MTC Week 1

7/22/2015

Howdy Everybody!!

First of all, Nic you were right about always being tired! It never seems like I've had enough sleep and I really needed today to recover from the last few days! When I wake up every morning it reminds me of the movie the Best 2 Years because one of the Elder's rolls out of bed into a prayer, and that's exactly how it goes here! Alarm goes off, there is a lot of moaning, and than everybody is on their knee's in prayer! It's so cool!

So I'm going to try to send pictures, but the computers are kinda weird, so if they don't come through just know that I tried my hardest to send them!! 

But anyways, Right when I got here I felt like a cow being herded around, there are missionaries everywhere taking you around and walking you everywhere, it's completely insane! But they took me to my classroom, which we now call the prison cell, because we spend SOOOOO much time there! There I met my District and My Companion! My companion is Elder Oldham, he's from Orem and I couldn't have been more blessed! He's so funny and we have and incredible time together, and we also teach really well together! You can tell he has a super strong testimony and is excited to be here serving the Lord! We also met our Teachers, Brother Holmquist and Brother Lim, Brother Lim is the best teacher i've ever had, and when he is a General Authority someday i'll be able to say that he was my teacher in the MTC!

Wednesday Night we got back to our rooms and unpacked. Elder Monson and Elder Tolley are our roomates, and i couldn't be more Blessed! Elder Monson is from Utah Valley and Elder Tolley is from Cardston Alberta! So he's been teaching us all about Canada! Fun fact, the money from Canada is super colorful and smells just like Maple Syrup, I'm not even kidding!! HAHA! We got in bed and 10:30 and all I could hear was Elder Tolley's clock, imagine the ticking of a grandfather clock right next to your head and that's about what it sounds like! I came very close to getting out of bed and smashing it, but I didn't want him to have a bad impression of me the first night! :)

The next night Elder Tolley stuffed it in his closet so we couldn't hear it... haha!

Thursday we got to meet our Branch Presidency and guess what, I was made District Leader! Such an amazing experience that has been for me! I love my district so much already, and I love them more and more each Day! So my District consists of Me and Elder Oldham, Elder Tolley and Elder Monson (The four of us are going to Toronto), Elder Porter and Elder Chappell, Elder Albrechtson and Elder Wiser (They're going to the Melbourne Australia Mission) and Sister Boswell and Sister Esplin (They're going to the Adalane Australia Mission)! Everybody is great and they all have such strong testimonies!

Elder Oldham and I have been Teaching James (Who is really Brother Lim). James is in School and started out with no belief in God at all! He's had a hard life and was seeking for a way to change and feel better about himself! The hardest part about teaching is focusing ONLY on the investigator and not how we teach! We're finally understanding how it works and James has been praying and growing so much! He even accepted our Challenge of reading the Book of Mormon, and tonight we get to meet with him to see if he came through! I'm crossing my fingers he did! On monday night we met Johnathan, our newest investigator, he's an atheist and is very academic, He is going to be very different to teach than James, but that's why we have to let the Spirit teach and not us! We are going to give him a Book of Mormon tonight and teach him about Joseph Smith, or at least that's what we have planned, our lessons never go the way we plan, so who knows!

The other District in our Zone that came in with us is full of some awesome missionaries! Elder's Lui, Fifita, and Toa are all these huge Tongan Elders and they are going to Papou New Guinea, which is like the most dangerous mission in the world! They only send Elder's and they have to be back in their apartment's by 5:00! Stinking scary! Elder Wheeler and Elder Bennion are also in our Zone and they are going to Australia! Fun fact, I went to EFY with Elder Wheeler! Crazy small world it is! Last but Certainly not least is Elder Honeycutt, who is the funniest person I've ever met, He is from Georgia so he has a deep Georgia accent which makes everything that much funnier! A few years ago he got and autoimmune disease where he lost most of his hair, so he shaves his head every few days, and lucky for me I got to shave it last night! haha, it was weird, but hilarious! I got some good pictures of that!

Sunday was so so cool! We had Sacrament meeting and Priesthood which was so different than from back home! I'm running out of time so I just want to finish up by sharing the 10 points of being a happy and effective missionary that we received last night at our Devotional! 

1.Focus on the Lord

2.Love the Scriptures

3.Forget Yourselves

4.Love the People

4a.Love your companion

5.Follow your mission president

6.Learn the language of the spirit

7.Work Hard

8.Be Obedient

9.Be a "Preach My Gospel" Missionary

10. Prepare to go home and be faithful

These points have already helped me so so much!! Anyways, I have to go, I love this gospel so much, and I know that Jesus Christ Atoned for all of us! I know that the Book of Mormon is a testament of Jesus Christ! I love you all so much and pray for you every day! Good Luck! My next letter will be sent from good old Canada!!

Love, Elder Taylor

PS The food isn't that bad! The Orange Juice has yet to be touched, but the Chocolate milk is so good!! Except, it's put like 3lbs on me and makes me feel sick so I don't drink too much of that!