First week in the MTC. Best week ever, or BEST WEEK EVER?‏

Hey everyone, nice to get all of your e-mails! I only have 30 minutes on the computer here, so I will try and make this quick, and I'm sorry if I don't reply to your e-mail, because I have such limited time.

 

So here's the story. I get to the Provo MTC. Everything is just... CRAZY. elders are walking around left and right, I have no idea what I'm doing. We get to our rooms, go back to meet our teachers (I don't care what others say, its annoying sitting there going through orientations... I just wanted to learn something!!!) and so I did!!! We were almost immediately put into this room (about 40+ of us) with an "Investigator" and 2 missionaries talking to him. Then we get to ask the investigator questions, talk to him, etc. It was crazy. Then we immediately go into 2 more investigator rooms similar to the first, where we all listen to their story with the question on all our minds "How can we as missionaries help this person?" Anyways yeah, it was kind of cool seeing these things.

 

So then, we go to a giant meeting room and go through an orientation with the MTC president(s?) which was so great, basically the only real thing I miss about the Provo MTC. There was over 400!!!! elders and sisters there that were new just that day, and we all sang hymns and it was just great. While singing songs like "Called to serve" I was pretty much crying. Music in a giant choir always has a way of opening my heart to the spirit. Anyways, that was about it for the MTC! No lie! I immediately got a letter saying I was flying to the Preston MTC with my companion Elder Johnson, who also had Visa problems and was going to the same mission I was. By the way, I don't know if it was him or me, but I almost immediately knew how much a companion can get on your nerves... Not saying he's a bad guy or anything, he was just... I don't know. It wasn't bad being with him at the MTC at all, but on our 20+ hours at airports and on airplanes, I was pretty exhausted. About that, we were at the airport for a good hour or so trying to get our tickets fixed, cause our flight was cancelled!!! sheesh. But we finally got to Manchester in time. Anyways, we get to the Preston MTC and it was WAY different. The one in provo had over 2,000!!! Elders roaming around at any given time, this MTC has 33 of us. At first I was a little dissapointed I suppose, I didn't expect there to be this little amount of people here. But it is so much better than the Provo MTC. No offense anyone whose gone to Provo! Its literally like a bunch of friends that I've known in High school or something!!!

 

Its hard to write down everything I've experienced this last few days. Our teachers, Brother Loynes, Brother Rojas and Brother Perry are so sweet. All awesome. Brother Loynes is particularly hilarious because he's from South England, has a really heavy welsh accent, (I think,) and he is just really funny. He knows everything about teaching the gospel so much its almost a science, its so crazy! We tried throwing curveballs on what some investigators would ask, and he would have an answer for just about everything. Pretty awesome.

 

So about the classes... They are a mouthful for one. I'm starting to get used to them, though. The other day we had a class about stress management, which is really important, and I realized my biggest stress here is 1) I'm not used to letting the spirit guide me in what I say... (Dad, if you're reading this, we memorize almost NOTHING for lessons. We let the spirit teach the whole thing. Pretty intense, right?) and 2) I've been worried because I literally have never enough time for anything. I had my laundry piled up so high cause I couldn't find a time to do it! I finally did it yesterday but I had to put it in to wash, take it out 2 hours later (because I didn't have time to wait) and let it sit in the dryer the whole day until night when we have an hour of free time. Anyways, during this stress management lesson, which I learned lots from, we watched a pretty funny vdeo... it was missionaries at the Provo MTC being asked "What is so stressful for you in the MTC?" And some answers were just hilarious. For instance, a guy said "What stresses me is the TRC investigator we have every week!" For those of you who don't know, a TRC investigator is one of the teachers here at the MTC who completely act out being an investigator (Similar to how it was the first day of Provo MTC) but only you and your companion teach them. For all intents and purposes its a real investigator and you have to evalute how well you teach them. No one tells you how great or bad you performed the lesson besides yourself and your companion. Anyways, what was funny about that one video was the guy saying he has a TRC investigator every week. WHAAAT?!!! We have 2. Every day. Every single day we have 2 appointments with 2 different TRC investigators. You think your life is tough buddy? Haha!

 

But yeah, I love it here. The food is great, there is this soda called "Vimto" Which is like a soda that's purple but tastes like Cream soda. Its so good, everyone makes fun of me cause I'm obsessed with it. Haha. We also have Ginger beer which is like a gross root beer (Some like it, I'm not fond of it) and we have a soda that can only be described as pure cough medicine. Its so disgusting. Haha. Maybe I got a bad batch of it. But the meals have been pretty standard, we didn't have anything particularly weird except Quiche (Is that how its spelled) but it tasted delicious.

 

Well I'm getting close to my time being up. I just wanted to say a few things before I left to leave you all with. The church is true. I've seen it's effects on my life and those around me. I am pretty nervous for what's out there, but I know that the Lord will guide me through and won't let me fail if I have faith. I love you all, and I am only sorry I didn't get to write you all directly. Maybe I will later today, because the timer on this thing is 30 minutes but I could just X out and do it again. Our P-days are pretty empty-schedule here, because the temple closed down. Which reminds me, I gotta send pictures!!! I took a bunch of the temple. I also heard you all got pictures of me and the others through some website album, that's awesome. Sister Williams is great.

 

Love you all,

Elder Blumenthal

 

P.S. To answer a few of you, I heard Levi is going to spain! That's awesome! 2 guys in just my district are both from Spain. One of them I room with, he's so crazy, he's always hyped up on sugar or something.

P.S.S. Yes BDN, Elder Ormsby is my companion. He's hilarious just because he always laughs at pretty much everything I do. He also has a really funny American accent that he can fake. And he DOES look like ben batdorff! I never noticed!!!

P.S.S.S. Yes mom, we have actually a few elders from South Africa and one from Ethiopia, Elder Omot. He's in my district as well. Pretty great guy. And elder Meecham isn't in my district but I've talked to him a few times, he loves Vimto like me!!!