20 May 2011

Today marks exactly one month since arriving at the MTC, how appropriate that it's P-day!
Today Sonntag 長老 and I served as proxies in a sealing session.  That was pretty cool hearing the blessings associated with eternal families and enduring to the end.  The officiator was quite the interesting man, too.  Apparently he lived in Jerusalem for 14 years and speaks English, German, Spanish, and can read Hebrew.  I don't recall ever hearing scriptures being quoted in Hebrew before, that was pretty cool.  One day I kind of just want to sit down with the guy and (as Sonntag 長老 says) talk story with him.  Also, new discovery today at the Temple's cafeteria: fruit cake + sausage gravy = delicious.

So last night was pretty nice, I actually slept through most of the night, which, of course, meant that I was wide awake about an hour before I normally would be.  That's a good thing though because I was able to use the time to talk to another missionary (宣教師）for a while and I was able to read a little more in the scriptures than normal.  Also I've come to the decision that Enos is a pretty cool guy (and I'm not just saying that because of the awesome poster I have of Enos on his way to hunt), and that Shiblon is pretty sweet, too. 

Japanese is going rather well, I've mainly been using class time to either study what I want, or to help other people as they are trying to learn Japanese, and I'm able to somewhat carry on a gospel related conversation.  Also, I recently learned that I can recite the missionary purpose in Japanese in roughly 20 seconds.  First vision.... that still takes me about a minute, but it's getting to be more fluent.  I'm also working on memorizing the articles of faith and have the first 4 down, as well as some simple scriptures (James 1:5; Moses 1:39 etc）

I've also decided that the MTC actively separates English speaking missionaries and Foreign language missionaries; it's super rare that I ever see any missionaries that aren't going out of the country, or at least learning a foreign language.  I did happen to run into Christison 姉妹　(Sister Courtney Christison) and was able to talk to her for a while.  Maybe we'll get to talk more during choir practice.  I've also been running into a bunch of people who were in my Ward at BYU.  In fact, one of them (Alex Gunnerson) just moved onto our floor.  We happened to meet while I was on my way to the shower, it was only a little awkward. 

On Tuesday we heard from Elder Hinckley of the 70.  You may or may not have heard of his father, Gordon, but he was a pretty cool guy.  Elder Hinckley spoke to us on the value and necessity of work.  His wife knows something of what hard work can accomplish; she was the number 1 ranked tennis player in all of Utah and the 7 surrounding states.  She exhorted us all to "do what you are supposed to do, when you are supposed to do it; whether you want to or not."  I'm becoming more and more aware of the wise counsel in this statement.  If a mission is nothing else, it's hard work; and if there's something that I have found out as of late, it's this: the harder the work is, the more satisfying the outcome.  If you're trying to change, and you're not doing anything hard, are you really trying to change? I say unto you nay.  (Also the MTC is making me speak in scripture speak)  Do the work, follow the rules, and never disable your progression. 

In three days our せんぱい　(The missionaries in the group ahead of us) leave for Japan.  At that point we are no longer the "younger" group, but the experienced fogies of the MTC.  I can now say, "I've been here twice as long as you're going to be here, and I'll still be here after you've left".  I'm still deciding how I feel about this.

Anyway, MTC is still awesome, and my district is awesome.  And the spirit that we've been able to feel here is awesome. I challenge all of you who are reading this to pick up a copy of The Book of Mormon and see what it's about.  Whether it's true or not, you can only know by reading.  Don't let you're inhibitions halt you in the search of truth. Good luck and do cool things.

Everett 長老 (chourou)