Hey guys!!

Thank so much for that package I was so stoked to get it!! Lovin that beef jerky, granola bars and the pills haha! You know that you’re a missionary when you read your district a greenie quote that says ‘Adam fell….but he got right back up’! Honesty we had a good laugh at that one. Thanks Lily and Graci for the sweet pictures of rainbows! I have them hangin up in my room.
Today we played a competitive soccer match against the other zone. They were talkin a lot but we freakin whooped then 10 to 0! haha! they were way heated but you don’t mess with zone 1 the Ammon district! That’s my district! It was also fun to play soccer with some local Spanish boys on Saturday at some getto court. They were all about 13 to 14 years old and when we got there they were all smokin. We beat them and they were all hurt by getting beat by some crappy Americans haha! Honestly I freakin love soccer now! I'm not good at all but I've gotten better over the last 6 weeks! It’s a fun sport! Keep on playin hard Calli! The other day we where playin and elder Curtis jumped up for a header and some other kid jumped too and they collided in air. I'm pretty sure Curtis broke his nose but one of the teachers popped in back into place. It was bleeding like a faucet! Pretty crazy! I'm lovin soccer though!
OK here's my spiritual part I had this week. We watched a talk given to the Provo MTC back on January 15th 2013. It was by Elder Holland and it was one of the best talks ever!! He was talkin about how we have to convert ourselves before we can convert others and that we need to be obedient! When he said ‘this isn’t our first rodeo’ it got me super pumped!! (I'm gonna be in a rodeo with E. Curtis when I get back! Hee ha!) He was like loud at the pulpit! You guys should look it up and watch it cause I really liked it! We also got to watch the Joseph Smith movie on Sunday! I don’t think I've ever felt the spirit so strong during a movie. I've seen it a ton before but it was so different watching it in the MTC! It's cool to watch a video related to things we are teachin about. I don’t wanna sound weird but I loved when the bagpipes where being played at the end of the movie. I felt the spirit so strong and I felt/knew that Steve was there helping me along the way. It was a pretty neat experience to watch that movie in the MTC.
OK just for some random stuff. The cooks have gotten worse at cookin and the food has been up and down for the last few days. We bought food at the store one day and they got super mad at us but it's all good. We have new Italians here in the MTC that are going to Rome and Milan. They're pretty funny! There is one huge guy that is 6’7’’ and probably weighs 330 lbs. He is massive. He makes Elder Curtis look like a little boy!
Oh yea I almost forgot so say that I when I was proselytizing in the streets this week with E. Ellsworth. He is a pretty cool guy and a way hard worker! We placed 5 Book of Mormons and got 3 referrals! It was way fun and I felt like I was able to speak a lot of my little Spanish and I was able to understand a lot of stuff! It's pretty weird thinkin that I'm gonna be doin that for the next 2 years! But I love it and its super fun!!
That’s about all for today! I'll be able to email you guys on Monday though! We leave on Tuesday! Haha! Love you guys and thanks again for all the emails and all the letters and the package! You guys are the best! Talk to you in 4 days!!

Love Elder McDermott

Oh and I listened to the whole temple session in Spanish today! it was pretty crazy but I actually understood a ton of it! I love it! I love ya!

This week's pictures!

Blue Sky Day

Chillin' on top of Madrid with my super sick skinny tie!

Elder Russell and his onesie PJs!

Just postin' up with E. Curtis

Looks like I might be able to ski next P-day!

Me and my teacher Hermano Tyndale

My District

One more of me!

With E. Bassett

The MTC President and his wife

What's up Everyone!?

What up everyone!?

