Surgery Day 1 and 2

Elder McConnell and Mom before the Surgery

Morning After Surgery with his brother and sisters

Jamie with Sophie

Grace and Sophie walking for Jamie

Jamie, Sam and Meri


Elder McConnell and Elder McConnell

Doctor Appointment with Jamie

Everyone:

Today we were able to go down to Provo to see Jamie during his doctors appointment and it was a good experience all the way around. Even with the results that Dr. Peterson had given us. Basically, his gallbladder is not working and they are going to take it out lapriscopically (scope). The shocking part is that it is happening tomorrow morning. Barb and I will travel down to the hospital tomorrow morning and be with him when he gets out.

It was a neat experience for me to see him and to be with him and his companion, Elder Porter. Elder Porter is another elder in his group that has had visa problems. He's been in the MTC for 15 weeks with no end in sight! Anyway, in just the short amount of time Jamie has been there at the MTC I can see the maturity and self confidence that he has. He speaks with confidence about not only the gospel but how he feels both pysically and spirtually. While we were waiting for Dr. Peterson in the clinic room we all cried a little bit. We know that he is in good hands and that the many prayers, fasting, and thoughts and letters in his behalf have lifted his spirits up through this trying time. Barb and I shared with him that this is part of his mission experience and that he will be a better missionary and person because of it.

As we dropped off Jamie and Elder Porter at the MTC, it was a whole lot easier the second time around!! Even though it was Move In Day for a lot of other elders, this one was a little bit sweeter knowing that we are going to get this resolved and move on.

Again, thank you for your thoughts and prayers. They have been very helpful for Barb and I but mostly, Elder McConnell.

James

Dear Sam:
Hey! Howzit going?

It’s been alright here. I'm not dead so that’s a plus. But it’s been pretty tough. If there's one thing that I've learned here these last like three weeks, it’s that if you get stuck, sick, or injured and you're trying to get stuff done, then you cannot give in to despair and give up. I think that I’m just now starting to understand a little part of what you went through when you were hit by that car. The days would be filled with emotional and literal pain that it would be almost impossible to be anything close to hopeful and happy. The thought of another tomorrow would be feeling like it was crushing you. You just wanted it to end. You just wanted your pains to be done. Thinking back, I think that it’s amazing that you’re the awesome person you are, even after all of that.

There is a cool video on mormon.org in the new video section on the 2nd page called the infinite power of hope. It’s pretty cool, it’s by President Uchtdorf.

Anyways, I wanted to say thanks for being that example to me.

So….life’s even more boring now than it was before I was sick. When you’re in and out of bed and the doctors’ offices for several weeks, the story’s the same.

I ran into Forrest on Wednesday though. That was cool. He was in the MTC cafeteria when he ran into him. We started talking for a bit then I asked where he was heading and where his class was. Forrest said “I don’t know”. So I asked him for his schedule and he was like “I lost it”. So I was like “What are you doing?” So Forrest said “Dude, I have no idea what’s going on here! My parents dropped me off two hours ago and now I’m eating ice cream!” Too funny!

That’s about it for me. Stay cool, have a good summer.

Elder Jamie McConnell

Weekly Letter

HeyO!! :-D Howzit going?! :-D

Things here at the MTC are basically the same except for a few minor changes here and there :-) Some goods news, I got my travel plans today :-D I'm heading out on monday July 5th to Chile :-) Yay me. I'm pretty excited :-
So anyways, something cool this week, we're having a new mission presidents training conference here this week so we have a ton of new mission presidents here and also a bunch of the Quorum of the Twelve as well :-) They'll seriously just be walking down the halls while we're in the main building :-D We've been advised not to swarm.

