A Good But Tiring Week at the MTC

Wednesday August 10th, 2016:

Elder Peterson & Elder Bennett at the temple

Today was a pretty average day. Even though we had P-day the day before, we worked out a lot and were all really tired that next day. Nothing really big happened till we had more lessons with our TRC's Jose and Brooke. We felt like we needed to teach Jose about families. We were still a little nervous because of how rough it went last time with him. We went in more confident and more prepared. We asked him if he had a family and if he was close to them. He almost got emotional and said "it's funny you mention that because I pack a bunch of photos in my back to show my friend later". They were all photos of his family and he then got emotional talking about his grandpa who died of cancer. We had a really good discussion with him and he seemed eager to learn and wanted us to come back. After that we taught Brooke. She is really open to learning about the gospel. We taught her a lot of good things ad she was also excited to learn. That night was also new missionary orientation. Elder Peterson and I, as well as the other zone leaders and sister training leaders, helped welcome the new missionaries in at a meeting. We introduced ourselves and then all the new missionaries did as well. It was really cool to meet them and afterwards Elder Peterson and I gave them a tour of the MTC. We were all pretty jealous of the missionaries going to Honolulu Hawaii. I also was very surprised to find a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts, a giant bag of sour patch kids, and some cookies from my Aunt Shantelle and her family- which was awesome!

Care Packages

Thursday August 11th, 2016:

Thursday was a pretty easy going day as well. We learned how to make these really cool colored drinks at lunch and they are actually quite good. 

Rainbow Drinks

I finally decided to play volleyball with Welch and Peterson and it was really fun a lot of people in our district play so it's a good time. For the rest of the day it was pretty normal. We didn't have to teach Jose that day because he was gone so we just taught Brooke. She accepted our invitation to pray and read the Book of Mormon which was cool. We even got her to pray for the first time which was awesome. Our room decided we would start journaling throughout the day because we were getting to bed at around 11:30 due to distractions and having to write in our journal so that has helped save time. This night we actually stayed up past midnight just talked as roommates and really got to know each other which was a lot of fun.

Friday August 12th, 2016:

Today was a super long day. It seemed like everyone throughout the MTC was just so tired. Our entire class was falling asleep it was hard to stay awake. It is hard to sit in a classroom for 6 hours a day doing 3 hour blocks each time. 

Tiring Schedule

Long Days!

 Today was our last TRC visit with Jose and Brooke. Jose has came a long ways from the first time we met him. This last time he really opened up and wasn't afraid to ask us questions. We had a really great discussion and we invited him to be baptized and he accepted which was awesome. After that we taught Brooke. Brooke is always so happy which was awesome. We talked to her about the Plan of Salvation. Then we talked about Baptism and she said she really wanted to be baptized. It was awesome to have both our TRC's accept the invitation to be baptized. We will soon find out our new TRC's for next week.

Ugly Tie Day with Elder Johnson & Welch

Saturday August 13th, 2016:

What another tiring day. Today we had to wake up at 6 am for service. For being used to a daily schedule of getting up at 6:30 am, it surprises me how much a half an hour more of sleep can make. Peterson and I had to wipe down all the computers throughout this building and then had to vacuum a few rooms so it wasn't too bad but I felt like I was sleep walking. We got back with about 25 minutes left till we had to get ready for breakfast and Johnson and Welch were already back asleep. It was a well needed power nap. Today was a probably the least busy day of the week so far so I didn't have much to write about. During exercise time, Peterson and I  just stayed back in the room and took an hour and fifteen minute nap which was well needed.

Yummy Breakfast

Sunday August 14th, 2016:

Sundays are always the best days. The breakfast which is usually all you can eat wasn't there. They must have been running short on breakfast food because all they had was cereal to eat. After breakfast Elder Peterson and I had zone leader meeting where we were finally made Senior Zone leaders of the four districts here and the 2 new districts coming in. 6 districts is like the most districts they have had in a long time. We also finally got the holy grail, as they like to say, the phone! You can't doing anything except make calls and receive them. 

The Holy Grail!

It was funny because in the meeting they said they are going to be using plastic spoons for the day because over 200 spoons have gone missing from the cafeteria. Every dorm has vending machines and they serve ice cream cups so everyone takes the spoons for that. After that we had sacrament meeting which was really good we actually had the MTC president join in so that was cool. Everyone is required to prepare a 3-5 minute talk on a topic because they just choose you at the meeting, so you have no idea if you will be asked to give one. I wasn't called but it was a great meeting. Today was the worst day for lunch, there was so many people that the line wrapped around twice and we had to wait in line for over 45 minutes for lunch which threw all our class times off, the branch president said it was the longest line he has seen in 10 years. After lunch we did our Temple walk which was really cool but it was still so hot out so we didn't stay long. There was another huge line for dinner due to an early dinner for choir members which isn't ideal because over 1500 people are in the choir. We practiced two new songs so we will sing 4 songs total next Sunday. After that we had a cool devotional about conversion by Daniel K. Judd. Then we just stayed in the gym and watched 17 Miracles which was awesome! I love that movie and it brought me to tears.

Monday August 15th, 2016:

Today was a good day. We had had a pretty good breakfast with eggs and sausage and bagels which is always a great way to start our day. Then we just had class till lunch which we had Hamburgers and fries which was really good and filling. 

Hamburgers

Then we just had class till we had our new TRC with Ky. He is a big 300 pound Polynesian man with a pony tail. It was kind of difficult to teach him because he had no knowledge of God or of any religion, so it was pretty interesting talking to him and teaching him about Jesus Christ's love for him. For dinner they had Taco Bell which was really nice! 

Taco Bell!!!!!

But its the amount of food- good food that is not helping. I have gained 7 pounds since being here and they say that the average weight gain in Ogden is 40 pounds so lets hope that is not the case with me haha. We had about 4 hours of personal time so all the guys hung out together and had a good time. We then carried hanging out to the room and we were still up at past midnight talking until the security guard came and said that we were being to loud haha. We are planning on getting up at 4:15 am to go to the temple.

Late Night Snack Pile

Tuesday August 16th, 2016:

Our second P-day started off really early. We got up at 4:15 am to for a 5:30 session at the temple. Last time we tried going it was over an hour wait so we decided to beat everyone today. It was really good and fun to go with all the other missionaries. We got back around 8:05 for breakfast which closed at 8:10 so we barely made it for breakfast. We then started all our laundry and cleaned our room. Welch and I decided to get our suits dry cleaned, it was only 8 bucks, so we said why not. We have just been chilling back at our room emailing and then I'm going to take a long nap!

(Connor mentioned in an email today that he got to see his cousin Ethan quite a few times and talk with him, but unfortunately they never got a picture together. Ethan made the long journey to Orem today.)

Elder Bennett       

Bedroom

Elder Johnson & Elder Welch's Desk

Elder Bennett & Elder Peterson's desk

Closet space