Elder Joshua Hernandez

Wow, I have been in the MTC for 5 weeks now. I can’t believe it!!! I feel like I just got here yesterday but I have learned SO much since I have been here. This week was the first Sunday I got to sit up on the stand with the Branch President (because I am now the new zone leader). It was so cool!!! I have only been Zone leader for one week but I felt like I have learned and grown so much. I also was able to conduct weekly District Leader interviews. This gives me a chance to see how each of the districts are doing and if I need to bring any information to the branch president’s attention. It’s funny because I get to interview DL’s that have been here longer then I have so it’s like I’m smaller then them but I’m who they report to. It’s just funny because when you come to the MTC everyone who is in the MTC before you, you look up to them.

We also lost two more missionaries today at 5am. They are off to Guatemala. It was hard to see them go. You really do get really attached to elders in your Zone because you spend 16 hours a day together and just have the same goal in mind. Their names were Elder Harmon and Elder Mortenson, from Idaho. I loved Elder Mortenson, he always made me laugh and just was a super funny guy. We were supposed to lose like 7 other missionaries from our zone today. They are going to Chile but because, most of you know, Chile had a 8.0 earthquake last week. It hit the exact area where they are going. So because of the earthquake they are delayed for a week right now but that is not even for sure. It might even be longer. So pray for the people of Chile right now, they need it.

I went to the temple today, it was awesome like always. I didn’t go last week so it felt like forever since I have been to the temple. It’s like when you miss church for a week and then the next week it’s like “wow it has been a long time since I took the Sacrament”

Also a little FYI for you all in gym time they have a record board up and they have records for pushups and 3 point shots and they even have one for the mile. The gym is 3 stories and it’s 10 laps to make a mile so the record is at 4:57 a mile. I want to beat that record before I leave the MTC in 4 weeks. So I ran it Friday and I got 5:47 so I need to shave like 0:50 seconds off my time but I can so do it.

Spanish is really coming along. I can listen to it and understand it and I can also read it better then I can say it. This Thursday night will be the first time I will be able to teach in Spanish. I am so excited for it but sadly I won’t be there because there are 10 new elders coming in to the MTC. They are in my zone so I need to show them around, go over rules, and just make them feel welcome by making their first few days awesome. But I love Spanish. I even bought this children’s picture book of the Book of Mormon stories in Spanish and I am reading it. I am really surprising myself on how much I can understand so that helps. And I also have TONS of flashcard with words on them that I carry around and that helps. But I just need to speak more. I think that my problem is that I need to talk and hear it out loud. The Lord has blessed me so much I could have never come this far and know this much without Him.

Thank you all for your prayers and your letters of encouragement and packages. They are REALLY needed and I love to know people are thinking about me and haven’t forgotten about me. Thank you again. I love you all.

Love mucho Elder Hernandez

Hey all!!!

How are you all doing? I hope all is well. Well I am in my 4th week in the MTC and sometimes it seems like I have been here forever and then other times it feels like it is going way too fast. I’m so grateful for the MTC and all the time people put in on missionaries behalf. I have heard stories when there was no MTC. It was called the LTC (Language Training Center) and you would be at the mission home for like 3 weeks listening to General Authorities all day long. After 3 weeks if you’re learning a new language they would ship you out to your mission and you would learn it when you got there. Talk about scary. I can’t imagine doing that. I’m in class for 8 hours a day and I still don’t feel ready. But it will come in time.

SO OFFICALY yesterday around 1:45pm my companion and I became the Zone Leaders for Zone 8. It is going to be a hard but fun experience. I am so ready to learn and just start helping people. Today about 8 Elders from our Zone left for Mexico. So every time we have Elders leave we all meet in the halls and we sing GOD BE WITH YOU TILL ME MEET AGAIN in Spanish of course. And then pray as a Zone. It was a very touching last night because I only knew those Elders for about 3 weeks but they felt like family and I love them. It’s sad to think that I most likely will not ever see those Elders that help me through my time in the MTC again. After we sang and prayed, the old Zone Leaders had a little ceremony for me and my companion as new zone leaders. They had these like, I don’t know what they are but they look like Hawaiian black beads for me and red and orange lay for my companion. And they passed those necklaces down to us and entrusted us with the whole zone. It was kind of cheesy but I thought it was the coolest thing. It was like passing the torch from one person to another and now it’s my turn to run with the torch. And a little fun fact about those necklaces, I’m the 4th generation to get them and when I leave in about 5 weeks I will pass them on to the next generation.

It’s been nice in Provo this week. We got a little snow but not too much. I am starting to get use to waking up and going to bed at these new times. The language is coming along. This week in the TRC will be my last week teaching the whole 2nd lesson in English. After that I will have to teach in Spanish only!!! It is really scary but I will be OK. I will just have to use all my time studying and using the Lords time wisely. I keep hearing at the MTC, that this time will be the only time I will ever be called ELDER (forever) unless I come a general authority. But I am on the Lords time and I need to use his time wisely. This will be the only time I will be able to give all I have for the building up of His kingdom here on the earth today. And I can either be lazy and waste these 2 years or get ready for the hardest most brutal time of my life and labor with Him at my side and make it the most satisfying 2 years because His work will still go on and over all the world NO MATTER WHAT. We know the ending to this story; the Lord’s work will prevail.