Something not so cool this week :-P I've been sick since last friday :-P It wasn't too bad until monday when I went to the Health Clinic. They said that it's probably some sort of inflammation in my stomach and they gave me some medications. I went in today for another check-up and they did some blood tests. I'll get the news at 2

Because of the new mission presidents training in the main building and the gym building, we've been forced to go out to the field (Playing field not mission field) for gym. It's really cool, I've just been resting in the shade during the last two times because I wasn't feeling up to playing it, but there's a lot to do at the field :-) Unfortunately, it's boiling lava hot there :-P I haven't had to worry about since I've been in the shade, but the majority of my district and zone have gotten sunburns :-) So I guess its a blessing to be sick :- That's basically it for me :-P I've missed a lot of class this week so there's not much news there. We taught the second lesson this week in Spanish which was really cool :-) I'm pretty confident con mi espanol :-D I guess for you Dad, you could talk about how praying makes things that seem to be difficult to you seem easy because when you pray you can be guided in what you do :-) THat's mostly it this week. Until next week Mom, Dad, Sam, Meri, Grace, and Sophie, I love you and Be HAppy!!!

Sincerely Elder McConnell

HEYO!!!! :-D Howzit going?! :-) I'm doing fine in what we like to call in espanol the CCM :-) I still don't know what that means for sure :-) But no, life here at the MTC is doing good ;-) Its long and repitive to the extreme but besides that it's great :-)
We didn't have an apostle for devotional this week but we did have the president of the seventy here :-D Elder Donald L. Hallstrom gave a great talk to us about how we are a covenant making people and how we should always be keeping our covenants and how they can provide protection for us during our entire lives :-) Which is very important to remember especially while you are on your mission :-D
We got a new district this week so now me and Elder Merrell are no longer the only missionaries in our room :-) It's alright but the extra space was really nice before the noobs showed up ;-) :-D Just kidding :-D We have an Elder Taylor and an Elder Tidmarsh and they are both really cool :-) We've already started to make them say their prayers in spanish ;-D I should feel mean but I really don't care and it's good for them anyway :-D
Spanish is coming along great :-) I'd type this email all in spanish but its weird figuring out what the keys do when they're on a spanish setting so just take my word for it :-D seriously though, it's pretty amazing how much I know from just the last 6 weeks :-) I can teach the first two lessons completely in spanish and now that i think off it, I bet I could teach a lot of the other lessons just by ad-libbing my spanish :-) I can't always say what I want to say with what I have so I have to use what I know :-) It makes teaching very VERY simple :-D
The food is weird. That's really all I have to say :-)
A lot of the older districts in our zones are leaving these next couple of weeks so we're all starting to feel really old :-P In the MTC weeks are the equivelant of maybe 3 months in the outside world :-) No joke. In comparison to the new districts, we are like those crazy old men on the top of mountains who have all wisdom :-D It's a temptation not to abuse this power :-D
We heard the other day about a prank that was pulled on some new elders. Apparently when they got to their dorms and were unpacking the first day, another elder walked in with a belt tied around his arm and then proceeded to give himself his insulin shot. Obviously if you aren't aware that the elder was diabetic then this situation would be a lot more serious ;-) Also the belt added a little to his act :-D Anyways no one told these elders that he was a diabetic for the next two days :-P That's just mean :-D
Note to dad: I think that I only have a buck fifty on my card and I don't think that it'll be a problem because I don't need anything really, but if you could put some money on the card that'd be great.
Oh yeah, my foots healing really quick :-) The orthodics are working wonderfully so no worries :-)
That's really it for me :-) Remember to write and to my family Mom, Dad, Sam, Meri, Grace, and Sophie I love you. And the rest of you reading this are alright ;-) :-D

