One Month Mark July 24, 2014

Family and Friends and people who like to read my emails that don't particularly care for me,

Tomorrow will be my one month mark. As slow as the days feel in this place, the weeks just fly by. In 10 days I will be getting on a plane to start my 23 month journey in Mexico. It's pretty exciting besides the fact that I won't be able to understand anyone for the first little while. I can't wait to meet real investigators with real struggles and share the gospel with them. The MTC has turned out to be a great experience. As much as I wish I could leave I wish I had more time to keep learning more Spanish!

This week has been pretty busy, I have been teaching about three lessons a day, and we are doing pretty well. My companion is one of the coolest guys I know and acts just like my friends back home so we are having a blast! On monday we got to Skype a member in Mexico and share a small spiritual message. As we were teaching, her children were running around. As I was bearing my testimony I just hear this little boy bust up laughing. Yes, he was laughing at my Spanish, and yes he was only 7 years old. After that me and my companion couldn't stop laughing, so the rest of the lesson wasn't very spiritual, but it was hilarious! Mi espanol es no bueno, pero y se que el donde languas es real!

Sunday was an eventful day. Me and Elder Christensen had to teach district meeting, which is in English so it's not too big of a deal! then one thing we do for sacrament meeting here is that everyone is supposed to prepare a talk, and then they choose someone to speak, but they don't tell you who is speaking until right before you have to stand up so you pretty much have to come prepared every Sunday. Of course I was the Elder that was picked to speak, and gave my first talk in Spanish! Luckily I was prepared, and everything went well!

Sorry for the lame stories, there just isn't many exciting things that happen in the MTC. I want to write, and tell you something awesome that happened, but nothing awesome ever happens here!!!

Final thing for this week. You get a lot of time to study here, and during that study time I found out that the Book of Mormon is way cooler than I thought it was!!! I would encourage you to read it. There are pretty cool stories in there that can help build and strengthen your faith. I don't expect you to believe me, but I do expect you to read for yourself. El Libro de Mormon is Verdadero. yes, my two spanish sentences in this email are all I know. Have a great week, and keep thinking about me when you pass golf courses! Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Hirsch

I have survived the MTC in Camp 4, they didn't even make us 

shave our heads, and we got to keep our own clothes!

The Zone at the Temple

Life in the MTC is so much Better! Week three July 17, 2014

Family and Friends,

Life in the MTC is so much better! I still wish I was in Mexico, but the MTC isn't as much of a drag as it has been. I am learning to enjoy the experience instead of being a downer all the time. When I first arrived at the MTC I was pretty confident, humble, patient, loving and hard working. I thought I would be fine and it would be pretty easy for me. Let's just say I got an extra large slice of humble pie when I got here. I realized that it is easy to be kind, humble, and have charity in the real world because you can take time to yourself and get away from everything if you get frustrated. That's not how things work here. There are people everywhere, and if you don't have charity and patience your life is awful. You learn to love people with real intent, and you magically gain patience for the annoying things they do all day every day! I'm working on it every day and improving as well!

i got my visa this week,, so I should be headed to Mexico on schedule! I have no idea how I am going to be ready for it in two weeks, but I will just have to rely on the Lord to help me get through it!

Relying on the Lord is something that is required to be a good missionary. I have to work really hard at this. As most of you know I am an extremely independent and for the most part very logical, which makes it very difficult for me to put my trust in someone else (If you are ever wondering why I play golf there is your answer) Anyways, this past week i have really tried to put my trust in the Lord, it turns out that everything all of you and all my church leaders have been telling me my whole life is true! it's crazy how if you ask the Lord with a pure heart and real intent he will answer your prayers. I have seen it every day this week! The gift of tongues is Real!!!!! It's crazy, when we are teaching "Investigators" the things we have learned just magically come to you. We don't always make perfect sense, but the spirit is there and the investigator understands. I encourage all of you to just open your hearts and ask the Lord with real intent, and I promise that the Lord will bless you! Read Moroni 10:3-5 it is the best promise in the Book of Mormon! Read and Ponder the Book, then ask the father if it is true and it will be revealed to you through the Holy Ghost!

Things have been going pretty good here, we basically do the same things every day so there is not much to tell you about! We study and eat! that's about it! To all of those who haven't left yet, get in a habit to study for an hour at a time, it will help a lot when you get into the MTC!

My one spiritual thought for this week is to have charity(pure love of Christ) towards everyone. If you have true Charity to everyone around you, and you will find yourself much happier!

I love you all and miss you! There is one thing I need you all to do for me, and that is,, every time you drive past a golf course, I need you to think of me! Every little bit helps! Love you all! Have a great week!

Four other missionaries they room with

Kelton's awesome drawing of fellow missionary

Photobomb!

Good friends from home Elder Sam Perkins

and Elder Sam Tullis

Another week at the MTC down Week 2 July 10, 2014

Friends and Family,

Another week in the MTC down! I wont lie, this place is just hard work. I'm trying my best to keep a good attitude, but it's pretty hard when this language isn't happening for me as fast as I want it to. I am looking forward to the day when I know the language well enough to say the things I need to say to my investigators. I can't wait to get to Mexico! A lot of you are asking about the food, and I will just say that it is terrific until you have to eat it every single day for every meal. Haha it just gets a little old after a while.

