Day 2 in Madrid

Oct. 21, 2010 - Thursday (P-day)

I lost my key today...and I´ve only been here two days! The key was to my drawer that had my passport/visa, wallet, camera, and money. So we had to go to the desk and they called people and after 2.5 hours and five people we finally got it open! haha crazy morning!

We got to go to the Madrid Temple today, too! It was so cool! The temple was way pretty and so much bigger than the Palmyra one; and it´s really strange when everything is in Spanish; so but luckily, we could hear the session in English :)

Apparently we get another hermana tomorrow! So now we´ll have 8 people here! I think I told you about contacting in the park already, but I can´t remember, so I´ll do it again haha. Every Saturday we take the metro to a huge park, like Central Park in NYC, and we go with our companions and we walk around and talk to people there and try to get referrals and things like that. They told us that baptisms do come from this so it´s not just for practice; but I´m still way nervous because these are real people that aren´t pretending to be investigators; and on top of that they speak crazy fast Spanish!

Oh funny story this morning haha. So Elder Keeler and I went to breakfast and we went to grab a tray, and this lady said something and I guess we didn´t need a tray; and she came over and said something and we just looked at each other with that blank stare hahaha. So i just said "no puedo comprender" which means I can´t understand haha. So she just smiled and kinda laughed and then spoke a little slower and used some different words and some hand motions. So we understood after that. But yeah, they speak way faster over here and with a way different accent. So that´ll be fun trying to get used to that.

Yesterday during our gym time we went over to the futsal court to play, but no one was over there! We were pretty bummed. We just played around for a little and then came back and played basketball in the stake center. The Elders and Sisters from Madrid had pday, I guess, so we got to play basketball with the Elders. It was pretty fun.

The keyboard on the computer is wayyyy weird. Since the Spanish people use different letters and symbols, they stick them on the computer keyboard and so things are in different locations, which is kinda annoying. The colon, parenthesis, quotation marks, question mark, and a few others are like on different keys so I´m still getting used to it, but it´s ok i guess.

Hope all is well back home and wherever anyone else is when they read this haha, Elder Mathews is doing fantastic :)

Hola from Madrid!

Oct. 20, 2010 - Wednesday

Well I´m in Madrid right now :) and I am definitely not caught up on any sleep whatsoever. We´re all so dead and tired, but we get to go to bed at 7:30 tonight and sleep till 6:30 which is great! The plane ride was fine; just really long.

We met a family who has a son who is also in the Provo MTC and she showed us pictures, but we didn´t recognize him. She also has a son-in-law, who was on the plane as well, that served in Barcelona on his mission! Small world haha.

We landed in JFK and one of the Elders that was traveling with us said he lost his boarding pass for the next flight so we spent like 15 minutes trying to work that out and ended up having to call church travel services. It was crazy but we eventually got it worked out.

The MTC here is sooooo different, but i kinda like it a lot better. Me, Elder Keeler, and the two other Elders that flew with us were the only four missionaries here today for a while, and then two other French missionaries joined us. So in all there as six of us right now, but that way you get more attention to your own development and everything.

The rooms are way nicer here, too, which is always a plus. We get an hour of email instead of 30 minutes which is pretty cool; and we actually go to a park and contact people....real people; not the pretend people in Provo MTC.; and here it´s allll spanish which just adds to the anxiety, but it´s still pretty exciting.

I´m pretty sure I´ll love it here, but I know I´ll miss my district back in Provo a lot just cuz they all added so much to the atmosphere and the attitude of our district. It feels weird to eat meals with less than fifteen people here instead of 2000.

The temple is right outside our window which is way cool, and the stake center is right next to us, too, and we can use it to play basketball or volleyball or whatever, which is awesome. There´s a futsal court nearby so we´re probably going to play there a lot. Apparently the local teens go there when we have gym time cuz they know that´s when we come to play haha. So at least we´ll have people to play with.

Apparently it usually only takes about 7-10 days for regular mail to ship from Spain to the U.S., or vice versa which is a lot shorter than I thought it was going to be, but I´m not complaining haha.

