Well hey there everybody. So I am now in the MTC, that's pretty cool. Within the first hour of being dropped off I was in class. Man I had quite a bit of help to get here today, I got to stay over at a good friends apartment the night before and some friends from BYU came and picked me up with all my luggage from that apartment. I had 2 years worth of stuff so it's not like I had a ton of luggage..... Thanks a bunch Tanner, Alex, and Andy.
I lucked out with my companion here. He's from a military family so he's lived in many different places, including Japan during his High School years. We both are able to talk to each other in Japanese often and help each other improve faster than we ever could have otherwise. 6 years of language experience is definitely helpful, and I've had the opportunity to help all of the other missionaries in the district learn Japanese as well. The MTC is a strange place I have decided. The days pass like weeks and a week feels like a day. It's way structured here, all of our time is allocated to either studying the scriptures or studying Japanese. Elder Sanntag (my companion) and I are able to mix the two and expedite our learning process.
So far all of the talks that we've heard are pretty amazing. On Sunday we had one of the MTC directors come and talk to us. In his previous job he was one of the executive producers for the "Mormon Messages" TV spots. So he brought those to show us. Way cool. However the highlight of that day was the organist. He is a missionary from Hungary, and he played an amazing opening song. You could just feel how the entire room wanted to applause, but since it was Sunday we really shouldn't. When the speaker took the pulpit though he talked directly to the young missionary and asked him if he knew "Go Tell It on A Mountain." He answered that he did and the speaker invited him to play. The entire first verse of the song is played entirely on the foot pedals, which was amazing, and then once he added in the rest of the keys.... everyone was blown away. When he finished the entirety of the MTC stood and applauded the AMAZING performance, including all of the speakers that were on the stage. Nothing I can say can really express how powerful the performance was.
This past Tuesday (after a snow storm in the morning....yeah a snowstorm in late April) we had Dallin H. Oaks come and talk to us. I like his way of talking, he essentially talks in bullet points which makes it way easy to take notes. I got quite a bit of good missionary advice from him and his experience. What stuck out to me most though is something his wife (who served in Japan) said. "The Gospel is more than just a nice way to live; it is the reason we live" I know that each of us are children of a loving Heavenly Father who loves us and wants us to become the best we can be. The reason we live is to become more like him in any way possible, and hopefully, to bring some friends along the way.
Yesterday we listened to a talk from Elder Holland that was a couple of years old. He was talking at the MTC and accidentally improvised his entire speech. During his introduction he felt impressed to share some of his experience as a missionary, and why to him, his mission is everything. From the lessons he learned to the time he spent, he told us that the older he became, the more important his mission was to him. His speech was powerful and bold. He is not one to beat about the bush, and the doctrines therein where simple and powerful. Look up "The Miracle of a Mission"
Well, since this is the first post I'll put up what my eventual goals are:
1: Read the Book of Mormon before June.
2: Memorize the first vision and the 13 articles of faith in Japanese
3: Read the Book of Mormon in Japanese before July 4th
4: To actually remember to upkeep Blog posts throughout my mission
If any of you are interested in mailing me feel free, and I will write you back. My address while at the MTC is
Elder Benjamin Everett
MTC Box # 144
2005 North 900 East
Provo, UT 84604
And Hey, if any of my friends from the Enloe Ultimate team are reading this, mail me sometime to let me know how you guys are doing. And definitely keep me up to date as the state tournament approaches.
Also, if someone can let me know how the 11-year old scouts are doing that would be awesome.
Keep doing cool things、
エベレット 長老
Elder Everett
みんなが愛している。
