The MTC "Seikkailu" (Adventure)

The email saga continues with very few lines of information. I (Linda) was busy at work and didn't get the "I'm here" email....Celeste and Trevor exchanged a few lines, but nothing substantial. However, Emily received a couple of letters with some interesting information we thought would be fun to share. We are still hoping for a letter in the mail this week.

Letter info from Em:

"I spend a lot of time studying Finnish. I have made a goal to learn so many words a day. My goal is to learn 40+ words a day. I have learned how to pray in Finnish and am studying the scriptures. We also study Preach My Gospel." He can "feel the difference at the MTC and is"feeling his calling work upon him through the Spirit." (Thanks to all for your prayers in his behalf.) "It seems impossible to be ready to be a missionary, but if I rely on the Lord, I hope I'm able to do it." He is realizing how important the temple and ordinances are ....and that it is a "gift to feel the Spirit".

They have volunteers or return missionaries that go to the MTC so the missionaries can practice teaching investigators. "We try to teach them as much as we can in Finnish and then switch to English. My companion and I made it about 20 minutes in Finnish! Well, it was terrible in all actuality. We were teaching two return missionaries...it was 20 minutes of "getting to know you" and 25 minutes of lesson in English. We are still plugging away at it. I am struggling to memorize my vocabulary words. I think I'll make some flash cards. So enough, but the TRC's are my favorite part. This last Thursday at TRC, I struggled with the language for a while...like, I thought the guy asked me if I had ridden a horse, but he really asked me if I liked horses. It was fairly similar, but I was like 'yeah! thinking I had understood him'....The teaching part went a little better. We went through the lesson fairly smoothly, but when they ask questions. Oh my gosh, I tried my best to explain the answers. Well, I guess it went better than I thought."

"P-days are interesting. It starts out with personal and companion study. Then we go to breakfast and the temple. We get back for lunch and can email around 1:30 . We have 30 minutes for emailing and then letter writing time. At 3:00, we do laundry and write letters some more...like now, I am writing while I wait for my socks to dry...it takes forever! Then we can do whatever until 6:00 pm when we go to dinner....more study and then bed."

A funny part...."Oh yeah, so today I taught Elder Sharp how to shine his shoes. It was interesting....funny actually. And I have to stop eating food! It's complete buffet. Normally, I wouldn't even eat the size of the meal they give us. I am going to have to eat salad for ALL my meals. And do a lot of sit-ups....maybe some running."

"The MTC has divided the missionaries in wards...around 50 members per ward. We have a speaker, which would be from the presidency or the bishop and a randomly selected missionary. .. that means I might have to speak, so I wrote a talk last week on Diligence. Oh my, worst talk ever...I will continue to work on it in case I'm called on to talk. " After one of the Sunday meetings, Trevor went for a walk around the Provo Temple (with his companion, I assume). Here are some thoughts from Trev: "Today was pretty good. We had a lesson on the Abrahamic covenant and how the prophetic keys have been restored. We heard from the new missionaries and the ones that are leaving on Tuesday. Very uplifting and edifying. Also, Andrew Chen is coming in on Wed! I can't wait."

They have learned how to distinguish a progressing investigator from a non-progressing investigator. "We had a lesson on "how to tell a NP investigator "goodbye". Well, not "goodbye", but "we'll be around" kind of thing. It was an interesting lesson, but oddly enough it made me motivated to work harder. We also learned about taking every opportunity to talk to random people." The missionaries also answer calls from people. He got a person who swore at him or was speaking Spanish. "But it's not too bad. One of the elders talked to a lady for 40 minutes and is calling her back tomorrow. She is ready to hear the gospel and has a Book of Mormon now. Amazing."

Apparently, Trevor is a senior companion. In response to Emily's question about this, he said, "It doesn't really mean anything except that I am obligated to be an example, and I can tell the other two guys what to do if there is a dispute. Mainly, I don't have to tell them what to do...they are both good studiers." Trevor is studying Isaiah as part of his scripture study. "My personal study time is, for the most part, in a classroom rather than outside. Sad! Maybe, I could ask to go outside to study..."

We can feel the change starting to take place in Trevor...living each day as a "Sunday" is uplifting to your spirit. "Ok, I got back from the devotional meeting tonight. It was amazing. It was focusing on Charity and focusing on others. I had such a strong witness that I need to do this, but not just on my mission. I mean, it's so easy to give of yourself when you are here but I had the Spirit testify to me how important Charity is....to change my outlook towards others....I also found out better how the Spirit communicates with me. Absolutely a blessing."

If we all could remember Charity in our daily lives, how blessed the world would be! Today, I think this is the blessing of having a missionary...being reminded to be a better person and feeling the Spirit testify of truth through their testimony of the doctrine and having our own hearts grow with charity. Our prayer is that you will be blessed each minute of every day!