We were just outside getting our little orientation thing and our maestra was saying how cold it was. Everyone had pants and sweaters or jackets on and we all thought it felt amazing out! But apparently sunny and 20 degrees (celcius) is pretty cold for them. So I have a feeling I´m going to like the weather a lot. Wish I could send some of it to all of you haha.

Love and miss you all!!! But know that I´m doing great and I´m loving it :)

It's here!!!

It’s here!!!

Well the thing I've been waiting for this whole time is finally here! My visa came this past Wednesday!!! Which means I'm headed to the Madrid MTC on October 19th. I'm so excited. But also way nervous. I'm going from Spanish and English to only Spanish. And they speak wayyy faster and with a pretty good accent...so it'll be a struggle at first I'm sure, but I know I'll be way more prepared when I actually get into the field.

My companion, Elder Keeler, got his visa too and our roommate, Elder Iverson, got his too. So the three of us, along with two other missionaries who we don't know are flying out to Madrid on the 19th. Pretty sweet!

This past week flew by. I can't believe it's already P-Day again...but I'm not complaining. It's nice to have a day to just relax a bit and write people. The language is coming along great! Elder Keeler and I made a companionship goal to memorize at least 30 words/day which means about 210 a week. Sounds like a ton but it's actually not that hard. We bought notecards at the bookstore, which is really cheap for missionaries :), and started writing words for the lessons and other church words we would probably use. So far I have about 500 notecards with another 200ish on the way haha. Yeah it's a lot...but they help sooo much. Just goes to show how much missionaries and the Spirit work together for missionary work. So tonight we're quizzing each other to see if we actually remember allll those words that we learned this week. Should go pretty good though.

This past week we also got to go to the TRC (Teaching Resource Center) and the TE (Teaching Evaluation) for the first time. In the TE we taught Brother Heaton who went to Japan on his mission. We taught the first lesson in English just to get an idea of how we could split up the lesson, the layout, etc. It went pretty good actually. He gave us feedback which was really helpful so now we can change a few things when we teach again on Thursday and Friday. The TRC was pretty cool. We went to the room and just had small talk and got to know our "investigator" in Spanish for the first 15ish minutes. It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. Then we took a break and went back to teach the first lesson in English. But instead of just the one person there, there was another person who had joined him. He didn't speak a lot of English so he only spoke in Spanish but he could understand what we were saying. I could understand everything he said in Spanish which was awesome because he was talking way faster than what we're used to. Elder Keeler kinda had a little trouble but that's ok because we're here to learn and get better. He's progressing really fast too now that we've started using notecards.

Oh! And we're only supposed to talk in Spanish no matter where we are. It's so hard. When we're at the cafeteria or wherever else and we want to tell a funny story or something, we have to do it in Spanish which is a lot slower and just kinda kills the moment haha. But it's helped a tonnnnn and I can speak in Spanish pretty dang good now. I still make my mistakes with conjugations and stuff but I know the basic formations and a lot of vocab now so it's going great!

It's been really cold this past week every morning. Kinda not used to that yet haha. The other day there was actually snow up on Mt. Timpanogas which was crazy. Good thing I'm going to Madrid really soon.

The missionary fields have been closed for the past week because there was a pretty big sinkhole in the middle of it. So we've been inside for gym which is kinda fine with me. I get to play some awesome volleyball :). Some days are better than others though. It's kinda frustrating when you get a ton of people that all want to play and then don't even make an effort. I know some people aren't as great at some sports but some at least try which I respect. It actually makes the game more fun when people that you know don't play volleyball actually try, because they're just so funny and great to play with. I sorta wish we could play indoor soccer or football or something haha.

This past Sunday was our first Sacrament meeting here since the Sunday before was General Conference. It was pretty awesome. We had Sacrament meeting at 8:00 which is usually wayyyy too early for me, but since I'm used to getting up at 6:30, it's perfect. Then we have a two hour break until Priesthood. After that we have time to take a walk to the Temple and study and all that. It's just a laid back day which is really nice. There's always a fireside on Sunday night and right after we can go watch a church movie. We chose to watch Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration this week. I love that movie.