A couple cool things happened this week. On the fourth of July they had a special devotional and let us watch the movie "17 Miracles" then go outside and watch the fireworks that were going on at the BYU football stadium. It was about as close as you can get to a party here at the MTC/CCM.

One of the districts in our zone left the MTC on Monday. The night before they left they wanted to get Priesthood blessings. This experience was awesome, everyone from our zone was in the classroom. It was an amazing experience to hear the blessings given by other missionaries. The coolest part about this was that one of the missionaries leaving (Elder Bowers), asked if I would be the one to give him a blessings. It was an amazing experience. Elder Bowers was one of the older elders that I really look up to, and I respect him a lot. The spirit in that room was indescribable! Absolutely Amazing!

One more awesome opportunity that we had this week was Elder Neil L Anderson coming to speak to us in the devotional on Tuesday. He gave a great talk on recognizing the spirit. The apostles just have a certain spirit to them that they just carry around consistently. It was a great opportunity to hear him speak.

The days here are beginning to move a lot faster and I'm sure it will be over in no time. I am doing my best to keep a good attitude and take advantage of the learning opportunity I have been given in the CCM. BE YOUR BEST EVERY DAY.

I love and miss you all and love to hear from you! 

Elder Hirsch

Seeing friends from home at the MTC

Elder Will Daines and Elder Ben Peterson

Kelton's missionary companion at the MTC

Elder Christensen from Richfield UT

More friends from home  Elder Parker Handley

and Elder Ben Peterson

Also Elder Sam Tullis from home

First Letter July 3rd

Hola Family and Friends,

In case you forgot about me already I just wanted to remind you that I am in the MTC and give you an update on how I'm doing!

I won't lie to anyone, this place is hard work. It's not easy! I have been very discouraged and humbled. Its been extremely difficult for me to be patient while learning this language! I just want it to happen already!! Things are getting better and I am actually starting to enjoy this place. (After the first few days I thought I was going to hate the entire time here). As soon as I made it to Sunday things got much better! So advice to elders entering the MTC just fight through to your first Sunday and things will get better!

I'll start you at the beginning:

Day 1: things were very relaxed, we got to teach someone as a large group (this person was an MTC worker acting as an investigator) It really opened my eyes to how real missionary work is going to be!

Day 2: This is where the fun begins. ( If you call stress and language cramming fun) It is a little overwhelming spending 9 hours in a classroom, but like I said it gets better, and it doesn't bother me anymore!

Day 3: Taught our first lesson in Spanish. I know what you're thinking, "How in the world did you know enough Spanish to teach a lesson after only 2 days of learning?" Here's the good part. WE DIDN'T!!!!!!!! It was about as bad as it gets. We have taught every day since and things seem to get better every lesson! We start teaching 2 lessons a day on Monday! I also hear that by the end of our time in the MTC we will be teaching up to 5 lessons a day! You know what they say practice makes perfect (There is not a chance that we reach perfect in just six weeks! Just have to trust in the Lord that you will be able to remember everything you learn while in the MTC)

Now a little about my companion and District. My companion is Elder Christensen. He is a farmboy from Richfield, Utah. He is a very nice kid, and has a great heart!! He struggles with the language a little bit which makes teaching really difficult because I have to be the one doing most of the talking! He is a great kid, and I am glad that I got a good companion for the MTC!

My district is me and 5 others, and one of these is Elder Steven Deppe. Yes, the Steven Deppe who I grew up in the same ward as, and was baptized on the same day with! kind of crazy how things work out!

Overall the MTC has turned out to be a lot better than I thought and I am happy to be here!

I told myself I wouldn't be the elder that preaches in his emails home, but I wanted to share a quote from a devotional we had here. "The gospel of Jesus Christ is like a gift... I can tell you how awesome everything inside it is, but you will never know the blessings inside until you unwrap it yourself." 

I love you all so much and would love to hear from you! 

Sincerely,   Elder Hirsch

On His Way! June 25th 2014

Kelton was to be at the MTC on June 25^th at 12:45. We went to Provo and had lunch first then went up to the temple to take some pictures.

  Saying goodbye for 2 years

Mission Farewell June 15th, 2014

Kelton had his mission farewell on June 15^th. We had so many friends and family attend and it was an awesome day.

              

Kelton's golf coach and family Boyd Summerhayes


PICTURES TAKEN BY VANESSA BROWN PHOTOGRAPHY

Mission Call

On February 13^th Kelton received his mission call. Sam Perkins also received his the same day so they decided to open them together. With about 80 friends and family they gathered at Keltons home and opened them! So exciting to hear where they were going! Kelton was called to Mexico City West Mission and Sam to Columbia South America. Kelton is to report to the Provo MTC on June 25^th 2014.

Mexico City West

For Christmas Kelton surprised us all with pillows with his face 

on them!  He told us all "Your going to miss me when I'm gone!!!"

Creation of Blog

I am Darla Hirsch Kelton's mother, I will be posting Kelton's letters and pictures for family and friends to view. We are so excited to share his mission and his experiences during the next two years!