Mission

Mission

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Week 2

   Some things I forgot to mention last week... I got to see Elder Jensen before her left to New Hampshire and the MTC kind of reminds me of BYU a little. 

   Everyone was asked to prepare a talk for Sacrament Meeting last Sunday because the zone president was going to pick two of us at random to get up and speak. The topic was "enduring to the end" and the talk only had to be about five minutes. So I prepared an awesome talk Saturday night in our room. Sunday morning I forgot to take my talk with me to Sacrament and was called on to speak. Luckily my talk was copied right out of Preach My Gospel, and I happened to bring that to Sacrament sooooo. 
   
   Sometime last week one of the teachers told me "after Sunday the rest of the week will fly by and everything becomes a blur". Well whoever told me that was right. This past week went by super fast and I can't remember much other than what happened at out first appointment with another one of our "investigators". I think it was on Monday, but my companion and I arrived on time, we prepared a spiritual thought, and our main objective was to learn more about him and gain a friendship with him. His name is Aaron and he was referred to us by one of his friends. We knocked on the door, he answered, told us to go away. We spent around five minutes just trying to get this guy to let us in. After we finally got through the door, he had no interest in anything we were saying, all he was doing was trying to get us back out the door. We asked him some not personal questions and this is what happened... We learned we has no interest in religion whatsoever, we learned he likes to play volleyball, and we learned he used to go to a catholic school. Every time it seemed like we started to make progress with him, he would just shut us out. I don't know how this was brought up but out of nowhere he started to pour his heart out to us about how he lost his dad to cancer. He cried, we had no idea what was going on and then he kicked us out and told us to never come back... My companion and I were so confused! So we went back the next day. He invited us in and it was like nothing ever happened. We left him with a spiritual message and he told us to come back. Yesterday he bailed out of his appointment and that was the last time we could meet with him. So, other than that interesting experience with Aaron, there's not much going on here. Yesterday I got to be the investigator for some new missionaries that came in on Wednesday. I was assigned a role and had to give them a hard time and act like I had no religious background. 

   Since Wednesday I've been seeing a lot o people I knew at BYU which is cool. Today our zone is going to the temple. Tuesday I have to be in the travel office at 2:30 in the morning with all my stuff ready to fly out to Philadelphia. I traded some of my ties. We had a hall party with all the food mom sent me. I'm starting to live of the vending machines and fast a lot. The food that's served here seems to get worse and worse by the meal. And lastly, I think the funniest thing that happened over the past week was when I wrestled my companion for the mail because he wouldn't give me the letters I got. Mom, try and remember that I'm supposed to email only once so send me actual letters in the mail. If anyone is going to send me anything over the next couple of days, send it to Pennsylvania. I'm looking forward to getting out of the MTC and into Philadelphia. 

Saturday, October 19, 2013

We got our First Letter from Chance.

Week 1

Wow, I can't believe that I'm on a mission right now. This is crazy. I cant wait to get out of the Provo MTC and into Pennsylvania. So far I have survived four incredibly long days here, these are seriously the longest days I have ever experienced. The first day here way by far the longest, especially since I had to wake up at 3:00am to get to the Sacramento airport. My companion that I had to ride with me on the plane was impressively weird, strangest person I have ever interacted with. When I first saw the gates here at the front of he MTC that's when it hit me, "wow this is really happening". The MTC is better than I thought it was going to be. Everything here scheduled for us and is very fast paced. On my first day I had a half hour to get checked in, get to my room, meet my new companion and get to class. 

My MTC companion is awesome! His name is Elder Farrer, pronounced "far" but spelled "farrer". I seriously lucked out when it came to getting a companion that doesn't smell, isn't weird, and gets alone with me incredibly well. Not only do I have a great companion, I have a great zone and a great district as well. We only have one weirdo in our zone but that's ok because I don't have to share a room with him... He's really not that bad. 

The food here is the same stuff they fed us at the Cannon Center; nasty, unhealthy, and makes my roommates hate me... I have to be out of bed every morning by 6:30am and I have to stand up in class sometimes to keep myself from falling asleep. The classes here are very interactive, but even though they're interactive that doesn't keep me from falling asleep while we read scriptures. Most of what we do in class is role play. We get to teach "investigators" and get a pretty good idea of what it will be like in the field. I have learned many new things and my testimony is stronger than ever. The spirit is incredibly strong here and I am making the most out of everything and I'm really enjoying it here. I'm having a good time. Thursday night I was appointed senior companion and online training leader. As the online training leader it is my responsibility to teach missionaries how to interact with online training websites and help them when needed. I no longer have time to continue this letter, so look forward to next weeks. 

Friday, October 18, 2013

We dropped Chance off at the Sacramento airport this last Wednesday just before 5am.  He flew out to SLC and then took a shuttle from the airport there to his Uncle Kurt & Aunt Kerri's house in Orem.  Chance got to have breakfast with them and then they dropped him off at the MTC in Provo.

We are very excited for Chance, but had no idea just how hard it would be to say goodbye for 2 years.  It was emotional to say the least.  We miss him dearly.

Can't wait to get his first letter from the MTC!!!





Monday, October 7, 2013

Chance was called to serve in the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Mission July 9th 2013.  He opened his call while he was attending summer session at BYU.  Chance will be giving his farewell talk this coming Sunday, October the 13th at 1:00pm at the Junction Building in Roseville.  We will be having an open house for Chance later that night at 7:00pm.  Chance is thrilled about his mission call and can't wait to get started.  Come on by and wish him luck this Sunday.

If you want to follow Chance while he is on his mission, I will be posting his letters and pictures here.