I am so grateful to be on a mission and work and labor with my fellow man and to have the Lord with me every step of the way. I love Him and will always love Him. I will never be able to pay back the debt that He paid for me but I will try. I love this church and know it is the only true church here on the earth today. We have the FULLNESS of the gospel today. I know Thomas S. Monson leads and guides this church today with Jesus at the head of this church. It is not President Monson’s church, it is the Lord’s Church and it will be forever. How great is this work.

Thank you all for your prayers and blessings, I love you all.

Hey all

Well its been a good week this week in the MTC. We got a new district on Wednesday, 6 Elders and 4 Hermanas. It’s been so crazy, I have only been in the MTC for three weeks now but I feel so out of the world and everything that is happening. We had a devotional yesterday and it was Brother Heaton from the Provo MTC Administration. He talked about being focused. Not on being focused on us (missionaries) but being focused on the investigator and how so many times we are always thinking “did I do a good job” or “did I say that right.” Those things are important but we just have to be focused on them and their needs and tell them about the lesson that will bless their lives the most. We as missionaries are tools in the Lords hand. Like when digging a hole, true a shovel needs to be sharp and stable enough to work but after that is done then next thing we worry about is the ground. Is it hard, are there rocks in the way and then you focus all your attention on the ground (investigators). And that really struck me, because when I am role playing as a non-member, I have an opportunity to receive revelation, to know how they feel and know how I can adjust my lesson to their needs.

Ok so yesterday was the craziest, coolest, most blessing day ever!! Yesterday, the second counselor of our branch pulled me and Elder Pratt (my companion) into a room and sat down with us. I thought this was an interview to see how our companionship was going, but I was dead wrong. He sat down with us and asked us to be the Zone Leaders for Zone 8. A zone leader is now a 4 week calling, it is your calling till you leave in the MTC and I still have 6 weeks left. I was so shocked!! I don’t know why the Lord asked us to be Zone Leaders but He will help us and give us strength to help and lead our zone to great things.

To break it down for you, in the MTC, There are 5,6 or more districts in a zone and each district has 6-10 or more people in them and there is one District leaders in each district. So I am in charge of all districts and all the people in each of those districts. I had no idea I was going to be called to be a Zone Leader, I was just worrying about learning Spanish and now I have the great opportunity to watch over and help each new Elder in my Zone. Needless to say I am so glad the Lord knows me better then I know myself because it’s going to be work and less time to study.

Ok, anyways, I am doing great, still loving the MTC. Making muchos friends and still learning everything I can about Spanish. It’s a crazy language to learn so many different tenses and verbs and just everything but I can do it!! A lot of the older Elders are heading out this week or next week, some are going to Texas, Chile, Mexico, California little bit of everywhere and all of them are Spanish speaking missions. They group people up by the language they are speaking so that it’s nice because you have people to help you and show you the ropes. I went to the temple today like I do every Monday morning at 6:30 am I’m actually writing this letter while waiting for my clothes to stop washing. Haha missionary life and I love the temple. I get so much power from the temple, I am grateful for the knowledge that families can be together FOREVER. Thank you for all who read this. I love you all and if you ever have a free moment or two shoot me an email (DearElder.com) or I love written letters also.

Thanks again,

Elder Hernandez

Hello to the outside world.

It’s my 2nd p-day in the MTC and it is awesome!! I have been through a whole week now so I know now what to expect for the next 8 weeks. I am loving the MTC so much. It’s a lot of fun and I am learning so much. I couldn’t even imagine going on a mission without the MTC. So this week was good. I had my first TRC (I’m not sure what it stands for but it’s where you go to a room with you companion and you teach a lesson to a real person). The person might be a member acting like an investigator but you never know. So you have to really teach simple and easy for them to understand what you are teaching them. Also even before you get to teaching you have to meet them and get to know them but this part is a little harder because I have to do it in SPANISH. I’m in class every day but still it’s hard and I get really nervous the first time I meet someone so I felt bad but I froze. I knew what to say but my mind just went blank. But I am getting better at talking with strangers and I better get over it because I will be doing that for the next 2 years. I have a TRC every Thursday and every Thursday there’s a new task to practice in Spanish. Like this week is like we are tracting and knock on a door and get to know them and then set up an appointment and then give a pray all in Spanish. So I am getting better. That is my main focus right now is Spanish. Sunday was yesterday and I love Sunday, that is my favorite day out of the whole week. I get to go to sacrament with my branch every week and they are the best branch I could have gotten. I was blessed. But it is so cool because sacrament is all in Spanish and every time we pray in Spanish, every time we sing, we sing in Spanish. So I am hearing Spanish everywhere and I have fallen in love with the language. I understand more than I can speak it. I was feeling like I would never be able to speak Spanish because there’s so much about the language, but I remember the scripture where it says “when the Lord calls, the Lord will qualify” and I know God called me to be a missionary and to spread His words in every persons ear and every person will hear the gospel in their own land and in their own language and I am one of those few servants of the LORD and I’m loving every minute.

