Off to the tropics

Hafa adai!! Thats hello in Chamorro. I still have no clue what any of the other languages sound like but I will soon find out. So, flight plans: leave the MTC at 6:00 am. Depart from Salt Lake City at 9:45am. Arrive in Seattle, WA at 11:02 am (this doesnt make sense to me either). Leave Seattle at 1:40pm on Oct 12. Arrive in Tokyo Narita, Japan at 4:40pm Oct 13th. Leave Tokyo at 6:55 pm Oct 13. Arrive in Guam at 11:40pm Oct 13. I don't know if this is all in MST or if they have factored in the time changes. I'm just going to keep my watch set to here until Guam so that I know what time it is back home. So this past week....haven't really done too much more. Just kinda finishing up on teaching any classes. Which by the way are so awesome to be over. Got my first two letters from a girl outside my family on Thursday and Friday this week. Think I would be a bit more popular than that right? Meanwhile, Elder Cherrington gets like 1028938920 a day. So I'm writting a few of his girls...just to see where it goes hah :) I've made some really nice friends here that I didn't know before and that aren't in my district. It kinda sucks saying goodbye. One of them being from New Zealand taught me the words of the Haka. I really wanted to have it written down because of it's meaning. I've also met Elder Ray from Roy, Utah and Elder Sohlai from La'ie Hawai'i. He was actually my first friend here because he was the guy I walked in with at 9:30 when Dad dropped me off. He's going to Japan and has taught me enough Japanese to give a pass along card in Japan. I got to see Brigham. A bunch. His hall actually wasn't too far from me so I went and visited him and he came to mine last night. Two nights ago Butler and I stood outside and tried to listen to the San Diego State and BYU game. We could tell it was homecoming cause the "Y" was lit. Apparently BYU ended up winning. Good. They need to make up for the rest of the season. I'm sending my xd card home. Its got a bunch of Pictures and video. one of the last videos is 32 minutes long. Some of my favorite people here are a giant Tongan named deler Kato, and a big Samoan that plays for UCLA named Elder Schwenke. They are so much fun and they taught me a good lesson. They use hymns when they teach. Elder Butler and I tried that the other day in combination of already teaching completely by the spirit. It took me 3 weeks to figure that one out. David A Bednar helped with that a bit. But that lesson was so powerful. I felt impressed to sing "I am a child of God" and the spirit was so strong that I couldn't even get the notes close to right. But it was so amazing. And it was our teacher (in investigator mode) that we were teaching and she was like "Elders, you've achieved your purpose." The Book of Mormon is an AMAZING book and it is much more than the keystone to our religion. Its the springboard to our testimonies and we must always read it. Like King Benjamin taught, The tree of faith unnourished will wither and die. I've had some amazing experiences here with teaching and singing and who knows what else but its all because of the Spirit you get when you read that book. My new favorite passages are about Ammon and 3 Nephi 11. Thats such a powerful chapter and we use it a lot to help investigators feel the Spirit. I'm sad to leave here because I just now saw how amazing it is. The pilot program is amazing and we got told that we did it right and that they are going to switch the whole MTC over to it by May. It really taught us how to teach on our own and with the Spirit. We were told the teachers job the first week was to make sure we don't drown, then watch us at 3 weeks, where we took a exponential curve straight up, where as the other program does super awesome the first week but then plateaus around the beginning of week 3. Anyways,  this place is truely remarkable and I'm glad I was able to come here. It's been crazy, I've been a test subject for three weeks and it worked out for the better.  My Samoan friend says hi. I love you all and I'll call you when I can. Take care. God speed. (God Speed the Right....awesome hymnn) oh and "homeward bound" by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir arr. by Mack Wilburg. We watched the MOTAB broadcast this past sunday and it was sung. Wayyy sweet!! Anyway, Byeeee.

-Elder Lapeyrouse