Called To Serve: Week Two

One of Elder Clifford's teachers, Brother Chase (in the green striped tie), just returned from the New Hampshire Manchester Mission only a few weeks ago! What a blessing to be able to have him tell the missionaries headed there all about the mission. He posted this picture of the class on the mission facebook page last week.

What's up everyone?

Second week here and I'm still doin' good. There's a lot of role-playing here. Like a lot. Anyways, I'm learning a ton here, and I want to go out and see what the real world is like again. The MTC is great and all, but I feel like an animal locked in a zoo. It doesn't help that there are a bunch of people constantly walking through on tours here though.

Anyways we started trc`s this week and me and Elder White have been teaching lessons all week. This week we started teaching 45 minute lessons, and let me tell ya. I used to think that a 15 minute lesson was long, but I'm even running out of time to teach with 45 minutes. I love answering all the questions these people have.

Anyways the food here is literally 50/50. It's either really good, or it's questionable. The days are pretty repetitive though. I'm starting to get a nice routine going.

So back to trc's though. We had 2 last week, and our first one was named Kai. He's a pretty big Polynesian dude who's had a pretty rough past. He was referred by a coworker and just wants to learn more about the church. I've never had to answer more questions about random church stuff in my life. The other one is Jaclyn. We already finished teaching her, but she's super chill. She was quiet at first, but once I started talking to her, and making nice jokes she opened up and got super outgoing and funny. Anyways not too much else has happened this week. Since everyday we are learning and teaching lessons.

This fast Sunday was a nice refreshing change. I got to focus on how thirsty I was for about 6 hours. It was nice though because we went and took a nap on this cool second floor terrace thing. I'll put a picture of it on here. Anyways after that there was an awesome devotional with Jenny Oaks Baker. She's way good at violin. Her whole family played music together and they sounded great. Btw her dad is Elder oaks. So that's pretty cool too.

Last Tuesday the general relief society president spoke to us. She was good, but her husband's talk really got to me. He said to always listen for the spirits promptings, and I've been using his advice and it's pretty good.

My whole district is awesome though, almost every single person in it is chill. Being in the MTC though is pretty great and it really helps you become more confident in not just your scripture skills, but also your conversation skills. Like I feel like they should send shy people to this place and have them learn what we learn. Also we had a paisley Thursday this week and a floral Friday. We got pictures of the paisley Thursday but forgot to take them on Friday. I'm having a good time so far, and if you're about to leave and are nervous, don't be. You will be fine. The MTC is so chill. Just be ready to make friends, study the scriptures, talk to random people, and gamble for your life when you don't know either of the food options so you choose the one with the most appetizing name.

So on this Sunday we were forced to watch the Character of Christ, and I had already watched it the last week. It's a talk by Elder Bednar and it's really good, but it was my second time watching it, so I was pretty jumpy and wasn't paying too close attention. But while this was all happening I was looking around and the security people started closing all the doors. I thought to myself "great now they're going to force us to watch another devotional" then as he closed his talk in the movie he popped up right in front of me in real life and started doing a q and a with everyone in the room. It was so cool hearing him answer the questions we had right on the spot. One of the coolest experiences I've ever had. It was quite the fast Sunday.

So we got a new investigator this week and her name is Mai Vo, and she is so awesome. She's been to a lot of churches and I think she's ready to accept the gospel in her life. We taught her a 50 minute lesson, and I think that is the perfect amount of time.

This zoo tour is pretty great for talking to people though. I've seen a lot of my friends going through too. Anyways that's what has happened here, and I hope all of you guys are doing great. Idk if I'll have a p day next week so if you don't here from me that's why. Have a great week everyone.