MTC Week 2

This week was week 2 out of 3 at the MTC. This time next week I'll be on my way to Manchester, which is such a crazy thing to think about.

So at the MTC we are given "progressing investigators" to practice teaching on (it's really our teacers). The two investigators we were given were Eron and Soraya. We've teaugh one of them each day this week and I feel like I've gotten a lot better at teaching. We also teach TRCs, where we an investigator just once and they film it so we can watch it later. We did one last Wednesday and we have onne coming up on Friday. Tomorrow is our last day to teach Eron but we get two more lessons with Soraya.

I play the piano for the MTC choir so that is fun. Anone who knows me knows I don't practice that much so it has been an interesting experience. We did get to sing "We Thank Thee O God For A Prophet" on Sunday for Sacrament Meeting and we did aight.

Just as a side note, my district is awesome. We have 10 of us total, and all 10 of us are going to Manchester. They are seriously funny but can be spiritual when they need to be. So shout out to Abinadi District for the fun times. 

But seriously this week has been just a spiritual tidal wave. We learn new things we can work on I swear every 20 minutes, so it can be a little overwhelming. But when things slow down I can really feel the Savior's love for me. Just to give you guys an idea of a typical day, we wake up, eat breakfast, do daily planning, have personal study time, have in "Improve Your Teaching" lesson, study/ teach an investigator, have lunch, exercise, study, have dinner, study/ teach an investigator again, and then have a lesson in the evening. So there's a lot of studying but it's all very good.

Yesterday we went to Manchester and went finding again. We actually didn't do super hot because we were having a hard time being bold and bringing up the gospel in casual conversation. Sister Bunker (the MTC President's Wife) reminded us that because we have the tag, people expect us to talk to them. We are also told to be bold with love. At least this week someone didn't yell at us, so that's good.

Sister Cook is still doing good. She is very generous and very patient with me. She is still an excellent example of obedience as well.

I wanted to end with a lesson about the culture in England. According to Brother Scarff, the chocolate in England is WAY better. He actually brought in some for us to try and it was pretty good (not as good as Melissa's obviously). Buses are called coaches, college is called university, and I still can't get over how drivers sit in the passenger seat. People are actually really nice to us. It is seriously SO pretty here. That's pretty much all I know about England so far. Oh and Asda is like Walmart. And don't go to Sainsbury's because that's where the rich people go.

MTC Week 1

My first week in the MTC has been crazy but fun. To start off, I actually got to the MTC a day late. We were flying into JFK but New York had a huge storm so we landed in Virginia instead. Luckily the mission president there let us stay the night in the mission home. We flew to JFK the next morning and stayed the day in the airport because our flight wasn't until 7 pm. Luckily I wasn't the only missionary that was late. Elder Moser was on my flight to JFK too so he missed our original flight to Manchester too. 

Our MTC only has 24 missionaries, which is soooo small. The crazy thing is, 12 of those are going to Manchester. My district is made up of entirely people going to Manchester. Also, shout out to Kevin, 4 people in the MTC are from Canada. As my companion noticed, there are more people from Canada than from Utah. 

My companion is Sister Cook! She is from Moscow, Idaho and she is awesome. She is a great example to me of exact obedience and I'm glad to have her as my companion.

This first week had been a lot of learning. We've closely studied the first two lessons and are getting around to the other 3 this week. We taught "Jeffrey" this week as well. Really his name is Brother Robertson but he was playing our first investigator. We didn't teach perfectly but we learned a lot and know how to improve.

On Sunday, we got to watch the John Tanner movie. Elder Clifton, our district leader, asked me and my companion to share a family history story so I shared his. The MTC president saw the story later and asked to read it. That night we watched it as an MTC and it was so good. The video never fails to make me cry.

We went to Manchester yesterday and talked to REAL people. It is so much more stressful when you know you're teaching someone who isn't a fake investigator. We were there for about 2 hours and Sister Cook and I had about 6 meaningful conversations with people there. Unfortunately, we also had our first experience of being yelled at as a missionary. Thankfully all he did was yell at us so we're totally good.

The food at the MTC is great because we have mash (mashed potatoes) at almost every meal. It feels like a Sunday meal every day. The only thing I didn't like was their bacon, surprisingly.

Also another odd thing is that I am the only one at the MTC who plays piano! So pretty much the missionaries here get a lot of decent piano playing because I did not practice very much before I came.

All in all, this week had been good! We still have two more weeks in the MTC before we head out so it will probably be a lot of the same things for me. I love you all!

Arrived!

We made it to the MTC about 10 minutes ago! Pdays are on Tuesday so that's when you'll hear from me. It is sooo green and pretty here. I'll talk to you in a week!