8/3/2023 - Week Two and a half - MTC - Zion's Army is kinda rowdy

Hey everyone! 

It's finally been a full real week in the MTC for me and I know a lot more about what the MTC is all about. First things first, my companion, Elder Sainsbury, is the GOAT. The guy is insane at everything we put in front of him. He's been one of the best in every sport we've played so far and he's always the man to beat. We've been getting along really well and that's all we could ask for. My District started our MTC stay super separated. There are some polarizing characters with clashing personalities in our District and in the beginning we really didn't like each other at all and it made classes and devotionals really hard to do. But everything is (somewhat) good now. Everyone has settled their differences (for the most part) and we can (mostly) be together and not have everyone at each other's throats. I feel like I can have a civil and beneficial conversation with most of my District now and I'll take that as a win for this week. The Elders get along great, sometimes we get along too great. We're kinda crazy most of the time.

In classes, our teachers Brother Gutke and Brother Bradshaw are much better in person. Everyone loves Brother Gutke because he is a living party and somehow is still able to keep the Spirit in the lessons. My roommates and I like Brother Bradshaw too, and I feel like everyone doesn't give him the benefit of the doubt because he teaches the PM class and everyone is just as tired as can be at that point in the day. Both classes are usually very involved and we learn tons (like usually pages and pages of notes per day). The coolest class of the week started as a fairly normal class, Brother Bradshaw was teaching as he does, then - at our first break - Elder Ashmead and I dapped each other up so crisp and so loud that everyone in the MTC could hear and feel it deep in their soul (probably not). Brother Bradshaw asked us if we hurt our hands, but we were both just shocked at the sheer volume and magnitude of the clap and didn't respond. Highlight of the mission so far (non-spiritually of course).

We've had two devotionals so far and the general message of both is that we need to give up our "weapons of rebellion against God" to have true conversion. Weapons of rebellion are anything that take our focus away from Christ, making us turn inwards and selfish when we should turn outwards like Christ and be selfless. The messages were very powerful and a brief summary doesn't do it justice. My entire district (minus a few) were in the choir at the Tuesday Devotional and we sang "Hark All Ye Nations" and we sang our hearts out and I think we did a pretty good job. We had Elder Nielson from the Presidency of the 70 talk to us that night too, and the highlight quote from his message was that "if McDonald's doesn't want you, or Apple doesn't want you, or whoever else doesn't want you. Jesus always will want you." It doesn't matter how good or bad you feel about yourself. How many or few friends you have. How little or large your testimony is, Jesus wants each and every one of us equally and desires our conversion with everything he has. He gives everything to get us to that point, if only we choose to act and find it for ourselves with His help.

I think I've seen every single one of my friends currently here in the MTC at least like 3 times. Which is a crazy blessing because there are over 2000 of us here and a new batch of 350 came last night (which means I got new roommates and I'm still trying to figure out if that's okay or not). Élder Patterson is taught in the classroom right next to mine, which is crazy because we're the only English Classroom on that floor of the building, but I get to see my Spanish speaking friend almost every day. Elder Baumgartner is in my zone, which means we go to church together and we co-taught part of a lesson which was super cool. (But it was only 5 minutes so it wasn't very hard). Elder Fuhriman has been here since the dawn of time it feels like and I've only seen him in passing but we'll get a chance to talk soon I'm sure.

I'm loving it here even though the food is occasionally inedible, potentially dangerous, or out of stock when I get to the dinner hall. I'm excited to get out to Ohio and start actually doing things and teaching to real people (and start eating real food again).

Spiritual Quotes from this week:
"You do your best, Christ does the rest"
-Elder Sainsbury 
"Sometimes you gotta use some sandpaper before you paint" (you need to remove some parts of your life before you can make it beautiful)
-Elder Ashmead 
"Missionary work is not easy because Salvation is not a cheap experience."
-Elder Jeffery R Holland

Scripture of the week:
2 Corinthians 12:10
God strengthens us in and through our difficulties in life. They are put there to strengthen us and they will allow Christ to strengthen us as we turn to him for safety, comfort, peace, or whatever else we may need.

Pictures:
1. Elder Patterson and Me
2. District 15- J
3. One of the many amazing murals in T4 (where my classes are)
4. Class
5. Pong
6. Choir practice 
7. THE HORDE
8. Temple time
9. Elder the Baum.com












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