EATING ENOUGH/FIRST LETTER

Hi mamma! Things are going great here! Everyone calls me carne cause I finish off everyone's meat at lunch time! As district leader I just have to watch out for everyone and make sure everyone is on time and if someone has a question they come to me first then I address it. Its not hard at all! And my P day switches all the time. Today it's Tuesday. It doesn't make any sense. But guess what my spanish is getting so much better! I can hold a normal conversation now with all the Latinos!! So yesterday I told this one elder where I was going on my mission. He said it's the hottest place in the world and I will die of heat stroke. So thats good. haha But I'm so excited to get out of this prison. I want to go preach the gospel to the world!!! Is high school over yet? How is the family?? Tell grandma and grandpa I Love them!! I love you mom. I can't believe I've already been out here 1 month... Crazy right. I love you mom. Remember to hold to the iron rod in everything you do.

Love Elder Hess

PS I can't get seconds, but literally everyone in the whole MTC gives me their leftovers so I'm good!!

I also received my first hand written letter this week from Mitch in that letter he wrote this:

"How is everyone doing? I miss all of you so much. It's really weird being away from you guys. I've talked all of you up sooo much. I bring my picture book with me everywhere just so I can show you guys off. I've already e-mailed mom this, but everyone thinks mom in is her 20s. And that one picture with mom and I people say 'your mom in Hot!' So I don't show people that picture anymore. As all of you know I love mi companero.  He's super into football! He's going to play for 'The U' when we get home! He was born in Hawaii but grew up in Tonga so he's real big. And the other group of Elders in our District are cool too! Well at least one is. The one that I like is Elder Shoemaker hahaha yeah, that's his real name. But I call him Elder Zapatos. He's from Washington state. He is super athletic too! Playing basketball with Elder Liavi and Zapatos gets crazy intense. You guys are probably wondering, who is his companion. Well I'll tell you. His name is Elder Washburn. Yes Wash-Burn. He hates sports, hates playing sports and hates girls. And when he talks he sounds just like spongebob. His hobby is playing video games and watching Star Wars. I'm not kidding. But he has a good heart so I'm trying to learn to love him. The 2 hermanas (sisters) in our district are alright. One of them said, and I quote. 'If you are EVER disobedient you will get hit by a car and you will die!' I'm not kidding. She said that because Washburn was 2 minutes late to class. And now Washburn is scared to go to Honduras cause he thinks he's going to get hit by a a car and die. The other hermana is normal. She goes to BYU and played basketball in high school. So that's my district. I love all the Latinos here. All of them call me Elder Ess cause in spanish they don't say their Hs. They love to play basketball with me.  When we play the rules are. They can foul, double dribble and don't have to back court it. But for me I have to follow all the rules.  It's so fun and soo funny! And they all think I'm Lebron James cause I can touch the rim! Well I love you mom and family. If you're ever having a hard day just smile. It's that easy. Remember how God loves you and knows you better than you know yourself. Always have trust in him and his plan. I'll see you in 23 months."

HE DIDN'T FORGET HIS MOM

Hi MOM! I want you to know that I did email you. I promise. I feel so bad that you didn't get it. I actually cried a lot cause I felt so bad... But I hope you get this one! So Everything is good! I haven't opened the big suitcase! My companion is good! We get along really well. He said he wants to move in with us haha cause all I talk about is my family! So we got to leave the MTC last week and explore Guatemala! Everyone is so poor... It makes me so sad seeing how people live. And all the teachers said Honduras is 10 times worse.. But I can't wait to serve them and bring them true happiness! 3 weeks down in the MTC! The time is so weird here. I feel like I've been here for 4 years but at the same time it has flown by. So today we went to the temple. It was awesome. The spirit was so strong. Also all the Latinos think I'm the god of basketball haha and I suck at basketball! I thought you would like that! The spanish is coming, it's hard but I know that in time it won't be nothing but a thang! I don't know that much but for the words I do flow when I talk. It's still annoying how everyone thinks I'm a local... They have no mercy when they talk to me. They talk so fast... OH MAN. But it's probably actually a good thing cause I'm learning faster. All my clothes are perfect! They feel awesome! I am by far the most prepared missionary here. All thanks to you! You're the perfect MOM! I hope this email is making sense. I'm typing as fast as I can cause they give us no time! Mom I promise I wrote you last week, I don't know what happened. But I love you so much! Love Mitch PS you should be getting a letter any day now!!!