 

How's it goin back in Utah! To respond to the last letter, tell Wayne and Katie and all the Cedarholms that I'm sorry and sendin prayers their way. Sounds like the weather in Utah is typical. Snowin one min and the super nice the next. It sounds nice enough if Graci is going around picking "dandy flyings". haha! that's sick that Brock is takin a robotics class and percussions! The pizza was so good last p day! I think I legit ate 2 whole medium pizzas! So nice gettin a little taste of home! The food isn't bad here but it's not the best. Pretty much everything is fried or cooked in oil. I've had some pretty crazy stuff though! This week I had steak which was amazing, had some fried squid tentacles which was freakin gross but I also had some swordfish. Not gonna lie it was probably the best fish I've ever had. Ate the whole thing. It's weird I'm startin to like fish and ranch dressing more. I've been givin my district some of my chocolate and candy though so I don't feel sick and get fat. haha. I'm wakin up early most mornings though to work out so it's all good. The MTC president reminds me of grandpa McDermott. Easy going and a spiritual guy. I sat by him in the temple once and he even patted my leg as grandpa would! I went proselytizing in the park this week with Elder Smith. I went with him the first week in a 3- some so I knew him pretty well. He's a pretty chill dude and he's goin to Barcelona too! We placed two BOM's which was cool. We talked to this old guy for a legit 20 minutes. He was so funny but me and Smith only understood like 90 percent of the conversation. He had us sit by him and he would say stuff and look at us. We would sit there and look stupid cause we didn't know what he was sayin. Then he would laugh and bum me on the shoulder. It made me realize how bad I am at Spanish but it's all good. I do alright teaching the fake investigators here in the MTC. The lessons are completely in Spanish and I can pretty much understand everything they say. But they speak clear, slow, and simple. Teachin is hard but it's so fun to teach the gospel and be lead by the spirit in what to say. This Sundays Sacrament meeting was pretty sketchy. I was called in Sacrament meeting to give a 5 minute talk on faith. I had prepared before cause they don't tell you who is gonna speak but I didn't think it was gonna be me. Well guess what, it was. My talk was pretty choppy and my pronunciation sucked but it was 5 minutes. I did copy like half of it out of preach my gospel. haha. It wasn't the best Spanish talk that day but it was the longest! ha! I need to work on my pronunciation for sure though. All 'n all it wasn't that bad though. Calli that is sweet that your soccer is startin up! Every day for P.E. I play soccer. Well it's actually 'futbol' but it's way fun! Except when retards kick your shins. It freakin hurts! I'm not that good but it's fun and I have scored a few goals! Thanks for those letters and pictures!! Please send more I loved it! So fun to see those pics! Brock that was a sweet Duramax you drew man!! And thank you girls for the pics I have them hangin up in my room! Can you sent me one of Sherly please!! I'm missin her like crazy right now. ( Mom's insert: Sherly is his mountain bike!) I don't have really any super funny stories or at least ones I can remember but I will tell you a fun studying session we had! We had a coin and we played bloody knuckles with it but with a twist. We would do the regular spinning the coin thing and whoever knocked it over or couldn't keep it going, lost. Someone would show that person a Spanish word on a flash card and we would have to say the word meant. If you couldn't say it in like 7-8 seconds than you would get a coin flyin right into your knuckles! haha! I got cut a few time and was bleedin but I'm fine now that the scabs are gone. haha. Another fun thing we did in our spare time is playin a flickin game. What you do is get a deck of cards (we made some) and shuffle them up. During this game you must be completely quiet. You lay down two cards. Whosever turn it is can either knock to take the hand, or pass. If you take the hand, the dealer lays down the next card. If it's between the two numbers on the first cards you get to flip everyone in the forehead as hard as you can. If the card is outside of the numbers everyone gets to flick you as hard as they can. And if you laugh or make a sound you get flipped in the head by the people next to you. haha. I'm good at the not laughin part but let's just say that my forehead was a bit sore in the morning. haha. HAPPY BRITHDAY TO LILY!!! I hope you have a good birthday tomorrow! I wish I could be there! you got to write and tell me what you get. To answer some questions. I leave for Barcelona in a week from Tuesday. I can't believe it but it's almost here! It's gonna be way different in the field! Don't worry about me here I'm doin fine. My little spiritual bit will be that the spirit is really helpin me out here. You know how I used to get super stressed? Mom knows really well all those drives down to Provo to look at stupid clothes. haha. I haven't been really stressed out here! Living with a few guys for 24/7 can be rough but I have been able to keep my cool and I believe it's because the Holy Ghost has helped me tons not to get stressed! So don't ya worry and just keep on havin fun in Utah!

