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
