Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose

Family and friends-

Surprise! Tuesday is the day! With that great news I know most of you will be struggling to fall asleep on Monday nights in the anticipation of receiving a weekly update from your beloved.  Really though, there is so much to share and this little clock thing that counts down my internet time is really driving me nuts, (while he is at the MTC he only gets 30 minutes to email) and I have more to say than the dude who wrote Of War and Peace, so lets put my typing skills to use. Shall we begin....

This past week has been a rush of different emotions that will be hard for a lot of you to understand. Some of you know that I was having a mini freak out before I came into the MTC on Wednesday. The change is definitely crazy and life instantly becomes so much different as a missionary. I wanna give a shout out to the lovely people that sent me packages, dear elders, letters, emails, etc. you have no idea how much it means to hear from the people who mean the most to you. I will do everything in my power to write back to you because I am so greatful. So back to Wednesday. The first thing I did when I got to the MTC was go to my classroom, which is where you spend about 75% of your time. Everyone in your classroom is part of your district, we actually have one of the larger districts with 9 missionaries. Three of these missionaries are sisters and they get to be part of a lovely three way companionship. There are two Norwegian districts and all of the missionaries are awesome. I am sorry if all of this information seems a tad scattered, I am doing my best to have it all make sense!

So let's talk a little bit about my district as I met them on the first day. Many of you know that my dorm at BYU might have been the most diverse group of guys on the entire campus. Well, my mission district is the exact same. In our district we have a football player, a kid who got 36 on the ACT, a kid with albanism (I googled it--it means he is an albino.), a kid from hawaii who is mostly into music, another kid who lives in his own little world, and me. My companion is Elder H and he is from Hawaii. And no he is not a big dude who played football and wears a skirt around.  On Thursday when we were getting ready he looked at me and said "Elder do you want to coordinate ties?" At first I wasn't sure if he was being serious, I was totally lost for words, I just stared at him for a solid 15 seconds before I said something about wearing whatever he wanted to. He definitely loves Norway more than the king of Norway himself. For the first few days all he wanted to do was practice Norwegian. 

So Wednesday was really hard to get used to but we had an awesome teaching lesson thing where we role played with some investigators. The RM who ran the meeting was a stud. One of the guys that you think to yourself "If he marries the girl I love while I'm on my mission, I think I'd be okay with that). So anyways, it was really good but I was still feeling pretty alone and upset until thursday afternoon. Thursday afternoon was when I had a bunch of eye opening experiences that really showed me the Lord looks out for us individually. Thursday at dinner was the first time we sat together as a district (which we do every meal now). This was the first time we actually talked to our sister missionaries. They are seriously amazing, as I am sure all of the sister missionaries are. They have that motherly quality that immediately makes you feel at home and at peace. They want to know about your family and friends back home. Ours have even gone as far as giving each of us advice regarding the girls at home that we want to right us. They are so fun and you can honestly just see in their eyes how happy they want us to be. They want to be out in the mission field and their positive uplifting spirits strengthen our mission more than I can even begin to explain. If you treat the sisters as your equals and as fellow servants of the Lord (not as fun little things to flirt with, sadly this does occur and niether the sisters or other elders appreciate it) then I know how much they can help make your time in the mission field incredible. Things got even better at dinner though, I saw the one and only Elder Adams!!!!! He is such a stud and seeing him and dinner made me want to cry, scream, fall to the floor, laugh, and pee my pants all at the same time. I setttled for a nice bro hug though. The Lord definitely knew how much of a blessing seeing my friends would be. That night was our branch meeting where the district leaders were called. Well, you guessed it, I was called to be the district leader for our set of Norwegian missionaries.  Another blessing because as most of you know I am never more comfortable then when I get to pick on people and tell them what to do hahaha. Just kidding, but really, from that moment on things just really took a turn for the better. The Lord truly does look out for us.

Eldste Shanklin and his district.

Eldste Shanklin and Eldste H

I am so sorry how long this is but brace yourself because there is still more to say. On Friday we began to teach our first investigator. Yes you heard me right, after just two days of Norwegian my companion and I had to sit down with an investigator (actually an RM), who speaks to us in fluent Norwegian and we have to do our best to teach him a lesson. It is so extremely frustrating because you know so little but you want to help him so much. His name is Orjan and he is an absolute stud. Apparently he is going to be our teacher by the end of this week once he is done being our investigator. Not that I don't love our current teacher but this guy is who I aspire to be when I get back. He is tall, blonde, good looking and just an all around stud. Our district loves to joke about my man crush on him. We have now taught him two more times and it still frustrates me. Norwegian is so difficult and you really have to trust in the Lord more than ever before. It is crazy how much you learn in such a little time but seriously you just want to be fluent because you have such a strong desire to help him. Hopefully as we teach him tomorrow and thursday things will get better. One lesson he asked us "How do I know if it is God speaking to me or if it is just my own feelings". Uhm dude, thats something that prophets have to tell us about in general conference. Most members of the Church still have trouble with that after years of being in the gosepel. So now you understand why before every lesson I pretty much just throw my hands up and surrender my myself to the Lord and trust that he will help us. My companion also knows a lot more of the language than I do because he studied it before he came out. Yep, that's awesome too. It actually is a huge help in the lessons because my Norwegian is pitiful. I do my best though and with strict obedience I know that it will come. I can already pray and bear my testimony though. My favorite thing however might be how you say hello. Hailey, Brennan, Rachel, Sam, you know how in HIMYM when Ranjit is driving the cab and he says hello to them but it sounds exactly like Halllowwww. The Norwegian hello sounds exactly like that. It is so funny. I seriously tell hello to everyone just because I love it. Everyone probably thinks I am going crazy but hey, it brings me happiness so im gonna keep going with it.

Man I feel like there is so much more to say. I should have taken more notes about what to include in the email. Well I guess I will just hope that this letter was enough to keep you entertained for a little bit. One last thing, as a district leader I am responsible for getting the mail each day and handing it out to our district. I HATE IT. I hate it because some elders look forward to getting mail and day after day I have to tell them that they don't have any. This is not something to try and get you guys to write me but more so something to get you to send something to any missionary you know. They need your love so make sure you show it. Once again, sorry for the long letter, warn your friends that they could probably read the 5th Harry Potter book in the same time it takes to read this letter. I love you all and make sure to stay in touch. (DEAR ELDER IS AN AWESOME RESOURCE, missionaries love it) (If you go to www.dearelder.com  you can write a letter to him for free while he is at the MTC and they will print it off to him and send it to him daily.  On the drop down menu just select PROVO MTC and then WRITE LETTER.). I was laying in bed one night and decided that there was a quote from Friday Night Lights that perfectly describes how you need to serve your mission, so for Justin, Rachel, and all those other cool kids.....

Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.

Much Love,

Eldste Shanklin.