Hey Mom and Dad, and Anyone else this email gets sent to,
I just want to let you know I've been having a
wonderful time in the MTC so far. First off before I give you all the details,
I'll try to answer the many questions I've gotten from you in your dear elder
letters and this email. And by the way, thank you for all the letters. I've really
enjoyed them. And tell Katherine thank you for the ridiculously shaped package
she sent me :D.
- We have about 20 other people going to Denmark,
and two going to Iceland
speaking Icelandic.
2. How's the food-not nearly as good as the Cannon center, and definitely not very
healthy, but it's good enough to eat a lot of haha. I think I've already gained
three pounds here.
3. 100% Danish-We definitely haven't been speaking all Danish yet. We still speak English outside of class because we honestly can't communicate in Danish yet.
We have taught a fake investigator a few times in Danish though. That's been
pretty hard, especially on our second day, but we've been getting better, and
we actually commited him (His name is Kasper) to baptism on our last day
teaching him yesterday. He's already a member but being able to treach him was
a good experience.
4. Memorable devotionals-I've already had two really nice memorable devotionals. The first one
was just a video of a devotional where David A Bednar gave a talk at the MTC
called "The Character of Christ." It was probably the most inspirational
talk I've ever heard given and it really inspired me, so if you can find it
online you should definitely watch it. It was about how Christ, no matter what
the circumstance and how hard it was, he turned outward to other people rather
than inward and thinking about himself. For example, after Christ went through
his suffering for our sins in Gethsemane, and
the mob came to take him away, and one of his disciples cut off one of their
ears, Christ healed the man. I don't think most people would be worrying about
that in a time such as that, but while Christ was going through the hardest
part of his life, he turned outward and helped others.
I also had the chance to go to a wonderful Tuesday night devotional
with here at the MTC. I sang in the choir and it was pretty great. Even better,
Elder Richard G. Scott of the quorum of the twelve came and talked to us. It
was amazing to sing to him, and amazing to have him there. He mainly focused on
the topics of prayer and personal revelation. One of the things I liked most
about what he said, is he said that when you pray, don't ask for what you want,
but ask God what he wants you to do. He also gave us an apostalic blessing that
waas really nice, he blessed us to have help with the languages we're learning,
to be able to smooth the path with our companions (get along well), and to have
peace to know that nothing will be asked of us that we cannot do. Then after
the closing song as someone was about to give the closing prayer he jumped out
of his chair and spoke to us some more. I didn't even think he could move that
fast haha. My favorite thing he told us then was that "The Lord has called
you to succeed, not to fail. I really have been enjoying all of my time here,
and the spirit is always present at the MTC.
5. How have I been living?My room is kind of like a dorm room. We have three bunk beds but only
five Elders in our room. Their names are Elder Jensen, Elder Christenson (I
think we're related to the same Niels Christenson), Elder Walch and my
companion Elder McBeth.
6.I've taken a bunch of pictures so far, especially at the temple with
everyone from my district. I'm going to try to send some with this email, but
I've heard it's hard to get that to work sometimes.
7. Anything else I need.The only other thing I can think of that I would like is my brown
suede shoes, I think they're IPATH brand. It would just be nice to have
something to walk around in on P-day besides my running shoes, and I know
they're not to big so they shouldn't take up too much room in my suitcase.
8.Classes and schedule-I don't have any culture classes. My schedule most days is, get up at
about 6:15am (amazingly I'm always the first or second person up) and get
ready. We go to our class at about 7 and study for half an hour then go to
breakfast. Then we go back to our classroom and study scriptures and other
things for a while. most of the rest of the day consists of classroom time, and
we generally have a teacher for three or 4 hours to help us with Danish, and we
plan a lesson in Danish and teach a fake investigator. We have some more
personal and companion study time, and then we have half an hour to plan for
the next day. We get back to our room at about 9:30pm and have an hour before
bed to write in our journals and get ready for the next day. That last hour
always seems to disappear in about 5 minutes, but don't worry, I still haven't
missed a day of journal writing.
9. Favorite thing-I think my favorite thing about the mission so far is just how strong
the spirit is everywhere in the MTC. Every day no matter where you are it seems
like the spirit is there, and its just a wonderful feeling.
I just want to let
you know I'm having a wonderful time and I love it here. I'm already pretty
much friends with everyone in our district, and they enjoy my signature face.
I'm making friends with a bunch of other people like the Swedes and Dutch that
are in our same branch. I love you all and I hope everythings going well for
all of you. I'll try to send my pictures in another email.
Love,
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