Week Three in the CCM

A picture of me in front of the map.

Elder Engberson, Spencer, Elder Medeiros

My whole district: Elder Engberson, me, Elders Cannon, Medeiros, Crowley, Birk, Allred, 

Lambert, Fillmore, Murdock, Chavez

Time is flying by now I can't even believe I've been here for 20 days now. A lot of interesting stuff happened this week! Dad you got the letter about my roommate so that was the main thing that happened this week, but the other thing that happened was on Sunday me and my two companions Elder Medeiros and Elder Engberson are now the new zone leaders so that's pretty cool! All we have to do is welcome the new districts, pick people to pray for church, and basically be the eyes and ears for the branch president! I'm pretty excited about it and so are my companions, especially because we are getting two new districts tomorrow, so it'll be really crazy! 

This week has been pretty boring other than those things. Except there is one other thing that happened. Elder Fillmore left for Spain monday morning at about 6:00 a.m. which was pretty sad, untill he came back like 8 hours later because the Church lost his visa. So looks like our district is lucky enough to have him for a few more days/weeks depending on how long that takes.. 

The language is coming along better everyday! I can finally understand like 80% of what my teacher is saying. which is good because he isn't allowed to speak English since Monday... I found out that I'm allowed to listen to music whenever I'm on the computer so I've listened to like every motab song out there, and even though I'm not the biggest fan of motab I'll take anything at this point. That's about all for this week nothing much has happend! Thank you all so much for the letters emails and packages! I love you all so much!

Con amor,

Elder St. John

"Mountains to Climb"

Left to right Elder Chavez. Elder Fillmore, Elder Me, Elder Medeiros, Elder Murdock, Elder Cannon, 2 random Hermanas in our district.

So the second week here has flown by. There is this saying here that the days go by like weeks and the weeks go by like days. and that is so true. I can't believe it's already been a week since I last wrote. But I also can't believe it's only been a week since I last wrote. It's still awesome here. The food is kind of hit and miss.. so meals are amazing and some give you diarrhea (not really but almost). And I've had like 3 gallons of ice cream so far.. 

Elder Medeiros in small hat.

I don't think I told you this but the Friday right after I got to the MTC, so like three days in, we had to teach our first investigator in all Spanish. It was crazy. I came in not too nervous and I left felling pretty good. I was surprised at how well it went. We taught our investigator four lessons and by the fourth one we got him to commit to baptism. Which would be awesome if we didn't find out he wasn't our teacher right after... even though that was a bummer it was an awesome experience! 

Elder Chavez and Elder Spencer St. John

​Me and Elder Chavez thuggin in class.

So there is a small creek like right next to our class rooms called the Garden of Eden and it is the best thing ever. Every day we get like three hours of study time so we always go and sit by the creek and study and it is the most peaceful thing ever. One time I fell asleep while I was reading and awoke to a pigeon bathing in the river. It was beautiful, especially considering I've been isolated from any form of entertainment for the past two weeks. I will take anything I can that's even remotely diverting.

The Garden of Eden is amazing.

Elder Chavez meditating in the Garden of Eden.

The spirit is so strong here all the time it's crazy. I remember one lesson my teacher, Maestro Mecham, taught last week. He had us all pick out a question we had this week about the MTC, our investigators, or the language. He then told us to open up to 1st Nephi Chapter 1 and said a prayer. It was in Spanish but I remember hearing him say something about our eyes being opened to what we needed to see. And then he had us read verse by verse around the classroom. It was amazing, I have read 1 Nephi 1 like 100 times but I noticed so many things that one time I read with my class. And after we had read the first chapter he put on the "Mountains to Climb" Mormon message and by the end of it everyone was crying. It was amazing. Everyone here had come from all over America and just left their families and we hadn't really understood each other until that moment. That was the highlight of my week.

We went to the temple this morning like we do every Tuesday morning at about 8:00 and I finally did my second endowment session which was amazing. Because I wasn't doing it for myself I got to focus on what they where saying instead of being super nervous like I was the first time and it was really cool. It was a great way to start my day.

Thank you Grandma and Dad for the letters! I can't even tell you how happy it makes me getting something in the mail. So you guys are the best. So keep writing me and sending me Dear Elders. 

I love and miss you guys so much! The MTC is great and I'm doing awesome!

Love, 

Elder St. John

Loving the MTC

Hello! 

This week has been amazing. I love it here in the MTC. The language is hard and 10 hours of class takes a lot of adjustment but its really cool. I'm starting to get used to it more and more but its still a big change. I really enjoy everyone in my district! They are all hilarious. I usually laugh till i get a headache when we are talking during meals. But they are also really spiritual when they need to be. 

In my apartment I have my companion (Elder Engberson from Boise, idaho) and then one other companionship. Elder Medeiros who is from Jordan, Utah and just got out of high school and is also the district leader and his companion Elder Cannon who went to BYU for a year and came here, he is from Blackfoot, Idaho. 

Our room is great. everyday when we wake up our motto is "Rise and Grind Elders." It keeps me super motivated. The lessons are awesome and we get about 4-6 hours of study time a day so that's great as well. And I haven't taken many pictures but I'll send what i have! 

It goes me then Elder Engberson then Elder Medeiros then Elder Cannon.

Elder Engberson and Elder St. John

Spencer & Elder Medeiros

Love you and miss you.

Con Amor, 
Elder San Juan 

Missionary Training Center Day

Somehow it has become a tradition in our family to go to the Brick Oven with the missionary and their family on the day they enter the MTC.  

All three of Kari's brothers came, along with his mother, Spencer's grandmother Bonnie.  Chalis, Sunny and Lexi also came.  

Paige, Elder Spencer San Juan, Kari and Hayden 

They have changed a lot since Katelyn left.  We thought of her often today. 

Such a great family.

  

Paige posted this bitter/sweet moment at the MTC on Instagram. 

It's Official!

Spencer is now a missionary.

A member of the Stake Presidency, Kari, Spencer and the Bishop shared their testimonies.  It was a very tender meeting.  Spencer was set apart by President Lake who gave him a great blessing. President Lake set apart seven missionaries this evening.

Spencer started obeying mission rules immediately, turning his phone over to Paige to list his contact information on social media. Paige said, "I guess I can't listen to music tonight because my room is right next to Spencer's."  Such obedient young people!

Spencer said he can hardly wait to get to Mexico and that he knows his call was to the right place at the right time for him.  We were reminded that Spencer will have a special guardian angel watching over him.