In Training

Family moment while entering MTC

My adventure has been awesome so far.  I have never been in a place with so many like minded people.  My companion is Elder M. He is a really cool guy, and he lived in Utah too, but we are so very different from each other. He just came from doing some stuff in the Air Force, so he's really dedicated to tasks. He's really smart, and he's actually taller than me. In fact, I am only the third tallest in our district, which is super weird. We then have Elder K.  He is the best.  He's from New Zealand, is also taller than me, and he has an awesome personality. It's really fun to see him interact with stuff that is super American, like Twinkies, or the super sugary doughnuts in the MTC (which are amazingly unhealthy and I can't seem to ever finish one.)

We then have our district leader, Elder C., who is probably the smartest of the group. He's a lot more outspoken than he looks at first, but he's also an awesome person. And we have Elder P. who is companions with Elders K. and C.  He's kind of the sports guy of the group, but he always is a good sport about pretty much everything.

I'm really happy with my district and our progress in the first few days.  It's been a blast working with such awesome people. I couldn't have picked a better group I'd like to serve with.

I have learned a ton of amazing and not so amazing stuff here. One of the first things I've learned here is: medicine works.  Not really a fun lesson to learn, but I'd rather learn it now than later right? I got really sick the third day in and was struggling physically and mentally. But after medicine happened, it was like I finally found the cure for world hunger, or something not as dramatic, but just as applicable.

Another thing is: the food here is kinda like the weather. Sometimes it's super! And sometimes it's... not.  You never really know until it happens. Though I do have to say that I'm a huge fan of their fries here. I also had a really good Canadian cheese soup.

This lesson I learned was kind of hard for me. I'm not going to go too in depth, but I have been so blind to the Gospel!  Everything just makes way more sense now!  It's awesome!  We learned that the Holy Ghost can help us learn faster in the MTC, and it's so very true. Just practicing on each other has shown me just how far I've come in such a relatively short amount of time. And I am super excited about going even farther in preparing to serve in the "Great White North".

We taught our first practice investigator. Her name is Yui, and she is awesome. The whole time the Spirit was super strong, and Elder M. and I felt super awesome afterwards. We got her to the point where she said she will pray at the next lesson and pray about faith when reading Alma 32.

On Valentine's Day, we did service cleaning bathrooms, I got a moose and a ton of chocolate, I got to sing in a choir that was broadcast to every single other MTC in the world, and we got to hear a talk from M. Russell Ballard. All in all, it was an awesome day.

MTC District at Provo Temple

Looking back on how few days we've been here, it's crazy how close our district has gotten in just eight days. I got super buff at the gym on Wednesday, and also was super excited to go to the temple on Thursday.

Not counting the first Friday, this whole experience feels more like two days or less. And it's all been pretty much amazing. Thursday we finally got to go inside the temple and do an endowment session. And of course I learned some new stuff. But I think the really cool part is that we ate breakfast afterwards at the temple. Like inside the temple! Who even knew that was a thing? But hey I'm not complaining; it was some of the best bacon I've ever had.

I just want to let y'all know that this has been one of the best experiences of my life. I can hardly wait to get to Canada. YUKON HO!!!