With almost all sincerety
Sincerely Elder Jamie McConnell

Week Five

HEYO!!!!! :-D Como estan ustedes? :-) It's weird not be at home and at church where I can just ask people but its alright :-) I'll be home soon :)
So anyways, this week was mostly like the last ones :-P Nothing bad about that, but regardless it makes it hard to write stuff :-P For devotional this week, we were visited by Elder Robert D. Hales which, in the vernacular of today's youth, was awesome. :-D He has a very unique speaking style. He is very very quiet and has a very soft kind of voice but at the same time the feelings you get when you listen to him are the same as if he was shouting his words :-D Cool stuff. We did our first ever TRC lesson in SPANISH this week :-D It went pretty good, if I do say so myself. and I do. :-D Spanish is coming along nicely.. We are still learning new stuff everyday :-) It's insane how much I've learned in the last five weeks :-P It doesn't even feel like five weeks :-P Time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana ;-D :-D A shout out to Tyson Cook, one of my teachers here served in Vina del mar and he knows you :-) Hermano Nelson if that rings any bells :-D Also to the Pearsons, thanks for the talk and the two stories in the mail :-) I really liked reading them :-D Something funny that keeps happening to me, Tyler Davies is constantly leaving me notes in mandarin just about everywhere I go ;-D He's even gotten into my journals somehow and at the time I was a little surprised but then i realized that this is Tyler we're talking about. Of course he's been in my journal :-D I'm sending a picture of what JFMIV looks in mandarin home today so you guys can see it :-) Another funny thing that I don't think that I've talked a lot about is four square at gym :-) When I first heard that four square was something that you could do during gym i thought " Seriously? Four square? Like when we were in elementary school?" .. .. .. Not even close.. Here, four square is a game of stragedy and skill. Some elders get together to come up with different playing styles and tricks that they can use during when they play. They've even named some of these moves. Leadfist, Payzont Punch, the Spiderman, it's insane! :-D Its funny how four square can be something really fun to do even at nineteen :-D Something spiritual that I learned this week is how personal the scriptures can be if we take the time to read them. Some time ago I found this section in the D&C and yesterday i refound it and it had the same kind of impact that it had in the past :-D D&C 39: 7-13. Read it, it's about me! :-D Even if scriptures don't call us out by name they are meant to be for our benefit and they can help us out during any time of trial. It's like having Jesus Christ for a companion when we teach :-) It's a powerful thing.
Well that's it for me this week :-P I apologize for not typing more :-P There isn't that much to type. Always, I love you Mom, Dad, Sam, Meri, Grace, & Sophie :-) Make sure to stay cool and BE HAPPY!!! :-D

Sincerely Jamie McConnell :-)

Week Four

HEYO!!! Howzit going?! :-D I'm doing just about the same that I've been doing the last three weeks :-P It's not bad but still :-P
There isn't really anything to talk about this week :-P I'm learning spanish really well. I'm still completely sure that I could go to Chile right now and teach but again that might just be me ;-D :-D
Our devotional this week was by an Elder Bradley (something) Foster and it was really good. He talked about how we as people are really insigificant in the grand scheme of things. He showed us this video talking about the size of the universe and it really puts things into perspective :-P We are quite small. Then after that he talked about how because we are really small, we should never cease to call upon God (Moses something something). It was a really cool talk. After, instead of singing a hymnbook song we sang a childrens hymn (I think it's called Childs Prayer) and that was amAzazazing :-D I hadn't sang the song since primary but I could still remember the words :-) Really Cool. Now imagine almost 2 thousands missionaries singing it at the same time :-D Really really cool :-D
To Dad. all the shoes fit. The boots and the shoes are awesome and the insoles fit in everything. So, One less thing.
Today I left the MTC . . . to go to the doctors. :-D Had you going didn't I? :-D We went to a Dr. Mullinax which is hard to say even if you haven't been speaking in spanish :-P Basically it was the same as last time except less shots and he killed the root of the toenail so that it wouldn't bother anymore. Oh, and when he was cleaning the hole out he shoved a giant cutip into it which kinda spooked me. I didn't feel it I was pretty numb but regardless, if you see someone stick you with something, you're going to be a little bit surprised. So that happened and then after I got casts made for my feet so I'll get those insoles sometime soon :-)
Oh, next week we are indefinitely teaching the lessons in espanol :-P I can do it but its still kind of weird. In hindsight, I'm probably not going to be teaching in english a lot but I guess I was hoping for someone to be like "Oh yeah Elder McConnell, All of your areas are going to have only english speaking investigators. We'd just thought to make you learn spanish as a joke". Nope. Here comes reality. :-D It'll be fine though :-)
Since that's all I've got I'll end with a message. We're commanded to pray always. This is easy enough "PRAY SO YOU CAN GET BLESSINGS" and you're like " . . . ok". Easy enough, but have we ever considered that we could be the answers to other peoples prayers? If you constantly have the spirit with you, you will be more sensitive to promptings that you might recieve to help out someone else. To show how darn awesome this is, I suggest that you all go onto youtube and watch "lessons I learned as a boy" by Gordon B. Hinckley. I know you'll love it :-D

