Wednesday, July 17, 2013

First e-mails July 17, 2013

Dear family,
You've probably been wondering where I've been, but we only have ONE P-day and 1/2 hour to write.
And it happened to be exactly one week after arriving. Sorry, if you worried, but this was the only day, and since I leave next Wednesday, I won't have another one here at the MTC. The first week was awesome! I loved everything. The first day was tough, but I decided to be positive that day and everything changed. I have learned so much. My district is way awesome. Here's a quick bit about each of the members. Elder S is my companion. He is 6'5 and really long arms. We have destroyed at basketball. Everyone in the Zone basically loves us. Oh, by the way, I'm zone leader and senior companion! I got put in as Zone Leader last Thursday, so I've been thrown into some leadership already. Because of that I've been really busy and I have so much to do. Today I have to give a tour of the MTC for the incoming missionaries, but I've only done laundry once and I only know where food, residence, and my classroom is. Anyways, Elder S is awesome and we work well together. We have taught 4 lessons and the Spirit has been really strong. I committed our investigator in our first lesson to be baptized because that is what I felt prompted to do, and she accepted! But we have a lot to teach still, and not any time. We have had a really good time as a district. Elder I is short and super hilarious. He is really clever and really fun to listen to. His companion is Elder C. He is pretty quiet, but awesome. Elder F is pretty quiet, but he randomly says one liners that are random and funny. We also turned "Pew" into a verb that we use for everything, mostly going to the bathroom. Elder L is his companion and he is our District Leader. He is super funny and reminds me of Scott Brimley (Taran's friend). I enjoy being with them. We are almost too good of friends because we sometimes stay up past 10:30 talking. We are a really strong district. The sisters are also super strong, and there are four of them. All of us are going to San Antonio except three of the sisters. Oh, we also are big into riddles. Elder L has a ton and we all try to figure them out. I wish I could tell you more but I don't have any time. Part of the reason we have so much fun is because we have grown so much spiritually together. We have AMAZING teachers. Brother C, Brother W, and Brother W. They love us SO much and they are amazing teachers. Brother W reminds me of a prophet version of Alex Hansen. He is such a genius, it's amazing. Brother C shared a powerful personal experience with prayer that was the most powerful spiritual moment of my life. They are awesome. The three main things I've learned/realized are super important are to listen to the Spirit, Love EVERYONE, and to be more converted and have a stronger testimony of Christ as our Savior. I have learned so much this week! Mom, I don't know what happened to my garments, but I only 7 pairs today after doing laundry, so if you could quickly send me a few more pairs that would be great! I could also use a couple more normal shirts. I only have two short sleeve. Well, sorry I can't upload pictures or write more, but I know the church is true and I am so happy! Good luck everyone!
Love,
Elder Pew
(second email)
Oh, I just found out we have an hour! So I'll try to tell you a few more things. In our exercise times we have played basketball and volleyball mainly with our district and another district in our zone. We dominate which is pretty fun. I don't know if I told you this, but out of our district only me and Elder L are straight out of High School. It's strange since he is the District Leader and I'm Zone leader, and we are the youngest two, and maybe the goofiest also. The first day I was pretty boring, but our district really bonded after Brother C's personal story, and that made us all more comfortable, so now I'm totally my self. I've been working really hard on getting better, but my patience has been surprisingly good. I've just realized I need to really focus when I have personal study, since our extra time is taken up having fun. We really have fun together solving riddles and just talking. It's crazy how close we are after just one week. I've gotten SO much out of personal study, and I love it. At first, it was like, "I have so much time to study and I don't know what to do with it." But now it's like, "I don't have nearly enough time to study everything I want. Zone leader basically just means being a good friend to the Zone and loving all of them and then going to like four hours of meetings on Sunday. I've really learned how important it is to LOVE. I think that is way underfocused (is that a word) in the gospel. When you love the investigator, you listen to the Spirit to know what to say to help THEM, not just check off that you taught something. I'd say I'm already used to the mission schedule, and we get up at 6 to shower first. I have like 10 pages of notes already from my studies, so that has been awesome. We heard a talk given by Elder Bednar about the character of Christ that was amazing! It was SO good. He talked about how the Savior turned outward through any trial and never inward. He talked about a lot, but of other things, but that was the most impactful. The food here is decent. Dad's right in that cereal is the way to go for breakfast. I didn't have cereal the first few days, and I got super backed up! But the chocolate milk is the best thing ever, and I usually have two glasses with each meal. Surprisingly though, I think I'm in better shape, because I don't eat a lot and I work really hard whether it's studying or exercising, and my body feels tired, but great. I don't know how to upload pictures, but I took some of our district. We even have fun with the sisters. I guess I still get a little frustrated when we don't focus when we should be, and sometimes that's because the elders sometimes seem to want to make everyone laugh, but usually we're pretty good and I'm rarely miffed. My church shirts and pants don't iron very well, so that's frustrating, but I got some pretty good alone time to do that while everyone was down the hall in our room. Oh, I've seen 43 people I know, and that doesn't even include the people that will get here today. I've written them all down in my journal, and I think 25 have been recent graduates of Lone Peak. I saw Tyler the first day, but we didn't take picture, and he's gone now. It's funny how Ryan Wyman and James Lee and Austin Bitters will come and talk to me like we were best friends...Oh, I've seen McCoy, Lauren(?) Fonbuena, and Sara Hood, all Taran's friends. Well, I think that's all I've got. Just don't worry about me here, I've figured out the MTC super quickly and I'm loving it. I'm super happy. Well, it would be nice to have those garments and normal t-shirts. Also, I probably won't have a P-day until Monday the 28th, so it might not be until then when I'm in San Antonio that I talk to you all. Thanks!
Love,
Elder Pew