Mom I want to write you again and say sorry.. I feel so bad you didn't get my email. I love you, the email was big too because it was Mother's Day. I'm sorry. I hope you had the best Mother's Day in the world. I thought about you all day. Literally. Thank you mom. If it wasn't for you I would be so lost in my life. So Again thank you. All the elders think your 28... They think you're so young!!! haha I thought you'd like that! I love you mom. Again I'm sorry.

Love Elder Hess.

Good News Mom, I asked if I could email you again and they gave me permission! So I'm going to go into detail about my week. So on Monday All we did was learn Spanish. I say about 12 hours worth! We learned how to say words in the future and in the past. It's so hard... And on Tuesday was the day that we left the MTC and went on a tour in the city! It was so cool but so sad. All the people here have nothing. But all of them have huge smiles on faces. They don't have anything but they are so happy. And I know that with the gospel they will be the happiest people on the earth! The whole city looks like Haiti.. It's that bad. And everyone said Honduras was 10 times worse. Wednesday was a very spiritual day. My investigator said YES when I challenged him to be baptized! It was so spiritual even though it was fake. It makes me so excited to go to Honduras!! Oh and the whole lesson was in Spanish! Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were all the same basically. All we did was learn Spanish, haha that's basically all we do here! Sunday was a good day. We had a general authority come in and talk to us! He talked about what we need to do as missionaries! He said our whole purpose is to grab our investigator's hand and lift it high in the sky so God can grab it and show them the true gospel. I thought that was so cool. My purpose here is to just bring people closer to Christ so they can have true happiness. And today we went through the temple. It was so amazing. I've memorized everything I have to say!! So I was proud of myself. I went into the temple with some questions and all of them got answered. So it was a really good day. Well I love you so much. I hope you had an awesome Mother's Day. I love you mom.

Love Your son Elder Hess. I love you so Much. Sorry it still wasn't too long. But I love you. 

Guatemala MTC

HIS FIRST LETTER

Hi Mom! So everything here is going good! My companion is really cool! He's from Hawaii! So he's like Scary Big... The food is amazing but they don't feed us enough. Also they made me district leader!!! The third day I was here! I'm working my tail off. I know you would be proud of me. They took my camera so I cant send any pictures.. But they're going to give it back at the end of the MTC. It's actually nice in here. Way better than I thought it would be. I went to the temple today. It was awesome! The language is hard... And it's even harder cause everyone in here thinks I'm a local... There are 47 missionaries here right now. And 5 Americans in my district.. Yeah... I miss you mom. I miss you a lot. I love you so much. I'm sorry that I was hard to raise at times. But I want you to know I love you. And thank you for being the best mom in the world. You're perfect. Thank you for always being my best friend. Well I have to go now...

Love Elder Hess.

AND HE'S OFF ...

Well,  my son, Elder Mitchell Hess is off on his mission!  We took him to the airport April 29th for a 4:45pm flight and if things go right, he will end up at the Guatemala City MTC in the morning on April 30th.  We have been so excited to see him leave on his mission but in the end it was very hard to see him walk through the airport security and down the terminal out of sight.  I knew that this is what he and I had always wanted for him to do but still my heart was aching.  I cried off and on all evening.  I was worried about how he was feeling and if he was going to be ok.  Finally I knelt down to express those worries to my Father in Heaven.  Within seconds of finishing my prayer the phone rang.  The caller ID was a strange one.  It was Mitch!  He said, "I just felt like I should give you a call and let you know that I am all right and that I am going to be ok.  I have met 3 others here all headed for the Guatemala MTC and it has been so great for me to be with these guys.  One Sister has permission to have a phone and lent it to me to give you a call.  I just felt like you needed to know that I will be ok."

It was a sweet little "tender mercy" sent to me by Heavenly Father.  It was so great to hear Mitch with such a positive outlook on what he was doing and that he was with others with the same goals, going through the same adventure.

In this blog I will be sharing some of his letters and experiences and the experiences and feelings of us, his family, while he is away serving the Lord.  I know that he will be a great blessing to the people of Honduras and I am happy to share him with them for these next two years.