Well that's it for me. i love you mom dad sam meri grace and sophie and as for all you other people, you're alright ;-D :-D Just kidding :-D Until next week
Sincerely Elder James "Jamie" Farrell McConnell the FOURTH!!! ;-D

P.S. . . . . . . . . . . . .Be happy :-D

Week 3 in the MTC

HEY!!! :-D Howzit going?! :-D I got my email to work this week so happy day!!! :-D

One of the better highlights of this week was that we had Elder D. Todd Christofferson come and talk to us, indeed in the vernacular of today's youth . . . it was awesome. Most of his talk he was just reading out of his scriptures which was funny and cool at the same time because he hadn't told the techies what scriptures he was going to be using so they had to put them up at the moment he said the scripture, and they did a pretty good job :-) It was cool because even though he was mostly reading out of the scriptures, it was really really spiritual and stuff :-) It was pretty cool.
This week has been just like all the others so far except that we got a new district in our zone and I twisted my ankle down the stairs :-P :-D Did you lke how I went into that? :-D Anyway, I was going to gym and I was almost down the stairs of our residence hall when on the last step I twisted my foot. Usually when this happens I go "ow" and then I'm fine, but after I had said "ow" and I kept on walking I realized that my foot still hurt. Then I realized it hurt a lot :-) So anyway I hobbled on over to the gym anyway (because they have a trainer there that could look at it) and I got some ice and learned that I had twisted or sprained whatever holds my arch up in my foot. I was surprised because i haven't had a twisted ankle in years but later I realized that the reason that my foot was twisted was because I had been wearing my church shoes constantly over the last three weeks and even when I got them like five years ago they didn't really have all that much of an arch support. I looked into them yesterday and yeah they're pretty flat :-P :-D So now i'm hobbling around the MTC with a crutch just like Tiny Tim, so I'm constantly saying "God bless, every one" :-D Funny stuff. Mom and Dad if you could mail me some arch support insoles that i could put into my church shoes, that'd be awesome. I'm wearing my tennis shoes so I'll be fine for a while :-)
But I digress. Besides that it been a pretty good week :-) I've learned a ton of spanish and I'm even more sure that I could go to Chile now and teach :-D Maybe thats just my infamous optimism and idiotic confidence talking but I'm pretty sure I could :-D
The lessons are coming along great. We've just finished putting together our lesson plans for the Plan of Salvation which to my great surprise, can be even more spiritual than the first :-D
Our new favorite word in spanish that we say all the time is Sorpresa!!!! :-D One of our teachers, Hermano Twiggs, used to say that he had really really cool surprises for us that were "better than candy" and I guess in a more eternal salvation point of view they were (the surprises were mostly extra time to practice lessons with "progressive investigators" which are basically teachers here who imitate investigators they had on their missions) but we're talking about 19 year olds here. We Want The Candy. :-D So now whenever Hermano Twiggs says he has a surprise we all yell "SORPRESA!!!", so we can get excited for whatever is about to happen :-) Fun stuff.
I'm almost done so I'd like to say make sure to mail letters :-D Also, It's cool to hear from you all and I love reading your letters, but if you're having trouble finding the time to write stuff down, don't even worry about it ;-) I;d like to start collecting really cool stories and quotes to read in my personal study so if you only had time to send a story without any sort of note on it, I'd understand :-) I already know you guys love and can't get enough of me ;-) :-D And sam if you could go to Bro Jones class and copy down or type up the story about the starfish and the blind child with the flower, that'd be awesome. Also if you could send teh lyrics to good king wencesles to me that'd be great :-0

