A new letter

Dear Family,
It was good to get your letters. I think I said this in my last letter, but I wasn't able to write until last Thursday so I'm sorry if I left you wondering what had become of me. I actually didn't get most of your letters until I had already sent mine off so let me reply to some of your questions. Yes, there is a choir here and my entire district has been going to the practices. We sing at every Sunday fireside and Tuesday devotional and those always fill up very quickly, but if you're in the choir then you are pretty much guaranteed a saved seat. I feel great about my Spanish. I really have been blessed with the language so far. I learn more and more every day and I've already had a couple SYL's (speak your language) during lunch that I just committed to personally. By next Friday, our instructors have challenged us to have an SYL and everyone promised to do it, even though a few were reluctant. I'm glad that you had a great trip to Oregon and it sounds like Dad had some great hikes lined up. What's the deal with Bryce doing rugby now? I've had a couple letters from you mentioning that, but who is he doing it with? Anyway, I'm doing awesome here. The time has just been flying by and lot's of days you wake up realizing that things you thought weren't for a couple days are right then. The temple here is amazing! We did a session last P-day and I loved it so much. The temple is the one place while you're here at the MTC where you can actually just sit and ponder about all the amazing blessings you have. We also have had some incredible firesides. Among the speakers we've had are, Richard G. Hinckley, a coordinating director for the MTC, Brother Heaton, and then just this Tuesday we had Elder Jeffrey R. Holland speak to us. It was so incredible! I thought that I was able to get a bunch of thoughts from talks before and that they could all apply to me in some way, but out here, when the speakers are actually talking to 2400 missionaries and are teaching messages specifically designed to help us, then you can feel the Spirit testifying to you so strong and as Elder Holland shared with us, receive "a fire burning in the marrow of your bones to teach the word of God." I wish that I could have recorded all the things that Elder Holland and all our other speakers have shared. It really does put a fire in you to go out and preach! One thing that I want to share with you Bryce and any other prospective missionaries who read this is this. Study Preach My Gospel! The lessons and discussions we learn to teach as missionaries are designed to bring people to Christ and be baptized. But PMG was, as Elder Holland put it, "born to convert the missionary." No matter where you go or how many you teach on your mission, you can know that by studying PMG and by working your very hardest, being obedient to the letter and enduring to the end, YOU at least will be fully converted to the Lord and that is something to marvel at. I love you all!
Elder Bradley Bishop

Brad's MTC E-mail

Hey everyone, this is Brad's first e-mail. He's doing grand and would love to hear from you all!

Dear family,
Sorry it took me so long to get a letter out to you. The rules about writing home
changed around the time that I got here and our zone leaders weren't sure what they were
so we didn't get to write home on the day we got here like we normally would. My p-days
are on Thursdays and I get 30 minutes to write an email, but everything else has to be
handwritten. So, if you want to send this on to everyone that would be great. Well, I
don't really know where to get started. I really love it here! My companion's name is
Elder James Mills from Washington. He's a really great guy and we get a long fine. In
fact, we just have a really great district all together. We have 8 Elders in my district
and 4 "Hermanas." We are all really close and do almost everything here
together. If there's one thing I can say about the MTC it's that there's no wasted time.
You study, eat, study, eat, study, eat, study, and then go to sleep. You get 50 minutes
somewhere in the day to go to the gym, but other than that you're either in meetings, the
classroom or the cafeteria. I never thought the day would come that I wouldn't be
hungry, but sitting in classes all day definitely doesn't build up your appetite. They
have good food at every meal though so I always eat a lot still. No wonder they say
missionaries gain so much weight in the MTC. The language is going great for me! I
can't believe how much the Spirit brings to your remembrance from just the two years of
Spanish I took. The concentration here is not to learn the language, but to learn how to
serve your purpose as a missionary...in your language. We practice the language all the
time and go contacting other missionaries in Spanish. So far, I know how to pray, meet
someone, get to know someone, and testify in Spanish. Yesterday, I also memorized The
First Vision in Spanish which was one of my goals for this week. Elder Mills and I have
also already taught the First Discussion (in English), after we met the investigator and
testified to them in Spanish. There are some great teaching programs here like the TRC
where we taught our "investigator", the TE, and the Refferal Center. All of
them are designed to prepare you so you can come out of the MTC already teaching the
lessons effectively in your language. I've met 3 people from home so far here in the
MTC. Elders Ryan Merkley, Scott Guthrie, and I just saw one of the Stuart twins who
arrived here yesterday (I forget which one was coming in this month). Also, I don't know
if you've heard of it, but there is a program called Dear Elder on the internet, which
allows you to write an email to me for free, which they then print out and get to me
either that day or the following day. I think you just need to know my name, departure
date, and mission to get it to me. You don't have to use it if you don't want to, but if
you want to write me a letter other than on the email so I can spend the full 30 minutes
writing to you, then that's how you do it. So, far we've had some great devotionals and
firesides from the MTC mission president, other MTC coordinators, and on tuesday we had a
devotional from Richard G. Hinckley and his wife which was awesome! I hope everyone is
doing well and I'll try to write you another letter today in the old-fashioned way:)
We've been asked to only write letters whether, email or not, on our p-days so I'll try
to get more to you. I love you all so much, but know that I'm learning a lot and that I
can't wait to get out to Mississippi.
Love,
Elder Bradley Bishop