Week 4 in the MTC

Hi everyone!

Well, only a couple of more weeks here!  This week was pretty dope!  It's crazy how fast time flies here (kind of a good thing).  I feel like I just emailed.  So Spanish is hard, but it gets better everyday!  I memorized the 1st vision this week!  It was so hard, but it's kinda cool to have it memorized in Spanish, because I have no idea how to say it in English!  So Spanish is coming along.  There are a lot of rules with the language, but it'll just take practice.

 

With my little Guam friend: Every night he comes into my room and just talks with me!  He's so dope!  He saw a tie that I had (legit my favorite tie) and he asked if he could have it...so ask and ye shall receive right?...so yeah he looks dope with it on!  hahah  He said he wants to see me post mission so guess I gotta save up for a Guam trip now!  But he's a cool kid.  He always calls me his big brother and it's so cute hahaha. 

The MTC yesterday put up Christmas lights for the season so we all took pics last night. They look pretty awesome!

Also the district that left last week gave me their fridge!!!!  I'm excited!  It's pretty cool I guess!

S/O to Gee family for the package and letter! 

S/O to Grandma and Grandpa B for the letters as well! 

Thank you all!  I love your letters and packages!

That's all for this week!

Love,

Elder Max Hoole

I'm the Helen Keller of Spanish

Hi everyone!

Over 3 weeks now in the MTC and the jet lag is finally over!  haha 

Spanish is hard, but I continue to work hard everyday and really rely on the Lord.  This last week we taught a legit investigator! (well, she's probably a member, but gotta treat it real! LOL)  My companion and I did a great job with teaching her, but our Spanish is still so bad.  My companion knows German so learning a language is easy for him.  Just pushes me to do better.  But the lessons are going great right now.  I still understand little to nothing, but it'll come!  

It's kind of hard to find service opportunities in the MTC actually, so I was praying for one and I met a missionary here from Guam!  He is so awesome!  He loves American candy and chocolate and doesn't like Utah cold weather!  So I sent a quick letter to my mother and asked her for some candy and a winter coat.  Last night, I gave him the package full of stuff and it was awesome!  We don't really speak the same language, but the love we have for each other is so amazing.  I might suck at Spanish when I go down to Ecuador, but there's one language that everyone can speak and it's through the Spirit.  Always feels great to serve others!  

Keep the letters coming! 

S/O to the Badgers for the package!!!!! 

S/O to the Bonnemort cousins for the letters

S/O to everyone else for the letters and prayers!

Love, Elder Hoole

Elder Hoole & his new friend from Guam wearing his brand new coat!

Only a few weeks left for us to send packages to Provo! 

MTC fun

Week 2 (1 Month Left in the MTC)

This week has been awesome!  On Sunday, we had testimony meeting and it was great to hear from all the 4-6 weekers and how the Spanish will come and it really made me feel better about my language learning ability! haha (I can't speak any Spanish) (JK I can a little, I have Prayers down, The Purpose, Baptismal Questions, and I'm now working on the 1st vision) So it's coming along!

On Sunday night Elder Bednar came and spoke to us and it was AWESOME! (mainly because it was in English and I could understand it haha)  But he really did do a great job!  Pretty much everyday here is the same so nothing really changes.  The food isn't that good anymore and I miss my bed back at mi casa, but other than that this place is fun!  Crazy to think about when I leave this place in 1 month!  Gotta really get as much of the language down as possible before that happens! 

Talk to y'all next week!  Keep the prayers and letters coming! 

Letter Home - October 15, 2016

Hola mi familia!

This place is great and a little weird LOL.  I love the feeling I have here!  Sunday was Fast Sunday and it came at a great time.  I honestly don't understand anything going on in class because it's all done in Spanish, but the missionaries who have been here for 4-6 weeks gave great testimonies about the MTC and the gift of tongues.  I've been super stressed because I don't know if I should study stuff in Spanish or English, but Brandon Regehr has given me some great tips.  Very thankful he is here!  That's probably why I'm here instead of Mexico honestly!  So things are going a lot better!  Really pray for me to receive the gift of tongues!  Other than that the MTC is a lot better than I thought it would be!  In the room next to mine there's an elder from Auckland New Zealand, Elder Johansson.  His papa works for the Church there.  Kinda cool!  Also, domingo noche our district went and watched a movie of a devotional that Elder Holland gave here in 2006.  It was awesome to watch!  Really helped me feel a lot more comfortable here.  Here's a quote from it:
 - Come to the edge, he said.
- No, we'll fall.
- Come to the edge, he said again.
- No, we will fall.
-Come to the edge, he finally said.
-So we went to the edge...and he pushed us off...and we flew!

This quote is great.  I really need to trust the Spirit and know that I'll fly when I take the leap!

Well familia buenas noche!

Should be a swell week!  (My spelling is getting worse with learning Spanish!  haha)

Love, Max aka Elder Hoole :)

Drop Off Day

Elder Hoole did not receive a Visa to Mexico so he was assigned to go to the Provo Utah MTC for his mission training.  Here are some pictures from the drop off:

This place is crazy...in a good way!

Hi everyone!

Well, I've now been here for a good 3 or so days and so much has been thrown at me!  I walk into class and so much Spanish was thrown at me.  I had no idea what was going on and I still have no idea what is going on LOL!

We taught our first lesson on Friday in SPANISH!  As you can imagine, I had no idea what I was doing or saying, but it was fun.  I'm really working hard at it.  Oh and my companion is great!  He's from Ogden, Utah and he's a funny guy.  A little quiet sometimes, but he works hard!  Now back to Spanish.  A lot of people in my class really understand Spanish and I started to feel really discouraged about everything and felt like I was getting left behind in class.  My teacher, Hermana Johnson, had me read page 10 in "Preach My Gospel" and it really humbled me.  My eyes started to water up a little haha.  I really felt that I need to spend more time studying.  I now wake up every morning at 5:30 and really study hard for about an hour.  I was also made District Leader for my district so that gave me a lot more stress (I'm in charge of 5 companionships).  But I just stay positive in front of everybody!

The MTC is nothing like I thought it would be!  It's actually pretty fun and the food is bueno.  My schedule is this:  I wake up at 5:30 and study for an hour.  I shower quickly.  I have class from 7:00-7:45 and that's just another personal or companion study hour.  We then all go to breakfast for about 30 minutes.  We get back to class at 8:15 and it's straight Spanish until 11:55 and that's when we go to lunch.  After lunch we have free time, so my companion and I have been playing volleyball.  We then have class at 2:00 until 5:00 and that's also just in Spanish.  We then have dinner and then get back to class at 6:00 and that's when we have PCL - Personal, Companion and Language Study all the way until 9pm, then from 9-9:30 we have planning but our day is already planned out so we do a little planning and then as a district we just talk about good times back home!

Some things I forgot to mention - 1st Counselor in the Branch Presidency is Rob Sowby's dad, so we talked a while about Rob and my home ward.  It was great to have that connection.  I also saw Brandon Regehr here working and that was also super awesome!

Keep the prayers coming!  Also, English speaking missionaries with ipads have it so easy.  If I ever hear and English speaking missionary complain I will be so mad.  LOL they have it so easy!

Love,
Elder Hoole