that's it for me :-) until next week, I love you mom, I love you dad, I love you grace, meri, sam, and sophie
Sincerely Jamie McConnell

Some More Pictures

Since Jamie's EMAIL this week consisted of four lines (don't get me started), I thought I would add some more pictures that we received. The one picture with the other missionary is Jamie's good friend from Lake Point, Elder Tyler Davies, and he will be serving in Taiwan.

We recieved some pics from Jamie last week and here they are. Unfortunately, all the ones he took are blurry. We're working on it!

Second Week

He sounds great! Hasn't caught the place on fire yet...


HEY EVERYBODY!!! :-D Howzit going? :-) So now I'm here to talk about whats been going on, and I'd like to go through a step by step thing of everything so far but that'd take too long so I'm just going to talk about parts :-) If you want specific information that I didn't include in my email then by all means mail me something :-D GO MAIL. Anyway, moving on

My first ever companions name is Elder Brigam James Merrill ( I apologize if I've already mentioned that), and guess what :-D He's a red head :-D First thought "GINGERS HAVE SOULS!!!" I didn't say it though, not until later because I wasn't aware if he'd be offended or not ;-D He's pretty cool :-) I do have to say that there's something to be apreciated about not being with somebody else constantly :-P But he's alright.
My schedule is like everything that I'd normally do in three days, packed into one, and it goes all week long :-P It's actually pretty cool because it makes the days fly by so fast :-) I've already been here more than a week :-D Its also a blessing because at the beginning since you just barely left home, you just don't have the time to feel home-sick, so that's a plus. I think that if I had had more free time then that would have been harder.
I have seen a ton of people from Grantsville here at the MTC :-) Brett Peterson, Trevor Burnside, Austin Gumucio, Gen Graff, Jake Roberts, Nolan Blackhurst, and last but certainly not least the one and only Tyler B. Davies :-D It's been cool seeing them around but its sad cuz we just do not have the time to hang out :-P But it's alright.
For excercise, everyday (except p-day and sunday) I go out to the gym and play volleyball. It's way fun and there are a lot of people here who are really good at it. I'm pretty accomplished at it, if I do say so myself . . . And I do :-D There are a ton of other things to do as well like basketball, soccer, softball, four square and even horse shoes :-) I usually play volleyball though.
My class (there is only one class that you ever go to) is fun, but we spend ALL DAY THERE :-P I'm learning a ton of stuff during this time and its crazy how much spanish you can learn, but it wears on you :-P We have two teachers or maestros, Hermana Burns and Hermano Twiggs, which is really easy to remember because you "Burns" "Twiggs" :-D fun stuff.
As I said, for Spanish I'm learning a ton. I can pray, testify, and pretty easily converse in spanish now with little or no problem. I just have to say "Mas despacio" a lot but I do fine :-D
. . . . . . . . . . I don't really know what to say :-P Seriously, mail me questions and I'll send letters out :-D I only have thirty minutes to type this up but just about the rest of my P-day, I can write whenever I want.

