First Week at the MTC

Mom dropped me off, I got the bags out and she of course decided to take some pictures. I got to give her a nice big/long hug and then I was gone! I felt so good though. Very happy and content. It was kind of embarrassing because our rental was a bright red convertible mustang.. I mean I might as well enter the MTC in style!

So I went right in and met my host. He took me to get my tags and keys and then to get my books and drop off my suitcases in my room. He was in his 9th week, heading off to Turkey. I am so glad I only have to wait 6 weeks. Anyway so he took me to my classroom and right away I was sent off to watch a gym orientation/gym rules video. Then we jumped right in to learning the language. My teacher is pretty amazing. Her "name" is Sister M and right away I was like woah! I've seen you before! There are these videos for each mission on Youtube and she was in the one for Belgium and the Netherlands. She's basically famous.. Anyway so Dutch is crazy. That first day everybody was so lost. 

So, after getting my mind blown with straight Dutch, we went and had a big meeting with the mission presidency. It was pretty cool. They all served in Portuguese speaking missions and two served in Brazil, like Dad! After the meeting we had dinner... It was basically the same as the BYU Cannon center. And the consequences of eating the food were pretty bad. 

After that we had some big group stuff and then our Zone Leaders showed us around the campus.

That night was weird. They said we would have weird dreams here and they were correct. That night I dreamed like 5 separate times that I missed the alarm and each time I actually woke. So I was pretty tired the next day. 

Thursday - Day 2

So day 2 was pretty good. I am able to run on the indoor track during gym time. I didn't realize I would get the opportunity to run so it was good news. I've been able to run 3/5 gym times so far and the other 2 we played soccer and volleyball. We had class and learned a lot of Dutch. We practice memorizing the missionary purpose, which is, "My purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." Later that night we met with our Branch President and his counselors. They're pretty cool. 

Friday - Day 3

Everyday kind of feels the same in the MTC. Sundays and Wednesdays are more relaxed I guess. Sundays we have church, temple walks, devotionals. Wednesdays are our P-days so we get to be more relaxed, do laundry, e-mail home, and go to the temple. But Fridays do not feel like actual Fridays. This was the first day that we taught an "investigator". She spoke all Dutch and Elder O and I had no clue what was going on. Also, this was the day that I learned my favorite word in Dutch: lol.. which literally means fun. It's pretty great.

Saturday - Day 4

We had another lesson with our "investigator" S. I actually was able to understand her questions a little! We got to go and clean toilets but it ended up not being that bad. I mean it was bad but it could've been worse. I made three goals to try to keep throughout the rest of the week. They were: thinking about the Savior more, praying for charity, and looking for more ways to serve others. So far I've kept them each day pretty well. I'm really hoping they help me to think more about God and the needs of His children and less of myself. The best part of today was getting my first letter! Thank you to Dad!

Sunday - Day 5

Sundays are awesome. We start out with breakfast, personal study, lunch, and then church. They have everyone prepare a talk in their mission language for each week and then they pick two at random to give it during sacrament meeting. Luckily none of us new missionaries got called on. 

After church we had our temple walk. That was a lot of fun but very hot. Then we had choir, and the director is the guy who directs General Conference! He told some really good stories, one was about how we are God's strongest and He save us for this specific time for a reason. He talked about how he teaches school and there will be kids who say, "you know I don't really want to serve a mission." And Brother E will be like "Are you serious? God saved you for this time and you just decided not to serve a mission for no good reason?!" But yeah so for all of you young men and young women that have the opportunity to serve a mission, just do it. It will bless so many lives, including your own.

After the devotional we watched a talk given by Elder Bednar at the MTC three years ago called "Character of Christ". Hands down the best talk that I have ever heard. So amazing! He talked a lot about being more selfless and how our missions are not about us. I wish I could share it with you guys but I guess it is only shown at the MTC so I can't.. But it was amazing! He said that 35% of return missionaries fall away from the church within 6 years of getting home. That made me really sad. But he said the reason for that was that they were not truly converted. It is not good enough to just have a testimony. You need to be truly and completely converted unto Christ and His Gospel. He told a story of how Jesus Christ, after suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane so much that He bled from every pore, finding His trusted apostles asleep, being betrayed by another apostle, and knowing that He still would have to endure so much more. After that He had the love and compassion to heal the ear of one of the soldiers who was about to arrest Him. I wish I could talk more about it but time is limited...

Monday - Day 6

So not too much time left so I'll have to make this last stuff short. We had our 3rd lesson with S today and it went really well! I bore my testimony in Dutch about how I came to feel God's love for me and I really did feel the Spirit. I'm getting a lot closer to my district and really learning to love and respect each of them.

Tuesday - Day 7 

We had class and taught S again. It went really well. We taught her about the Holy Ghost. That night we had a devotional and Elder D. Todd Christofferson came! He seemed really sad so his talk didn't seem very up to beat. The best thing from his talk was that we should love the people we serve, or we can never be successful and their hearts won't open for us.

Wednesday - Day 8

So, sorry for the briefness of the last couple days. I'm out of time. And sorry for no pictures! They wouldn't upload so I'll just have to send a lot next week! I love you all! I know that this Church is true and I would love to hear from everyone. 

Tot ziens!

Elder Wright