We are almost into summer now... Summer. Again. Every day it gets a little hotter. At night and early in the morning it's relatively chilly. But once the sun comes out, we feel it. I asked the owner of a Kiosco that is right next to our apartment what the summer is like and he said it is 'bastante calor'... translation: hot, humid and sticky.

Typical Day... I'll take a picture of our planner and send it to you but it's basically this:

6:30-8:00 a.m.   Get up, exercise, shower, pray, and eat.
8:00 a.m.   Personal study.
9:00-11:00 a.m.    Companion study.
11:00 a.m.   (if we ever get a chance...) Language study.
12:00 p.m.   (if everything goes right)  Lunch.

1:00 p.m.   (once again, if everything goes right)  Work.
Which means proselyting--going to appts we've made, and also all of the back up plans that we've made.
9:00 p.m.   Be home and start planning for the next day.
9:30 p.m.  (once again, IF everything works out)  Call district leader, eat some food, journal, prayers, go to bed.

Lately because everywhere we go is so far from the house, we haven't made it home until 9:30 p.m., and don't get done planning until it's time to go to bed... It's all pretty dependent on how many appts we have for the next day and where they are, and sometimes it takes longer to plan because we have to plan our prospective route out for the day. 

And then we have some days where we get to travel into Bahía Blanca for the day for a district meeting. We missed our bus last week for district meeting and had planned to go tomorrow morning. BUT Elder Wells, our District Leader found out that he had a leadership training that he has to go to tomorrow and Wednesday. Entonces, we don't get to go to Bahía for another week... I love Bahía, but oh well. We usually go to Bahía every two weeks for district meeting and that is my chance to see if I have any of those packages that you sent me!! So yeah.. kind of a bummer we missed last week, but that's ok. 

Oh guess what! I don't know if I told you this but Amy Christensen is engaged! I got a letter from her two weeks ago. My first friend to be engaged while I am gone. The whirlwind of change and engagements has begun...

Hey, does Connor still live in MN or did he come out to Utah..?

I heard a talk a couple weeks ago from Elder Bednar. Will you read it and tell me what you think? It's called "The Way Things Are", I think. It's in one of the 2010 Liahonas, one of the summer ones I think, I can't remember. 

I'm sending you some pics that I took two weeks ago at the end of the transfer. Some pics with Elder Wallace in Bahia. And some random ones from the past four weeks or so.

I love you Mom!

Hola!  Ok, so thanks for updating this blog for me... I cannot check it at all. The only websites allowed are LDS.org... and LDS.org. And the fake MTC internet websites, for training. Bummer... but it's ok, because we aren't really supposed to be on the internet for other things, unless it's ok with our Mission President later on, he's the final say. Oh, and apparently, mine doesn't speak any English! That's going to be a really eventful first interview, haha!

Elder Patterson is my companion, a great elder. He's from St. George, went to SUU for a year, likes to do a lot of the same things I do, mountain biking, xbox... you know, college kid stuff. It was funny, yesterday, another elder said something about "tidings of comfort and joy", and Elder Patterson and I both simultaneously started singing a lyric from the Canadian Tenors... it was hysterical!  I definitely want to plan to do more things with him outside the mission field when we return. We have a lot in common, except he has a cooler head than I do, sometimes... Oh well. It's evident that the Lord puts you with who you need to be with....

A typical day at the MTC... Wake up at 6:30 a.m., shower, get dressed. Personal study, breakfast, more personal study. Class (3 hours long), lunch, more classes. Gym, dinner, language study, computer language study (T.A.L.L.), daily planning session. Personal time, bed time--all before the hour of midnight... cool, huh? I'll send you an actual schedule so you can see.

The residence hall is basically like a dorm, but not as rowdy. We can't be ridiculous because we still have to strive to keep the spirit with us. That doesn't mean there aren't some loud elders, though. There
are 4 missionaries to a room, 2 companionships. Bathroom and showers are right next to the room, it's a good set up. I walk up and down a set of 72 stairs about 4-6 times a day, I am mainly indoors most of the day, studying and preparing for lessons, and learning Spanish.

I'll admit, the food is getting old because it's all the same. Most of it is good, but it's really starchy and I'm trying to be reasonable during meals. I think some jerky and Doritos would treat me well, every once in a while... I don't think I'm getting enough of those in my diet :)  BTW, thank you for the M&M's, you are awesome. And the Ikea pillow saved my life... Thank you again!

Elder Koeven

P.S. I really wanted to go on the 50-Mile hike with Wilder. I hope it went well and that he wasn't driven crazy (or driving anyone else crazy!). OH, and I love getting the "Dear Elder" letters from you because they arrive so fast; I really enjoy hearing about recent things going on there....