The MTC Experience

September 10, 2014

Hey Y'all! I finally made it to P-day. I thought it would never come haha. I'll try and answer some of your questions and just tell you what it's been like.

Wednesday

I was probably the most nervous I've ever been in my entire life stepping out of that car and Katie can probably testify that I looked like I had just seen a ghoul. I got herded through the new missionary lines and got all my junk. My official lookin' nametag, a bunch of pamphlets and stuff like that. A host showed me to my room for like 2 minutes and then threw me into class. We studied for like 5 minutes and met everyone. Elder Hadfield is my companion and he's a pretty awesome dude. He's from Brigham City and pretty chill. He's also our District Leader which makes me comp to the District Leader. Anyways my entire room is headed to Florida. Me, Elder Hadfield, Elder Averett, who is freaking hilarious. He gets my sarcasm and has plenty of his own to dish out. Elder Ferrier, he sleeps under me (I got top bunk) and for the most part he's a pretty quiet dude. I'll admit he kinda creeped me out at first cuz he never says anything and he mutters under his breath all the time. He reminds me of Brick from The Middle. Elder Nielson is a freaking massive dude and is very very very outspoken. I'll just leave it at that. Ummm and last in our room is Elder McCalister. He's from Cali and he's pretty chill too. Anyways were all best buddies now and walk around the MTC singing and doing stupid things. Which is what it's all 'bout right? Anyways we headed out to meet the MTC Presidency with the rest of the new guys and that was pretty cool. We had dinner and everywhere hates and loves the food at the same time. It's weird cuz the food is good but you eat soo much here that eating really becomes more of a hobbie than a necessity. That night we had a thing where like 50 of us new guys talked to 3 different investigators and tried to talk to them. Well it went terrible since of course it's the first day, but it kinda made me realize how much I have to learn.

Thursday

We started off the morning kinda wandering around and just talking and realized by the time it was over that we were supposed to be studying... oops. Anyways we all chatted in class for like ten minutes before lunch and after lunch I discovered my favorite thing about the MTC. GYM TIME. I tried out a bunch of different things and found my calling in four square. Me and Floridans play with all the Russians and they are like the coolest people ever. So funny. That night we met our branch presidency and our Branch Pres., President Pickering. We sat there and read Preach My Gospel while he and a counselor of his interviewed us to see who would be District Leader and as I said before it turned out to be my companion! So that was cool.

Friday

It was a super awesome yet super humbling day. We had all our fun stuff in the morning like a service project and gym time (I know it sounds sarcastic but here it's the bomb). Then after we had class for basically the rest of the day Sister Mitchell and Brother Belliston are our teachers. Sister Mitchell taught us first and me and Elder Hadfield taught our first investigator which is her. She pretends to be someone named Debi and we have to teach her every day that we have class with Sister Mitchell. Well the first day kinda sucked but hey it's all part of the learning curve right? I kinda got off topic and confused myself and her a little bit, but I've gotten better!

Saturday

We finally got into the regular schedule and in the morning in between breakfast and lunch we have 3 hours for personal, companion and additional study time, which 9 times out often means we chat it up and spend like 20 mins preparing, haha. Oh I forgot to mention three other elders in our district are going to Ghana. Elder Snow, Elder Verdoni, and Elder Wilson. Me and Elder Snow have a friendly rivalry going on and we always pick on each other and junk like that. Oh and were like twins too. We have the same socks, same birthday, and kinda the same personality. Pretty cool. Elder Verdoni is from from Mesa, AZ and apparently I live like 10 mins. away from him so that was cool. And Elder Wilson is from Missouri and we get along great. We got our first taste of freedom and went out to the fields to play soccer until it started raining like half an hour later and we had to come back.

Sunday

Probably the most spiritual Sunday of my life. We hung out with Branch P in the morning until we went to sacrament with our zone and had testimony meeting. It was really cool to hear from the other missionaries that had been here longer and were heading off to Jamiaca and the West Indies in a couple days. Then we had an Awesome devotional where the speaker invited 2 convert missionaries to the stand to share their stories. I don't have the time to tell you but it was awesome. We stayed after that and heard the most amazing talk ever that probably changed my entire view on being a missionary and about life.

Monday

We straight up want to get out of here already everyone is losing their minds in here cuz we have class like 6 hours a day. Awesome day though. I got 2 Packages! thank you mom! But we taught our investigator Debi and me and Elder Hadfield finally got through to her and got her to have a meaningful experience which made me feel awesome. That night though they had us do this thing called TRc where we teach a progressive inestigator. Except ALL 9 of us in our district were supposed to teach one person so of course it was a train wreck but we have it again tonight so well see how that goes.

Tuesday

 Highlight of the day: I did the banana challenge because everyone dared me too. Apparently if you eat a 2 bananas and chug a sprite you'll throw up. Well I didn;t throw up cuz I'm just a boss but I felt like it for like the next four hours.

We all went to class with Sis. Mitchell and we taught Debi again and had a good lesson. Ever since Monday it's been getting a whole lot easier. After that we hit up the gym and played some four square with the russians. Before the MTC I had no idea that four square could get so intense. These pros that have been here for like weeks are like putting spins on and it's freaking ridiculous. We had a devotional with some black guy from the seventy (I forget his name) and that was pretty decent. We went back to class and discussed it until like 9:30 and went to bed.

Which brings us to to today. P-day is the greatest thing on earth! It's so fun to mess with all the new missionaries that we used to be like a week ago. We went to the temple this morning and it was preety cool to be able to do that as a district and here I am right now. Doing laundry and email on a computer in the basement. I guess I'll tell you some other cool things that have happened. Elder Verdoni has the most ON POINT chipmunk you've ever heard in your life. Elder Vauss from the other district can do this mega loud rooster that freaks the crap out of everyone. I was like in tears. A couple nights ago we all saw Elder Crockett (left for Michigan today) freaking lockpicking his door and we all watched.

We have mountains of food! Like you can't even see the table in our room. I'll try and get a picture to ya.

I can't think of anything else soooo when I write again I'll be in Florida!

Elder Toolson