During Sacrament meeting our Branch President was released. His name is President Weiderhold. I didn't get to know him too well since we've only been here two weeks but he got up and gave a talk and you could just feel the love he had for our branch and for us as missionaries. And I'm actually gonna miss him. He was a great guy and was a great Branch President. Our new one is President Craig. He seems nice and everything so that's good. Too bad I'm only here for another week.

Now I guess I'll answer some questions that people have had... About Elder Keeler: he actually does know Laura Mickle haha anddddd they were boyfriend/girlfriend. Small world huh?

The food's been great and I actually think I've lost some weight since I can't just snack all day when I'm bored which is awesome. At least I know I won't be getting too terribly fat while I'm out here. We sorta made an agreement as a room to cut back on the sweets. All of us got a package of junk food, haha kinda funny really. So we've been sharing with each other and with our District so that we can sorta get rid of the temptations. Soooo if you do send carepackages...go a little easy on the sweets. I already got a big enough sweet tooth haha.

No, I wasn't in the Priesthood MTC Choir. If I had arrived here a week or two earlier I could've been but I wasn't. Oh well. It was pretty cool to still be here and watch it with all those 2000 missionaries. There's so many of us here and it's so cool to look around during devotionals and stuff and see 2000+ missionaries in suits and ties, or dresses, haha.

Oh I forgot to tell about my flight plans for next week. Our flight leaves at 8:44 am for JFK and then we fly to Madrid at 5:50 pm local time and arrive in Madrid at 7:25 am over there. We're going to be so tired. I hope I can actually sleep on the plane. But since we leave so early we have to get up around 4:00 am which just stinks. And since we fly out on a Tuesday, which is P-Day, we have to see if they'll let us do our laundry on Monday so that we don't have to pack our dirty clothes. I'm excited I'm actually flying with other Elders I know too. I've never flown with other people my age that I know...kinda weird. But exciting at the same time.

Thanks for the Love and Letters!! Miss you all!

Elder Mathews

Week #1 in the MTC

Well I'm finally on a computer for P-Day. I can't believe it's only been one week though. It feels like I've been here at least a month. I'm in the Intermediate/Advanced Spanish class somehow haha but it's good because I learn the language wayyyy faster. I'm already so much better than I ever was during high school. And I took it for five years! It just goes to show how much the Spirit and the Gift of Tongues helps and blesses missionaries.

My companion is great! His name is Elder Keeler and he's from Houston, Texas. It's kinda funny because that's where Elder Rumsey is serving!! Elder Keeler said he went on splits with him too which is sweet. I got lucky with my companion. He plays soccer like me and he ran track in high school. He was a pole vaulter and pretty good from what I hear. We get along great so far and I'm excited to see how we do these next few weeks here in Provo.

Today we got to go to the Temple which was really cool. The Provo Temple is soooo much bigger than the Palmyra one haha and it was a great experience. Our District, which has eight elders and four sisters, is so great. We're all so close which apparently is kinda rare for everyone to be this close. Our District Leader, Elder Payne is awesome. He's from Draper, UT and he's so fun to be around.

We always do the same things during our gym time which has mostly been volleyball. We played soccer last week a bit but the fields are closed right now for some reason. But volleyball has been sick. As most of you know I love any kind of sport and volleyball is one of them. I gotta thank my roommate Trent though for really converting me to it haha.

I've seen a ton of people I know here in the MTC too which was so cool. I saw a few Hermanas from pageant here and got to catch up a bit, saw a bunch of elders from my ward at BYU which is even better. Andddd I saw Alaena while she was at work!! Kinda surprised me haha we only chatted for a few minutes though cuz we had class anyways.

I'm pretty sure everyone in my District thinks I have a bajillion friends cuz I've gotten at least one letter every day and then a few days I've gotten as many as 8 hahaha. But just so everyone knows they're mostly from family which I greatly appreciate :) It feels so good to finally be able to email and write people! I feel like it's text that I got last night but I'm just now responding if that makes sense. But it just makes me appreciate everything I hear from friends and family.

The food in the MTC is so good. But it's so easy to just pig out and gain a ton of weight. I've heard tons of stories about elders or sisters that leave the MTC after three weeks with ten extra pounds. And my goal is to stay the same as I came in. So far so good too haha. The key is just to resist the desire for seconds and not to eat till you're completely full.

