Week 3...(Family letter and responses to questions asked)

(Response to Mom's weekly letter)

Hola como están ustedes!!!  Esta semana fue muy loco.  The Spanish is coming more and more everyday.  It is getting easier and easier to understand what everyone is saying and I am able to teach a pretty decent but super basic lesson.  However, where I fail el Espiritu Santo fills in every time.  It has been such a cool experience to see how the gift of tongues works.  I actually love to hear from all of you.  It really helps me get through the week sometimes.  This week actually flew by so fast.  It was so sad to lose Elder Averill and I am losing a bunch more friends next week so that will be sad.  Elder Atkinson wants me to tell you guys that I found my future wife here jajaja.  Her name is Hermann Rogers and apparently she was asking for my email address so you know that I still get girls even on the mission.  Plus she's like the cutest girl in our zone so no complaints there.  She roasts me about my Spanish though jajaja.  Actually apparently a ton of girls have asked for my email so I am basically a celebrity around here.  Anyways, watching the Christmas devotional without you guys for the first time was super sad.  I got super homesick that night but luckily I was on splits with Elder Atkinson who is like my best friend around here.  He and I and a kid named Hunter Erickson, who has a scholarship to BYU for basketball tear up the volleyball court every week.  We played ball together and beat these kids so bad it was embarrassing.  They're both super awesome guys.  I loved that picture of Oscar.  I had to show everyone because it was so funny.  Tell Dylan that he can't say anything about me being a bad driver now jajaja.  Sounds like you all had a super awesome week.  I love hearing about everything going on back home.  Also thank you for the package!  The jammies are a hit and Elder Izatt loves them so much.  Everyone in our zone talks about how I have the best and most giving mom and I can't argue with that!  Elder Izatt wants me to tell you that he is extremely grateful for you and that you are the best.  The coke was for Elder Averill.  He said "Man I wanna meet Sister Mason and give her a big hug.  She's the best."  Anyways I forgot to throw in a funny story about my Spanish in the weekly email.  I was helping our teacher (we have the world's greatest teachers.  I love both of them so much) with a role play and I was being Ivan the investigator.  He asked if I had kids and I said "No, no tango marino" which means "No I don't have a husband."  I quickly realized it was wrong and the whole class busted out laughing and it was super embarrassing but super funny.  Anyways, I love all of you!  I realize now that I took all of you for granted and I am sorry for that.  You guys are seriously the best things in my life and my best friends!  I miss all of you a ton!

Con Amor,
Elder Mason

P.S.  We love our Christmas decorations.  Everyone stops by our room because it "feels homey" and I can't argue with that!

(More responses from our emails throughout the day)

Yes this week was absolutely amazing (:  Also just had the coolest experience in the temple but I'm sending a separate email to dad about it because he will appreciate it so I'll let you read it there.  But Elder Averill is from Palmdale California!  So maybe a little unlikely we will ever see him again.  Most of my friends here are from different districts and about 5 of my best friends are leaving Monday as well as my future wife and then the rest are gone the week after that.  One thing that we are all missing is Korean Cup Ramen.  It is the greatest thing in the world and the Korean Elders told us they get it at a Korean market and it's called like shin ramen or something like that.  We are all having withdrawals from it so that would be a great one.  We woke up super early so we could go to the temple earlier and have the rest of the day open.  It's my favorite day of the week when I get to talk to you guys a little.  Love you!!!

Also I got bad news about Bolivia today.  Apparently they are having trouble with visas and a bunch are getting reassigned to Layton.  Pray that doesn't happen to me!

(Letter to Dad)

It's really funny how things fall into place when something is supposed to happen.  Today we went to the temple to do initiatory's and when we got there, there was an hour and a half wait so we decided to to do dealings instead.  We went and got our packets and put on our clothes and went to the sealing desk.  We signed in and they said they needed 2 of us right away so me and my companion went and they sent us into a room and I sat down and then was immediately called to the alter to be the son.  I looked at the sealer and saw the name Richard Lohner and immediately knew who it was.  He did two dealings with me and stopped and asked "Elder Mason, who is your dad?"  And I said Mark and he just stopped and smiled and then told everyone in the room that we are very closely related and that he was my dads uncle.  We got to talk for about 10 minutes after the session and it was really neat to get to meet him and have him be the sealer for the session.  It's just cool how everything fell into place for that to happen.  We weren't supposed to be at the temple at that time either we had decided to go earlier.  Anyway I just wanted to share that with you!

(Response to Dad's weekly letter...actually he hasn't been getting Mark's weekly letter so Mark sent them both to him again today and this was his response to both)

I am now going to take the time to respond to each of these emails since I am bored out of my mind.  I should study Spanish but we are all super lazy right now because we just played volleyball for 2 hours straight.  Jajaja is how you laugh in Spanish because the h doesn't make a noise in most cases.  The choir has been the best!  I am getting way better at reading music too.  Regarding Spanish, we are about 25% immersed give or take.  Our teachers speak half English half Spanish and no one else speaks it really outside of class even though we are supposed to.  I am on the intermediate course of Spanish so it is a little more progressive and I felt I was pretty well prepared.  I've come a long way in 2 almost 3 weeks.  You saw a picture of my district.  There are now 8 elders and 2 sisters.  The sisters are weird as crap though jajaja. There's a kid that always plays volleyball with us that had a full ride offer from Penn State for volleyball and he turned it down because he didn't wanna practice 5 hours a day.  He's insanely good.  Also we have Hunter Erickson from Timpview who is going to BYU for basketball and he balls me up on the daily.  Although today I held my ground a little.  They typical day here goes as follows.  Wake up at 6:30 and stand in line for a shower, go to breakfast at 7:30, go to class from 8:30 to 11:30 and then go to lunch, then study for 2 hours, go to gym time at 2:40, then back to do language study until dinner at 5:30 and then class from 6:15 to 9:15.  Makes for a long day but they're usually super fun.  Our teachers Hermann Lyon and Hermann Crane are the best people ever!  They switch off every class.  Also I can relate to the gas.  I have had awful gas ever since being here.  A kid in my room brought a bidet from home ad uses it every time he goes to the restroom jajaja.  Also the stories about mom sound just like her.  I've been hearing about all the stuff regarding the Jazz from Elder Erickson.  He's got an informant on the outside that lets him know every day.  Me and him bum around all day with our buddy Ever Atkinson.  None of us can stand our companions so we just chill together.  Maybe I can get seats from him in 2 years!