Week 2 Report

Here's the latest email, received today. Wow! I am inspired by this guy!

Hey all!

Its been another crazy week here at the MTC. But its still awesome and I'm still have a lot of fun.

I got my travel plans like last friday and Elder Light, Myself and 3 others will be traveling to Peru on Wed. Feb 3. We will be travel on a dirct connect all the way from SLC to Lima so its like a 14 hour flight or something close to that. I got assigned as the travel leader so I'm in charge of making sure everyone gets to peru


We went to the Temple on Thursday and did a session, the temple is awesome and so beautiful. The celestial room was way awesome.

One of the elders in my district went home this week. We are not sure why, but he was one of the really cool guys, so I'll have to write him when I get a chance. It was really sad to see him just leave because we knew that he should be here.

Time flies here at the mtc, except during the day. the days seem to take longer (I'm pretty sure its because of waking up at 6:30 every day) but it only seems like I've been here for just a few days.

A district left on tuesday, so we sang "God Be With You Till We Meet Again" in spanish to them. The whole zone crowded into one room and we sang it at the top of our lungs. It was way cool, Elder Light and I will get the same deal on Tuesday because they do it every time some elders leave.

So yesterday to replace them we got a whole bunch of new elders. Yay for not being a newbie any more! Well for another 6 days anyways. They are going to either, Argentina, Texas or the Dominican Republic.

I've started reading 2 chapters a day in the Book of Mormon in Spanish in addition to the 5 chapters in english. Its amazing how much more I get out of it by studying it in another language. There some words with different meanings, but for the most part the fact that I have to translate every word makes it that much more meaningful. I've really made it personal. Its awesome.

On sunday I went to choir. The director was hilarious and really helped us to realize the importance of the song (Joseph's First Prayer) and the power of it. Also on sunday we had a Brother Steven B. Allen of the 70 speak to us. He was a great speaker and challenged us to us the Book of Mormon as often as possible when we teach. There is so much power in using the words of aincient prophets that God inspired them to write. He also said he was very grateful to us for voluntarily giving up so much to serve the Lord for 2 years. He asked some elders to come up and share something that they had given up and the first elder said "marriage" and when he was asked where his girlfriend lived, he said "Well, she's here right now"...and so she was! She stood up. How weird and funny is that? Like seriously???

TORNADOES? IN GILBERT? Wow! That is total craziness! Its snowed at least 2 or 3 times a week here, I hate it. But my compainion loves it. (Darn Alaskan).

Lets see what else. Oh I learned something in gym, don't try to block poynesians when they are spiking the ball...it doesn't work. And your arm will hurt afterwards for while for the sheer force of the ball.

The food here is totally hit and miss. like some days it'll be quite good and others its awful. Its annoying, but its all I got.

Oh and my Spanish is coming along really well, I can communicate most things that I want to in spanish that I want to, and I can understand pretty much everything that is spoken to me. I have a harder time speaking in Spanish than I do understanding it. So thats something I'll have to work on.

Let me know how the superbowl goes! Thank you to Dad for the sports updates, it really means a lot to me.

All in all I'm doing really well, I'm gonna push myself pretty hard this week, I leave on Wednesday to Peru and I miss and love you all!

Elder Patrik Connole

Snail Mail Has Arrived!

A few days ago we received a thick envelope with personalized letters to family members. How fun! I have to say that there was one sentence in the letter that is going to never be forgotten as Elder Connole (Mr.-no-function-until-10:00) says, "Getting up early isn't that bad."

Hey Mom,


Wow! What a busy week so many things going on. I'm gonna add some things that I didn't put in the email, bear with me bk I may repeat some things.

I'm having a lot of fun while I'm here despite how crazy structured everything is. That's been the hardest part for me. Getting up early isn't that bad.


Ok so here is like run down of what's been going on.


After your parents dropped me off I got my name tag, a few other items and it was straight to class from there. (BTW feel free to include any of this on the blog) I saw 4 people from my BYU ward on that day--2 missionaries, 1 cafeteria worker and 1 girl I knew just after I got dropped off. It was fun to see them. :)

I mentioned the Elder Holland visit in my email. With my emails I'm gonna start outlining what I want to say so I can fit it all in.

Thursday was p-day for all the other Elders in our zone but not for us so we were not too thrilled about that but whatever. This whole week has been non-stop learning and it is awesome. I'm the most advanced in the language in my class so I have a lot of opportunities to teach, which I love doing. I'm really surprised at how much I remember from high school.

Gym has been awesome. I play volleyball every time and it rocks, my setting skills and blocking skills and even my spiking skills have gotten significantly better! Saturday we had a service project, (aka cleaning the bathrooms) the lady who was supposed to show us what to do was late so we just talked for a while until then.

Everyone here loves that I can do a back flip and (some word that was not legible) think I'm super awesome. lol

Sunday was fun we walked around at the temple, took some pictures and just relaxed, it was nice to be able to do that.

Elder Light and I are really good at teaching about the restoration, we learn in class to teach people, not lessons so we get to know the person and then base the lesson around their needs. The Spirit that comes when we do that is incredible.

We had a devotional on Sunday, the speaker was ok, but the singing was so inspiring. All of us sang "Praise to the Man" and the conviction, sincerity and power of it was astounding. I loved it.

There is another Elder (Elder Stephens) who can tumble in my district but he hadn't done it in a while so in gym one day he face planted. It was really funny after we knew he was ok.