 

Love you guys, Love Elder McDermott

 

More Pictures!

The crew today

Going to Retiro Park

Getting ready to sing

El Templo



Just some street

Stolen chair in our room

Que tal?!

Whats up guys! Hows everything at home? Things are goin pretty good here. Not gonna lie when I watched that first session of conference live I got way home sick. Seeing temple square and the wasatch front was hard. Plus after one of the sessions they were showin temples and I saw the Draper temple and corner canyon and I was like- that’s where I shred! Plus Sunday morning session (which was Sunday night for me) I knew you guys where at the cabin or somethin eatin an amazing breakfast and watchin conference. Kinda depressing and made me home sick but I'm over it now. Not gonna lie I got more out of that one general conference session that I have in my entire life. I know that makes me sound bad but I did. Brock you better look out man they were talkin a lot about deacons in conference. We also had a way good/spiritual testimony meeting after conference which was good. We are also watching the Sunday session tonight. Conference was way good and it was nice to take a break for a bit! I went proselytizing in the street on Saturday. I was with a temporary companion elder Fredrick. He's a hard worker no doubt! We talked to a ton of people and placed 2 Book of Mormons and we got one referral. The Spain MTC is super chill. We can even go out and go shopping and stuff! It's super sick! I got some ties for only 2.50 Euros each! We also got a district tie so everyone in my district has the same tie! There light blue and striped! Even our teacher got one Hermano Tyndale. Just 8 months off the mish and I can tell he was a good missionary. Plus he's a way good teacher in spanish and the gospel. He's comin to Utah for the first time ever this fall to go to BYU! Maybe you guys should have him over for dinner and he can tell ya all about spain and stuff! I love waking up a little early here and getting a nice swell on (workin out) It's nice. I'm doin more pushups and pull-ups than ever haha. I've been playin tons of soccer here too. I've scored like 2 goals so far. Kinda got lucky! Soccer's actually pretty fun though. Mom that snowball picture was from one day when it was hailing like crazy and we went outside and made a snowball pretty sick uh! I'm doin fine here- its hard but not too bad. I think the first few weeks in the field are gonna be the hardest. I'll tell you the funny story of the week real fast. K so there's this kid in our room (not in our district though) that prays for like legit around 30 minutes every night. Me and the crew- Jacobesn, Bassett, and Curtis (we run the MTC haha) decided that it would be funny to glue his closet door shut. So when he goes and gets his onesie pj's out he couldn’t. This kid is a saint he is super good and has never had like a coke or even a cell phone but we love him. Haha it was like 11 at night and all the lights are off and we glued it while he's prayin and when he gets up he tries to open the door a few time. He is so shocked he doesn’t really know what to do. So he just pops down on his knees again and prays for like 5 more minutes. Haha. He gets up and still can't open the door. So he just has to sleep in his other pjs. (he brought 2 pairs kinda weird but he did) in the morning he woke up and couldn’t get his suit and he was way puzzled lookin at the hinges and stuff. Elder Curtis is like' that’s wired' and starts to pop it open. He told him that someone probably came in at 11 when the doors unlock and glued it and he believed it haha. But legit that morning he was just sitting on his bed like 'that is the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me'. Puzzled out of his mind! Haha its all good now though. He's fine. It was pretty funny though. Hey there is a blog of a senor missionary couple here that are part of the MTC presidency and they have a blog with pictures if you wanna check it out its http://thesullivansinspain.blogspot.com/ Enjoy! Don’t be sorry for long letters!!!!! I wanna hear everything at home and I have plenty of time to print stuff off and read it so no worries! Tell everyone to write me if they wanna! I love hearin from people. Love you guys and don’t worry about me here I'm doin fine!! Love you guys and miss ya!

Yo se que mi familia tienen mucho amor por mi! Y yo se que la inglesia de Jesu Cristo de los santos de los últimos días es verdadero!

Love Elder McDermott or they say over her "Mac -Dairmit

With E. Curtis

I can't get these turned right!