Well basically, I’m trying really hard here and I’m trying to give the Lord my all and hopefully with my trying, He will make up the rest and give me strength to do His work. My teachers here are the best and they teach me so much. I LOVE my district I never knew I could love strangers so much, but now they aren’t strangers we feel more like brothers and I pray we will always stay close. So remember I love DearElder.com and I think that’s probably the highlight of my day so just tell everyone to send them to me when they get a chance. I’m trying hard at learning Spanish and learning the gospel and I still don’t feel like I will ever get both of them but it will work out. I love my family and my friends I wouldn’t be here without them.

Hola everyone,
I’m at the MCT finally. When I opened my call 3 months ago I thought this day would never come and now it seems like I opened it just yesterday. Time has for sure gotten away from me but that’s good. Ok so first of all my first day i got to the MTC, guess who greeted all the new missionaries?? Give up? President Uchtdorf! YA! One of the members the First Presidency. He came in to greet all the new missionaries and it was just crazy to see him in the same room as I was. That made my day SOO much. You could just feel his spirit the moment he walked through the door and I loved every moment of him being there with me. He told us, those learning a language, that German is the easiest language to learn because even the children speak it. HAHA that make me laugh. When he left the president of the MTC stood up and told us he was been here for three years and that is the first time one of the members of the first presidency came to the MTC. So i felt very special. And something else that made me laugh was when the president of the MTC talked he said, we are not “dudes”, “guys”, or “man” we are Elders. Dudes, guys and man are back home dating your girlfriends. That cracked me up even more.
I met my first and new companion his name is Elder Pratt, like Parley P. Pratt that is my companion’s great, great, great grandfather. We are getting along well. So I’m so excited I’m learning Spanish!!! the first three days I heard our the hardest, if you can make it to Sunday you can make it the rest of the time and that’s so true. The first three days they cram language at you and preach my gospel. It’s so much to take in that you have no time to rest, but I remember I’m a missionary: there is no time to rest. Spanish is going well: I can already give a primary prayer and I can greet someone and say I’m from the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and give my testimony. So I’m Super excited to keep learning and learn the gospel in Spanish. Every chance I get I have flash cards or saying things out loud. It’s so nice here because there’s always something to do. You could be studying preach my gospel, reading the scriptures or leaning Spanish and I’m the kind of person who likes to be kept busy. Wow this letter is long but I want to cram all this information into one letter because I only get 30 minutes to write people and I’m only allowed to write family. But basically the MTC is awesome I still have 8 weeks here and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it. I leave the 29th of March to Argentina, it’s going to go by so fast. Please everyone who reads this. I LOVE MAIL!! Haha that helps me a lot knowing people care. There is a website called DearElder.com go there a register a you can send me letters through email and they will print them out and give them to me and I will write back. So go to dearElder.com. I will love you all forever. I love this work and I love are Heavenly father i wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have a testimony that he live and loves all of us and knows each of us personally and knows what we are going through.

Amo (Love)
Elder Hernandez

*Check out Elder Hernandez’s website: http://www.missionsite.net/elderjdhernandez . It is a fun website that will have little updates, pictures and letter on it.*

On Wednesday January 27th, 2010 at 1 pm Elder Hernandez entered the MTC!

On Tuesday evening Josh was set apart as a missionary.  Elder Hernandez drove with his family up to Provo, UT and stayed with the Bennett’s(Aaron and Shandee).  Wednesday morning everyone went shopping to purchase the final items that Elder Hernandez needed. They went to lunch at Shandee’s work and then proceeded to the MTC.

The MTC has a new policy. Instead of taking your missionary inside and watching a movie with them; they now have you say goodbye to them at the corner and you are able to watch them walk into the MTC.

When we arrived at the MTC we took pictures and said our goodbyes for the next two years! It was a sweet moment that our family will always remember.  We love Elder Hernandez! We know that he is going to do a great job serving the Lord. Please write him as much as possible! He would love to hear from all of you! He will be in the MTC until March 29th.

Well only 6 days left till i head up to the MTC in Provo,Utah. Its crazy it feels like only yesterdat i opened up my call and it told me i was going to Argentina Rosario and i would have to wait 3 months before entering the MTC but it flew right by. Im really excited to go on my mission. People might think 2 years is a life time to serve in a foreign country and having to learn a new language but to its nothing, its the least i could do after everything the Lord has done for me.

Thinking back over these 3 months i had to prepare for my mission there are things i wished i would have done right when i got my call. Like getting my shots, i should have gotten them right away for at least a month before i go because now i am scrambling around trying to find doctors and finding the shots. Its a big mess just save your self some headaches and get them done.  Also my paper work like Visa, and accepted letter and passport, those take awhile so get those done ASAP. I really dont know anybody who personally who went to Rosario so i dont really know what to expect. So I’m just taking everything on the list and then a few things people have told me that are pretty universal to Argentina. Like its hot there, so more short white shirts then long ones.  Well i hope this helps someone out i wished someone from my mission in the last 10 years would have talked to me to give me some pointers.

Soon to be,

Elder Hernandez