One of my teachers went to Spain onher mission so she has a funney accent because Spaniards pronounces most of their "s" sounds as "th" sound but she is a great teacher as is our other teacher.

On Tuesday we had our first "TRC" experience. Basically volunteers come in and we practice certain scenarios with them. We met 2 different couples and 1 solo guy. I understood mosta ll the Spanish they threw at me but poor Elder Light definitely got lost. The last guy (Napoleon) talked a lot and really quickly but the Lord helped me understand the majority of it. We then taught him the message of the restoration in English and we felt it went pretty well despite the fact that we didn't cover everything we originally wanted to. But we are teaching people not lessons so he got everything he needed to at that time.

I got my typhoid shot and the swine flu shot done so I am all vaccinated up and ready to go.

Tell baby bro I ate some cheerios just for him :) (the two year old had prayed for Patrik to be able to have "lots Cheerios"). I miss you all, but I'm so busy that usually I don't have that much time to even think about you all. But I keep you in my prayers at night.

Love ya!

Elder Patrik Connole

We Got Mail!

Yay! It was so good to hear from Elder Connole. He has been in the MTC for just over a week today! He sounds happy and doing well! Here's what he has to say:


So first P-day today! Been here for just over a week but it really seems to be like I've always been here. The daily routine keeps me really busy, which is good because then I don't have time to miss home and what not. I only have about a 1/2 hour on p-day to email so its best if I get letters if you want personalized letters back.

So Mom I need my sd card because without it my camera can only hold like 8 pictures. And also the cable that came with it so I can upload and attach photos. I totally forgot to grab it so I hope you can find it...it should be near my computer spot. If not I can print photos directly from the sd card here at the mtc.

Lets see, so checking in went smoothly, nothing real exciting happend, except when all the new missionaries went to a welcome meeting. At the very end of it, Elder Holland made a surpise visit and talked to us for a bit. He told us that we are apostles of Christ. (notice that apostles is not capitalized) because we are special witnesses of Christ. That was really awesome.

My companion is Elder Light, he has been living in Alaska the last two years, but lived in Kingman, AZ until he graduated from High school. He's really cool, and a tad shy. But he is so humble and his prayers are awesome. He struggles a bit with the language as well but we're working with him

My district gets along really well. We work really hard and all help each other learn the lessons and spanish. I have ended up being the go-to guy for all things spanish since I have the most experienec with it and it comes pretty natural to me, which I'm very grateful for. I'm glad I can help out the rest of the guys and it also helps me to remember and retain the spanish as I teach them.

We have lots of classes and lots of study time. So I'm learning a ton of different things. I've started speaking spanish as much as I can, and started reading the Book of Mormon in spanish. Its amazing how much the Lord helps me to understand the language.

On sunday we had a devotional that was really good, but the speaker went more than 1/2 hour longer than he was supposed to. It was Elder Evans of the 70. The I liked the most that he said that as missionaries we are entitled to promise blessings to our investigators. He also said we should use the Book of Mormon as much as we can while teaching.

Gym is my favorite part of the day, but no surprise there lol. I've played volleyball everytime and I've gotten really good at setting and blocking people. I've stuffed some pretty good spikers which feels great to do. Elder Light played basketball in high school so he is really good at it and plays that.

I have so much to say and next time I'll be better prepared to write everything. But I'm running out of time, so to wrap up, thanks for all the letters and I'm doing great, the food is pretty good usually and Its snowed like 4 times already...I hate that. Oh well. But I'm enjoying myself and keep on writing me.

I love you all
Elder Patrik Connole

Companion #2

Here is Elder Connole seated by Uncle Dave, his second "companion". All available relatives came to see Elder Connole off by having brunch at Hometown Buffet together. Uncle Kris and son are across the table and various cousins are visible in the background. Here he is on the morning before brunch in regular people clothes at my sister's house.

Now he is all filled up and ready to go! (Yes, it took a while to fill him. MTC cafeteria--watch out!)

Here there should be pictures of him getting dropped off at the MTC. If those pictures become retrievable, I will post them then.

Off He Goes!

Okay, so this photo is well before he left, but I had to stick it in. Three generations together at the temple. We loaded up the van and headed to the airport in a timely fashion. We tried to park, but terminal 3 has no parking for tall vehicles. We took the dummy loop around the airport a couple of times before finding someone to ask where to park. We had to park at a different terminal and make the trek to the other terminal. The little people were eager to take the lead and help with luggage.

It was a long walk. I had more pictures. Somehow I lost some.Here is the blurry photo of Elder Connole checking in his bags.When we got up to the security checkpoint, we found that the flight had been delayed. Therefore, we had time to chat for a while before the final hugs. That's one tight squeeze!

There were two other Elders on this flight. One very tall one heading to Japan (of course). The other was heading to Missouri.

On the way back to the car, we stopped to watch some airplanes take off so that it would be easier to explain to baby bro (2 years old) where Patrik was going.

Good Bye, Elder!

The New Elder!

Elder Connole was set apart as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on January 10th. I (Mom) got to be his very first "companion". We got to stick together for a couple of days before he flew to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah. We had a little time for companion prayer and scripture study as well as scrambling to get all the last minute stuff bought and packed. I enjoyed having him around. I will miss him when he is gone, but he is going to do a great job. I am very proud of him. :)