WEEK 1 (technically a half week, but it felt like a whole one, and we all lost track of what day it was.) 7/22/2017

Well I made it. First P Day. It's been pretty amazing. The first couple days we had some lonnnngggggg classes (I never fell asleep though) but yesterday we finally had an opportunity to teach an "investigator" (really our teacher role playing, but closer than anything we'd done yet) and it was so cool. My companion and I were able to go back and forth and use PMG, the scriptures, talks, analogies, etc. It was so cool and we both got pumped at the idea of doing that in the real world with real people. The classes during the day are very cool, wayyyyy better than seminary.
      My "Residence hall" (can't call them rooms or apartments, too worldly) consists of me, Elder Glassey (my companion), Elder Nye, Elder Wheeler, Elder Johnson, and Elder Stone. Glassey is from Herriman, runs track, drove a PT Cruiser, and loves boating, we get along well. Elder Nye is from Morgan, he's a car guy and played DE for Morgan (knows Sam Fisher, didn't like him, but knew and hung out with Colton Jeffrey, Jake Emery, Jake Hadley, and a couple other guys. He is way cool. Elder Stone is from Alpine, and I am not even kidding you I guessed he was from Alpine or Park City before I even talked to him. He is way nice, loves ultimate frisbee and probably other things but I forgot them... Elder Wheeler is a piece of work. He is from Mount Pleasant, and after the stories he told us last night, it's a miracle he's alive, even more miraculous he's on a mission. He said his mission papers were way harder because he had to select yes when it asked if you'd ever been arrested. Awesome. Elder Johnson is from Parma, Idaho. And is a classic Idaho farmer kid, very nice. 
     Our District is basically split 50/50 between the New York Utica Mission, and Cincinnati Ohio. I don't know the Cincinnati half as well, but there is an awesome Elder, Elder Wittwer, from Bountiful. He's 20, and when he got his first mission call at 18, to Cincinnati, he declined and went to a year of school and was kind of lost for a while. But he recently came back, re-did his papers, and got called to the same mission. 
     Our Branch Presidency is incredible. And we had an incredible meeting with them on Thursday night. It was 3.5 hours long, but it was awesome.
     The new MTC building is incredible, that's where our classroom and Zone room are. It has a bunch of awesome HUGE murals of different gospel stories. It has tons of windows and the whole building is just amazing. Plus the AC is way better in there compared to the old buildings. 
     The worst part of the MTC, honestly nearing pioneer levels of hardship, is the fact that our Residence Hall is in the furthest building to the North West, and the classroom, is the furthest South East on the campus. Look up a map of the MTC, and see how far it is from R4 (4th/top floor, far corner, room 427) to T4, room 366. My best guess is 47 miles. 
     The coolest part of the week has been seeing all the Davis High missionaries. Elders Thornton, Robb, Hill, Grange, McBride, Hassan, Birrell, Brown, Todd, Barnes, and Sister Ferguson and Bown. A couple of them have been here for 3+ weeks. 
     Another cool experience happened when our class was on break, looking at the mural of Moses parting the Red Sea. As we were looking, The MTC President and his wife walked up and looked at it with us, and then his wife asked us what we would tell an investigator about this picture. Nobody said anything for a second, so I spoke up and said I would tell them that the power Moses used to part the Red Sea, is the same power we have in the Church today (Priesthood) They were impressed and shook my hand and said that thought would stick with them for a while. It was cool, then the half of my District that was standing there called me Hotshot for the rest of class. 
     FYI, my P Day is Saturday, and we can email all day. So I'll be in and out until 6:00, when we have a meeting. Also, we can check our email every day, just can't respond. So feel free to email every day. Gives me something to look forward to, because the days here are sooooooo long. Also I can read and respond to letters any day (Shoutout to Mary and Aubrey for the DearElder one I got at dinner last night).
     In short, the MTC is a huge place full of kids all doing the same thing, except some are doing it in Thai, or Tagalog, or Chinese, or Japanese, or Spanish, but we are all doing the same thing. And it's incredible. The whole place has a feel and attitude that is like a cross of the Temple, and Hogwarts. Idk if I'm allowed to say stuff like that, but that is the best way I can describe it. It really is incredible.

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