Shout out to Dalin Gomez, YOU'RE AWESOME!!! :-D Can't wait to see you some time in november, december :-D

Oh, I'd also like pictures too with the letters :-D Don't worry about making me homesick. Its always cool to look at the pictures I have right in between the end of my classes and my bedtime :-)

Well I'm done til next friday but until then make sure to stay cool and Be Happy :-D
Sincerely the one and only
Jamie McConnell

The First Letter

We received Jamie's first letter yesterday around 5PM. I've copied it below and he sounds great. Sam has posted the pictures of the MTC day on his Facebook account. He's more smart with computers and picture stuff than I am. Plus, he says more people will have better access to them as well. This is probably what we will do in the future once we get more pictures. Most of Jamie's friends on Facebook are Sam's friends too. Jamie did mention that his P-day is Friday if anyone was wondering. Anyway, here is the letter. Have a great week!


HEY EVERYBODY!! :-D Howzit going?! Its been crazy here for me the last couple of days :-P Not bad, just crazy. It's been so fast.

So to begin with I got out of the car for the last time with my family, and Yeah, it sucked. This Elder Ring guy's all smiles and stuff and he's grabbing my stuff and saying "I'll give you a few seconds" So then I give everybody the last hugs for two years and then I headed off :-P Never EVER want to do that again. Anyways, right after the Elder says I'll meet you outside of this building and he walks me in. Then I'm shuffled between like seven different rooms, getting several different pieces of paper and packages and finally they shove me outside. Then Elder Ring takes me to the dorm room where we have to hoist all my luggage up three flights of stairs (no elevator), which was not fun. I only had enough time to drop off my luggage before I had to go to my classroom and the whole other side of the MTC. There I got to watch this orintation video on how to do gym time properly and then I was sent off again. Finally i met my companion, Elder Brigham James Merrell, and I just got to say that he's awesome :-D We are almost always thinking about the same thing, and we both quote the same movies :-D He's really fun. Then went to this group meeting with the mission president and then after that we got food. The food here is great but I've been told that after the second week, that feeling wears off :-P Hopefully it won't for me. Then we went back to class and we had our first class which took about two hours. Then something else happened but for the life of me I cant remember, I'll look it up in my journal later. Eventually after a crazy long day that made us feel like we'd been here for three days, we headed back to our rooms. I unpacked everything (thanks for remembering my hat dad, and if Meri's gift was the diaper ointment then yes I found it, though I don't know what to do with it) and I took I shower and then went to bed. It was a crazy long day.

Unfortunately I can't seem to really remember the next two days but I'll be sure to type those in next time, or I'll just put them in letters if you really want to know. At the moment I have ten minutes to finish so I'm just going to put some information here.

If you really want specific stuff about whats going on, please send me a letter :-) I have a ton more time to write than to type and personally I like them better :-D If you want to email me the best way to do that is to send it through dearelder.com. The website will print off whatever you type into a letter and it'll be delivered to me I think the same day if you're early enough. Again I like letters better. :-D

Just my thoughts, I can't seem to speak or understand spanish when I'm agitated or worried about something :-P It's really weird because they have this rule about not reading letters in class and I did (only just the beginning) and right after my spanish was dead :-P Normally however I'm doing great with the language :-D

Finally how I feel. I'm fine :-) I miss you guys a lot (especially my family) but it's alright because we're way too busy to worry :-D These next two years will be fast and I'll be home before you or I know it :-D

To my family, I love you and I miss you a ton :-) Hang in there and make sure to write ;-)

Sincerely Elder James "Jamie" Farrell McConnell the IV

P.S. Be Happy

MTC Day!!!

We dropped off Jamie around 1pm surrounded by other grown people crying. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. So his mission is started and I couldn't be prouder or happier for Jamie!!!

Jamie Opening His Mission Call!

Here is a copy of Jamie and one of his best friends Kevin opening up their mission call back in January! It 's fun to look back at this video to see where it all began for them and their missions. You can view it at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guHvQDrXHkA

Pics from Jamie's Going Away Party

Welcome to Jamie's Mission Blog

This blog will be filled with Elder Jamie McConnell's letters, pictures, etc from his mission for everyone to see. HIs mailing addresses are located on the right for those who would like to write him.