MTC Week 1 - Christmas

Well I only have twenty minutes to write this email so I'm going to write this as fast as I can. I hope that these are your email addresses since I don't have them and i didn't get any emails from you yet. Well this first week has been crazy but very good also, it is amazing how busy they keep us, we are always doing something, whether its learning spanish or studying how to teach we are always doing something. My comps name is Elder G he is a really nice guy who is going to Guatemala, and very good at speaking spanish which helps when we have to teach lessons, we had our first one on friday and it didn't go super well seeing as i don't really speak spanish very well. but our lessons have steadily improved over the course of my stay here at the CCM. Oh if you guys want to send me letters or anything DearElder.com is the way to go, that way I don't have to read emails and then respond to them in only 20-30 minutes. Other than that everything is going really well, the food is good, almost too good. we have almost an hour to excercise every day which I am really grateful for, I am actually kinda sore from my workout yesterday which is very comforting to me.
      The other guys in my district are Elder N and Elder B, both going to Chile and both are really hardworking good guys. Today Elder Nelson (the apostle) came and talked in the Christmas devotional, It was way awesome and I loved it. On Christmas Eve we got to watch the George C Scott verson of A Christmas Carol, I was really grateful for that because I didn't get to watch it before i left and its one of my favorite traditions. Last night an elder sang "oh Holy Night" and there is a line that goes "his law is love and his gospel is peace" It hit me that all of the commandments and laws of the gospel are so that we will love God and one another more than pleasure (law of Chastity, Word of Wisdom), ourselves (pride), or money(tithing, consecration). that is the message that the world needs and that is what I want to bring to the lives of people who are weighed down with sin, anger, or greed. My itinerary says that I leave for the Guatemala CCM on January 15th which should be pretty sweet if it happens, but if not I'm not gonna be that bummed out, I really love it here. Elder R (who is my Zone Leader) said that El Salvador doesn't require a visa just a passport so hopefully I won't have any troubles there and can go right into the field. I hope that you all had a good christmas and that everything is going well. I love you all and wish you the best of luck.

Elder Schriever