August 2, 2017

Hey Mom and Dad,

The MTC is getting better. Before this week the worst part was going into lessons and feeling the panic when you do not understand the language. Recently either my Spanish has gotten better or I have learned to cope with speaking another language because I do not stress when I get in lesson and I feel that they all go well. I am sure I will get that feeling again when I go to Ecuador.  Elder Smith and I are really growing close and I love everyone in my district. Having good people really makes it easier to be here. Also we listen to Mormon music on youtube and every once in a while I see a news video in the suggested so I heard about Spicey and Priebus. What was that Mccain vote about? I love when you both send me talks. They are always interesting and helpful. In one of the talks you sent it had this line that "Truly great works of literature explore a human problem in and out but do not fully resolve it" That quote was super awesome to me because it explained why I found the ending of Truman Show and The Dark Knight Rises so unsatisfactory. Also that is totally what invisible man is.​

 

Also something else I just thought of. I read an email of a missionary who was in my zone who just went to Chile and he talked about how he felt that Chile was not really a 3rd world country but not quite a first world country and I think that is how South America is right now and specifically Ecuador. Ecuador's economy has been growing very quickly and the poverty rate there has halved in ten years. Now the part of Quito that is in my mission is the poorer area which is nice but I do not think it will be as crappy but I might eat my words when I get there. Also I look at the street view of my mission which is super cool and I love all the graffiti that is there.  

 I just got back from the temple. It was nice to be in a place that takes it slow. Every time I visit the temple I am reminded how much it is a gerontocracy. It is kinda funny seeing how the world would work if only old people ran it. But I loved how nice the people were there and it reminded me of how nice the people in North Carolina are.

 

So questions about the mission life:

1.  What do you hope to accomplish before you leave the mtc?

2.  What's your favorite part of your day?

3. What made you laugh this week?

 

1. I hope to get really comfortable with Spanish before I leave even though I know that when I get to Ecuador I probably will not understand any of the natives.

2. Favorite part of the day is after 9pm because I get to shower and hang out with the elders in my district.

3. A lot of things made me laugh. Probably my favorite moment was each companionship in our district had to teach this investigator and figure out why they did not want to get baptised and address their concerns. We were the 4th of 6th to go teach and no companionship before us had any success. While we were waiting we were talking as a group and before Elder Smith and I went to teach we talked about the real issues. We jokingly got into a debate and everyone in our district thought that we were fighting and that our lesson would not go well because of the tension between us. But we were chill and we went into the lesson and got the investigator to commit to a baptism which was dope. I guess I was laughing at the haters.

Love,

Elder Tucker

 

 

​Here are some photos that we took. Also Bruce C Hafen was the one who gave that 3 levels of faith talk. I am reading the Book of Mormon with the question of what is the character of Christ and it is really rewarding. I got it from a Bednar talk that is amazing and I wish you could hear it. I love how every day I feel the constant companionship of the spirit.

 Here is a dope photo I just took