There are four of us in our room: me, Elder Keeler, Elder Iverson, and now Elder Questenberg. We originally had Elder Monterrosa but he dropped down to the beginner's spanish class so we got a new elder instead. He seems great so far though so that's good.

Thursday Elder Keeler and I have to teach the first lesson already! I'm really nervous just because we'll be teaching somebody we don't even know instead of each other or other people we know. And then next week we teach the first lesson in allll spanish. That's the one we're really nervous about though. We tried to teach each other in spanish today but that was so hard. We still understood each other and could talk in spanish...but we couldn't go into a lot of depth because we just don't know a ton of vocab yet. But hopefully in nine weeks we'll be better.

And I forgot to mention my comp is also going to Barcelona!! Makes it even better haha. Apparently when we get to the Madrid MTC they speak only spanish all the time. And some teachers don't even know any english. That'll be interesting to see how it goes.

Yesterday was kinda my bad day. I woke up feeling sickly and I ached all over, I didn't feel like I got any sleep whatsoever, and I just felt awful. I took some meds in the morning which helped a lot and I felt fine until around 4:00ish. We went to dinner and I ate the healthiest dinner I have ever eaten in my life: cantaloupe, honey dew, salad, an apple, and juice haha. But I wasn't very hungry to begin with so it didn't really matter. But I can honestly say that prayer works. Both me and Elder Keeler prayed for my health and strengthe and within two hours everything was gone. I still feel a little iffy today but I'm soooo much better than yesterday. Another testimony of prayer :)

Sorry I keep jumping all over the place. I only have 30 minutes and I just write whatever comes to mind haha. Me and Elder Keeler designated the cafeteria as a "spanish zone". Which means we can only speak spanish there. It's been really hard but really good for both of us. We bring our dictionary with us just in case and, if we desperately need to, we speak english. But for the most part we've been really good about it. We pray in spanish which helps, we study the language a tonnnn each day, and we talk throughout the day in spanish...mixed with english haha.

I can't believe that just a week ago I said goodbye to everyone at BYU and to Grandma and Grandpa. I think about everyone often and miss you all a lot. I find myself sometimes reaching for my phone to check the time or to see if I have a text hahaha buttttt I remember that I don't have my phone anymore! Makes P-Days all the better :)

Tomorrow we get to see the new Elders and Sisters! Even though I've been here a week I know I'll feel older than them haha just because of the time that I've been here and the experience of being here. I met an elder the other day that's been here 11 weeks!! I feel way bad for him because he doesn't go to class because he can't. He just helps as an "investigator" and just studies on his own. He's just waiting for his visa apparently. And I really hope that doesn't happen to me haha. But if it does I'll just wait I guess. Means more time in the mountains haha.

Thanks for all the letters and prayers and everything! They mean a ton to me. The work is going great and I love you all!

Love,
Elder Mathews

ps letters are appreciated :)

My Farewell Talk

For those who said they wanted to read it here it is! And yeah it's a bit long haha sorry about that. This is pretty much word for word what I spoke minus a few other things I added in here and there:

Good afternoon brothers and sisters. I hope most of you know me by now but if you don’t my name is Justin Mathews and it will very soon be Elder Mathews. Three days from now I enter the MTC in Provo, Utah to begin the best two years of my life and I cannot wait for it to come. I will be spending those two years serving the Lord’s children and our brothers and sisters in Barcelona, Spain. I just hope that I can serve in a way that is pleasing to our Heavenly Father and in a way that I can share the happiness that I get from this gospel.

My topic that I have been given is faith and hope. I heard that and I thought to myself, “that is such a broad topic.” But the more I thought about it and the more I studied it, I thought that I should talk about how faith and hope can apply to me as I serve and how we can grow and learn through faith and hope. So I want to steer this in the direction of how faith and hope can be used as a tool in the mission field and at home.

