September 23, 2010

Family,

I hope this message finds you well. Another week has flown by here at the MTC. This week has had some memorable experiences. For starters yesterday marked our first day of all Spanish in the MTC. It will be like this for the next 5 weeks! That means everyword that comes out of my mouth must be Spanish and our teachers no longer speak any English. My testimony of the Gift of Tongues grew tremendously yesterday as I was able to understand everything my teachers were saying.
For me it is not that hard but I still have a lot of work to do to be able to communicate effectively in the field.

I am also reading through the Book of Mormon. For the first time. I am in Alma 23 now and I have loved every opportunity I have had to sit down and read. I really wish I had done this earlier in my life because the stories are so enchanting and epic. I used to think that my faith in Christ was strong until I read Alma 14. My favorite chapter so far. My goal is to finish the Book of Mormon before I leave the MTC. I am reading it in English right now but have started it in Spanish. I'm only to 1 Nephi 6 in the Spanish version though.

We had our first day of basketball here at the MTC yesterday and it was a blast! I'm staying in shape here. I wake up every morning and work out and I make sure that I'm eating healthy too. Healthy body, healthy mind, healthy spirit.

I'm so gald to hear about Samuel's touchdown. Nice work! I told you that hard work pays off!

So I have a bit of exciting news. You might want to make sure you're sitting down when you read this....

I will be singing in the MTC Choir for Priesthood Session!!!!!!!!! They chose 354 Elders to participate and I was lucky enough to have been one of the select few. So you'll have to tell everyone who's going to look for me, black rimmed glasses and parted hair.

Mom, this week I was blessed to hear for the wife of a General Authority Sister Johnson. She said she felt a tremndous responsibilty as a Mom with a missionary as she spoke to us at our devotional to represent all the mothers whose sons and daugthers were serving the Lord. This made me think about you alot. I thought of what things you might have wanted to say to me and more importantly the things that I would want to say to you: Thanks! For everything you've every done for me and everything you've sacrificed so that I could have a good life and be happy. You did an outstanding job and I could never thank you enough. You truely are such a great example to me and to everyone who knows you and I think of you as the greatest hero of my life. Let's face it I wouldn't be here without you! I love you so much!

It is truely amazing to me to know that I am on the Lord's errand and that I am bringing forth the completion of His plan. And I have seen that my choice to serve has not only blessed me but also those that I love and I can promise you that as I continue to be obedient and have faith that those blessings will become greater and last for eternity. Thanks for all the support back home. I have a few minutes left on my timer so write back as soon as you can and I'll try to respond by the end of the day.

Love,

Elder Cronin