First Week at the MTC

So today is my first P-day and I am doing laundry without the consult of my Mom so that will be lots of fun when everything goes wrong.

This first week has been a roller coaster. When I left the car and started to grab the first things they give you I was excited and enjoyed my day. We have two 3 hour long classes during the day and they are the most interesting classes I have ever taken. They are pretty chill.

So my companion is Elder McFarland and at first we were both pretty quiet, but after a couple of days we have gotten to know each other. He is from Ogden Utah and he grew up on a dairy farm. He loves to talk about how awful the cows were and he always wears a cow pin on his ties to separate himself from the others. My district is sweet! It is all Elders and they are awesome let me tell you about them. First off we have a saying in our district, "Oh Elder..." it is 90% of the time referring to Elder Hamblin. He is a fun guy, but always ends up doing stupid things like jumping from one bed to another and bruising his knee or spilling orange soda all over himself or when he talks about anything inapropro. Also we have a nickname for him, Elder Batman because all he does is wear Batman socks and ties. He got scolded at in our classroom for wearing them. He is from Nevada near Reno. His companion is Elder Watters and was born in Canada, but moved to Arizona later. I don't know him very well except I know him as Elder Hamblin's conscience. Telling him not to do anything and to study etc. Those are my roommates. Next door is Elder Font, he is Canadian and makes a lot of silly noises. he is super built and is super energetic. His companion is also Canadian and his name is Elder Maxwell. He plays hockey and is always the voice of the room when the room starts to stink. Trying to figure out who it is (more on that later). Elder Cox is a teddy bear and the biggest romantic I have ever seen, telling us awesome mushy gushy stories of him and his girlfriend. He is from Washington. His companion is Elder Lewellen and is from Oceanside California. He is kind of quiet and loves to take notes even though we are just talking about how our day was haha.

From Left down - Elder Cox, Me, Elder Watters, Elder Font
From Right down - Elder Lewellen, Elder McFarland (my companion), 
Elder Hamblin, Elder Maxwell

Elder Hamblin's Batman Socks

So on about Friday, we were having personal study in the classroom when the room was cleared out by a fart. And for the next two hours of studying that same person kept farting and no one would confess who it was, so we ended up talking about the farts and how we were impressed of how many times they cleared the room, but they still wouldn't confess. They cleared the room at least 5 times.

So we had 2-3 teachers the first couple of days, but since it is a "new semester" here at the MTC the schedule switched up and we got new teachers so I will explain as best as I can about each one of them. Brother Pemberton was a cool shorty who loves to "keep it real." He taught very well and loved to make everything relatable. He played as an investigator named Jamie and it went so awful that I am glad we switched teachers. Sister Miller was my nighttime teacher and she was awesome. She is super energetic and I enjoyed her classes. My new teachers are Sister Robinson and Sister Mitchell along with Sister Baer. Sister Mitchell really helped me out in a tough spot through the week and she went to the Roseville California mission and she was telling me how she was in the ghetto part of the mission. Rio Linda area. Sister Robinson is a great teacher as well and we teach her because she plays a fake investigator to help us practice. Her name is Christine and she feels bad for hurting her loved ones and we taught her the Atonement and it was so awesome and spiritual.

Provo Temple

  We teach two other investigators as well. I   

  am not sure if they are real or fake, but   

  regardless they are awesome. We taught 

  Lawanna over skype and she is super 

  interested in the church. She asks so many 

  questions and really tries to understand the 

  gospel. She is truly amazing. The other   
  investigator we teach is named Olivia. I  
  really embarrassed myself by opening the  
  door of our first meeting instead of her 
  coming to get it, but the next couple of days 
  were okay. Olivia is a very strong 
  independent woman. She is pretty hard to 
  teach because she is very opinionated, but 
  she tries to understand our points of view 
  too because she wants figure out what the                                                                         
  true church is.

So now I will go through my journal and tell quick stories about the week. So on the first day everyone who had just arrived got to teach an investigator together, so they did a mock trial of someone knocking on the door and the investigator answering it and during that part, someone farted really loud to the point where everyone started laughing.

We have gym times sometimes, but in order to go to breakfast right before, you had to be in your suit, so it was kind of annoying to change in and out every morning. The food is good here, but like cafeteria good. I wonder if they say its the best food you will have on your mission. I hope not. Another time, Elder Font found out that a Sister had similar interests as Elder Cox, so Elder Font gave her his email and the companion found out and threw it because there is no flirting haha. 

Nothing else happened, but I have never felt the Spirit more in my life than I have now. And my testimony before my mission was like a grain of sand compared to what it is now. I am really having fun on my mission. I was kind of stressed over the weekend because things weren't going well, but finally I am in a great mood. Studying is fun. I never thought I would hear myself say that. Anyway have a good week everyone! I am not sure if I will be able to email my next P-day which is Monday because I will be arriving in Nashville on that day, so stay cool. I have some pictures on my disposable camera, but my district gave me some pictures to send so i shall send them now. Talk to you all later! The Gospel is true!

We had a sweet party for New Years but celebrated it 2 days after
and thats when we ate (the fudge from home).
Clockwise from Selfie - Elder Hamblin, Elder Watters, Elder Maxwell, Elder Font, 
Elder Cox, Elder Lewellen, Elder McFarland, Me

I forgot to mention who is going where. 5 out of 8 people are going to Nashville with me and the other 3 are going to Denver Colorado South

Nashville: Elder Cox, Me, Elder Watters, Elder McFarland, Elder Hamblin

(These are the five in closest to the front of the pic above.)

Denver: Elder Luwellen, Elder Font, and Elder Maxwell