Dear Family & Friends,

     Another normal week has gone by again. I keep progressing well in spanish. I really do believe in the gift of tounges now. It's amazing how many words just come to me. I feel bad though, because that gift isn't coming as fast to other missionaries here. I guess they have their own challenges that they're going through and are going to learn from. I'm just glad that I'm doing so well right now. I can communicate somewhat easily with the teachers in spanish. I hope that by the end of my stay here at the MTC, I will be able to hold a good conversation with them and close to normal speed. However, I'm not doing as well with the 'investigators'. It's hard to explain something to them that I've known my whole life. Just the other day, we brought up the Holy Ghost to 'Ever' and how he can receive revelation through Him. It turns out that 'Ever' doesn't know anything about the Holy Ghost. I had the hardest time trying to explain it to him. I've grown up my whole life knowing who the Holy Ghost is and what he does. It's super hard for me to put myself in 'Ever's' shoes and figure out how to explain it to him. I'll figure it out someday... I hope. There's another Elder here who is actually from American Fork, UT. I was talking to him the other day, and it turns out that he knows Brandon Walker a little. I guess when Elder Magleby (that's the Elder's name) got his mission call, Brandon told him that his friend (me) got the same call to Morristown, NJ spanish. So Elder Magleby kind of knew of me before our missions. I get along with Elder Magleby pretty well. We both have pretty much the same views on a lot of things, so we get along really well. We're both pretty laid back and chill (unlike a lot of Elders here, including my companion). He also took some german in high school, so we both remember words in german sometimes when we can't think of them in spanish. I'm hoping we can be companions later on in our missions, because then we would be even more likely to be good friends after our missions, being so close and all. So yeah, our district is pretty crazy. We're known for being the crazy and unfocused district. It's hard because I'm trying to focus and be an amazing missionary, but a lot of the others just want to have fun all the time. (Another thing that Elder Magleby and I have in common.) Sometimes I wish I were in a different district, because the other districts are always obeying ever rule, and they're always having fun. The ones in our district just don't get that yet. I believe, though, that this is a challenge for me and for the other couple in our district that are really trying to focus. I believe that this will be for our benefit eventually, and we'll be blessed for quietly leading our district to focus and stay on task. 

     As for those three questions, here you go:

1. It's hard to say what I'd change about the MTC. There's a lot I would want to change, but I know that everything that we do is inspired revelation for the representatives of Jesus Christ. Everything here is here for a reason. I would change the amount of free time (or personal time) after classroom and planning each night. We only get like 20 min and then it's quiet time for 15 min, then lights out. I wish we had like 45 min to talk and hang out with other missionaries.

2. I have eaten cereal for dinner. I usually do it though when it's something not that good. Like for a couple nights, we had hotdogs for dinner. That's just kind of wierd for me to have so often. I feel nasty when I eat a hotdog, a plate of french fries, and 3 glasses of root beer. So I started to change. The other night I had two bowls of Life Cereal and juice for dinner. It was awesome! The other night too, they had cranberry almond salads at the salad bar. I'll tell you what, I felt much better eating a salad and some juice then hotdogs, fries, and soda. I am growing to like the food here. I just think about what I'm going to get and I make sure it's somewhat healthy.

3. Free time? HAHA! We have such little free time. The time during the regular day that doesn't have anything scheduled is used to get somewhere or to shower after gym. However, on P-Day, we have more free time. I use that to relaxe and talk about life with other missionaries. I have to say, that I really wish I were here during the summer. The campus here is really nice. It would be so cool to eat outside and read the scriptures under the giant trees and around the gardens.

     Thanks for the letters. Sorry I don't respond to all of them sometimes. I'm staying really busy and don't have much time to write. But I'll do my best to keep up. Keep sending letters, I really do enjoy them.

     -Elder Justin Gajewsky

 

Dear Dad,

     I still have a good amount of Diovan left. By the time I'm ready to go out to NJ, I'll be running low. So you could probably send more anytime. Next time you do send a package, could you send me my pair of mockasins. I don't know how to spell it. Kelsie would probably know what they are. I have a pair of them in my closet. They're just the leather-looking slipper things. They're really comfortable and I'd probably use them a lot. My scripture I chose is Isaiah 6:8. It's in the front cover of the book Chosen Soldier. It applies a lot to the soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and other places. It also applies to missionaries. In the verse, the Lord is asking who will go for us. As we accept our call to serve, we're saying that we'll go fight for the right. I shared that with my district, and I really like it. It did take me like 30 min to try and remember the scripture. I remembered that I really liked that scripture in that book, but I couldn't remember the scripture at all. I finally remembered something it said in it, and I just used LDS.org to search for key phrases. I finally found it. That's my favorite scripture. Tell grandma I want her to write to me! I would love to hear from her. Yes, I do write in my journal. I write in it every night, and I will write in my journal every night for my whole mission. If you look through any of your mission journals and find any cool stories, I'd love to hear them. Elder Magleby's dad works for Deseret printing. He said that they only print language church materials for a period of every year. So if you can't find any at the BYU Bookstore, it may be a while before they get more spanish hymns. But keep checking regularly for more of them. Thanks for everything. Love you!

 

Dear Mom,

     By the way, the salads here are pretty good! Haha, just thought I'd tell you that the caeser salad I had the other day was pretty good. I'd like to know who asks the questions, so if you could, just let me know who sends those, thanks. I'm taking a lot of pictures. I'm thinking of sending a card home soon, just so you can have a few pictures of me. I have one specifically that I like a lot that I want as my new facebook pic, so I'll send that home soon. I absolutely loved meeting up with Wes Harward. It's so great talking to him. He gave me some advice on learning the language that I wrote down and put in my mission journal. I really appreciate his help and all. I liked seeing him. I guess he's going to Jerusalem in April and then Notre Dame in August. Pretty crazy! He's really jealous that I'm going on a mission. He says he's always jealous of the new missionaries that he gets every three weeks. He works in the english area, and he gets to meet new missionaries every three weeks. Love you very much. I hope you're doing a lot better. It's the same here as always. Let me know how things are going at home.

 

Dear Kelsie,

     Thanks for those lyrics. I'm pretty sure they're correct. Dearelder doesn't like the accents on the top of the letters, so it replaced them with question marks. I'm trying to decypher them, but I'm doing pretty well. Help dad find my mocasins for me. I don't know how to spell that. But I would like to have them. They're in my closet, I think. Thanks much! Love ya!