Sept. 11, 2022 Letter

Hello family!  We have survived our first week in the MTC.  It has been really challenging and very rewarding. We've made some good senior couple friends who will be going to all kinds of missions in all parts of the world.  If I remember right, there were 54 senior missionaries in our group.  We were divided into districts of about 14-16 people. Our district members were Elder and Sister Sharrat, Berube, Wright, Harmon, Haderlie, Wilson, Christensen and us. Elder Haderlie and I  served in the same BYU-I stake and we remembered each other. We have a fun district and have a good time in class while learning important concepts and doctrine.  Mom wants me to mention that I was called to be the District Leader. Our morning teachers, Sister Mando and Sister Gee are a lot of fun. Sister Mando has a quick wit and super sense of humor.  Sister Mando and Sister Gee are best friends and kind of feed off each other. Sister Mando served in New York City and when she was in Harlem she decided to count rats.  She counted over 250 rats. She and one of our senior sisters were kind of bragging about how strong they were, so they had an arm wrestle  Sister Mando and Sister Gee were both very knowledgeable of the Preach My Gospel manual and bore strong testimony.  Our afternoon teacher was Brother Breneman.  He is really good friends with Sister Gee and Sister Mando but his personality was the polar opposite from the Sisters.  He was a little quiet and humble but a very good teacher.  This week we have mostly concentrated on Preach My Gospel and next week we will work on our MLS (Member & Leader support) duties.

Tuesday we had a devotional and Elder and Sister Uchtdorf were the speakers. Sister Uchtdorf talked about loving and serving people. Elder Uchtdorf's  main message to the missionaries was that our success should be measured not by numbers but by doing well the things over which we have control. The MTC choir sang and it was wonderful.  The spirit was so strong it brought tears to our eyes.

Wednesday we had a meet and greet with the new young missionaries. Mom and I walked around among them and asked where they were from and where they were going to serve.  That was a lot of fun and we have started doing that at meal time and walking around campus. We then had training from the MTC president along with recorded training from Elder Bednar. His talk is called The Character of Christ and was an address at the MTC a year of so ago. He taught that the natural man turns inward when faced with trials and is selfish, self-centered and self-absorbed.  Jesus turns outward in love, service and compassion. His talk is on you tube and is worth watching.

We were blessed to attend a Temple session on Thursday.  Our whole session was senior missionaries.

We live in what amounts to a hotel room.  We are comfortable and the bed is pretty good.  We go to the cafeteria for all three meals.  The food is decent and is all you can eat. They have good chocolate milk and desserts. It is kind of chaotic with all those young missionaries, but it is fun to see their enthusiasm and feel of their spirit.

Our P-day is Saturday, and this week we were able to to the Bouchard's to wash clothes and watch the BYU football game. We also went to their home for dinner today.

We still plan to leave early next Saturday and get to Cheyenne. We will then travel to Creston and spend a couple of days with Josh and Kristy and their family.  We will then take a couple of days to get to our mission area.

We are kind of using our letters to you as a journal, so if we put some things in there that don't seem important, it's probably for us. not you.

We love you all and appreciate your support and your prayers.

Mom and Dad