn't remember which. (could someone verify when and where he's going? it would be so sweet if he came here).
We got a total of 10 new missionaries in our zone (all brazil-bound, american, 2 elders 8 sisters). We set up a joke before they came. We got Elder Karthigeyan to pretend he didn't speak english, it was hilarious. We set it up pretty well, and then when the cat got out of the bag the new missionaries were pretty stunned, because they legitimately thought he didn't know english. Next week though, I'm going to pretend I'm Italian, along with Elder K doing the same thing. It will be tricky of course, but we'll make up some story, like my parent's were Irish or something. And I'll obviously only speak Italian around them.

Earlier this week, an announcement was made that requires sister missionaries in effected areas (those being places like South America and some Island Missions) to wear slacks instead of skirts. So now Sister Missionaries in slacks will be more common haha. The sisters in our zone pitched a fit, it was pretty funny. They released this new rule because there is a virus that threatens women in particular, and it is spread by mosquitoes, so they just want to help them cover up. The part of the announcement I liked, though, is that sunglasses are now allowed all the time for missionaries, which is cool (although I still won't use them that much, they seem a bit unprofessional).

The other day I was walking back to my dorm with my companions, and passed a group of (probably) Samoan or Polynesian elders. One of them burped, so I burped back promptly, and then we exchanged a couple more volleys of burps as we passed each other. They obviously didn't speak english, but I think it's pretty cool they offer Burpese at this MTC, although mine is definitely rusty.

In a random conversation one day in class, I mentioned the word "ratchet" in some context about needing a tool, can't remember why. One of the sister mishies looked at me really weird, and then it dawned on me -- she didn't know what a real ratchet was. I lost some faith in humanity, but it was pretty hilarious explaining to her what a real ratchet was. (mom, dad, ratchet is a slang term used to call someone that looks silly or 0"ghetto" -- commonly used by teenagers, so she only knew the word in that sense.)

Yesterday we had a choir rehearsal, and we are rehearsing a (top secret, so don't tell okay?) new primary song. It is written by Elder David A. Bednar, which is pretty cool. The MTC choir is actually going to premiere the new song, accompanied by a small group of 5 primary children (whom may or may not be Bednar's grandchildren). Also, such children's grandfather may or may not be coming to the devotional to see his own grandchildren premiere a new primary song.
(If you're lost, Elder Bednar is coming...jk no he's not...or he might be, idk. i didn't say anything)

My companions are kinda the same ol' story. Elder Karthigeyan is still all around great, still struggling a bit with the language, but working hard, and that's all that matters. However, Elder Francis is still struggling a lot. I've tried so hard to continue to encourage him. He's very lively at exercise time or meal time, but in class he doesn't share the same enthusiasm. He is going through a lot though, but we are being patient and helping him the best we can.

Anyways, I think that's it. I love all the letters I receive.

Tchau,
Elder Ward

Elder Karthigeyan and Elder Francis having a ball in class

 We have a field all to ourselves to use for exercise, isn't that sweet? Only in Utah I guess.

Me and some other Elders from my zone chillin' under a tree by the temple.