I want to begin with hope. Hope has always been a very vague and somewhat confusing gospel area for me. I had to do a lot of studying and research on this topic. But thankfully I did because this is what I’ll be teaching in Spain. Hope is an abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promises to us. It is confidence that if we live according to God’s laws and the words of His prophets now, we will receive desired blessings in the future. It is believing and expecting that our prayers will be answered. But what’s the use of knowing what hope is if we don’t know what to hope for? Moroni has an excellent section that talks about faith and hope in the Book of Mormon. In Moroni 7:40-44 we learn why hope and faith are so important to our salvation. It reads, “And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope? And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise. Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope. And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart. If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart...” We learn from these verses that only the meek and lowly of heart can have faith and hope. So this is what we should aim to be. We should aim to be meek and lowly of heart, humble, submissive, and use the knowledge that we are sons and daughters of God and that Jesus Christ is our Savior and saved us from death as our source of hope. We also learn what we should hope for in this scripture. It states right in verse 41 that we should hope, “…through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection…” that we might someday live with our Father in Heaven again. We hope in Jesus Christ, in the goodness of God, in the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, in the knowledge that prayers are heard and answered. Because God has been faithful and kept His promises in the past, we can hope with confidence that God will keep His promises to us now and in the future.

Remember that in Moroni 7 he stated that, “…without faith there cannot be any hope.” So reading this we learn that if a person has hope, then they must have faith as well. I have been taught ever since I entered primary that faith is like a little seed and that if planted it will grow. As I grew older and learned more about this topic I realized that faith doesn’t just grow if planted. It has to be planted and nourished or it will falter and die. Faith, as stated in Alma, is, “…not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” I want to specifically talk about faith in Christ. When you have faith in Christ, you believe in Him as the Son of God. You accept Him as your Savior and follow His teachings. You believe that your sins can be forgiven through the Atonement. Faith in Christ means that you trust Him and know that He loves you. Faith leads to action. Faith is what motivates people to repent, to be baptized, and to serve our Heavenly Father. Despite trials and sufferings, it is faith that motivates us to continue to trust that God has a plan for us and knows what we should do. Knowing what faith is, we can find out how we can obtain it. We obtain faith by increasing our knowledge and love of our Savior Jesus Christ. As we continue to study the scriptures, pray daily, and be obedient to His commandments we can come closer to our Redeemer and in the process allow our faith to grow. The Savior promised, "If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." It is through faith that miracles are performed. It is through faith that Joseph Smith went into the Sacred Grove to receive an answer from God. It is through faith that the Brother of Jared saw the finger of Christ. It is through faith that Nephi was able to obtain the plates from Laban. But we must remember that only after the trial of our faith come the miracles. We can’t expect a miracle to make us believe. We have to already have the unwavering faith that the miracle will happen.

Now how can we apply these attributes to our lives? As a missionary I know I’ll be exercising them daily. I’ll need the faith to know that what I’m teaching people is true. I’ll need the faith to know that through the Spirit I will learn the Spanish language and be able to communicate the message that He would have me say. I will be teaching people that they can have faith that God loves them and wants them to return again to Him someday. And through faith we can hope for a better life in the world to come. I can put my hope in God, knowing that He will protect and guide me through this life until I have accomplished what He has in store for me. I may have many years ahead of me; I might not. But it does not matter as long as I do His will. And I know that through faith and hope, no matter what my course in life is, that Heavenly Father is guiding me in all things. I know without a doubt that this is the true church. I know that our Savior Jesus Christ atoned for our sins and that through Him we can all repent and return to live with our Heavenly Father someday. But we must exercise our faith in Him and know that He loves us and knows what is best for each of us. I know that I have been called to serve as a missionary to this specific part of the world at this specific time. I have no idea why but I trust that the Lord knows why. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity this summer it is finally here. I am becoming part of the mission of the church. I am helping to fulfill the prophecy stated by Joseph Smith. Most of us know it as the Standard of Truth and I think it is one of the most powerful things I have ever read. It states, “Our missionaries are going forth to different nations…The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” I am helping to accomplish this task and I will do so to the best of my ability. Every soul is precious to God. So if it is so precious to Him, should it not also be just as precious to us? People all around us are just waiting to hear the gospel. So open your mouths. You never know who might be ready and eager to accept the message of Jesus Christ. I know this church is true and I love it with all my heart. And I leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.