Week 4: Arriving in the Field

25th April (P-day)

We started the day off by going to the temple (which was nice!!) Now I know I talk about food a lot… but it is one of the only things that changes at the MTC, and some people have asked for more details so deal with it! Lunch today was awesome! Fried chicken, mash and gravy. Soooo good! Because it was p-day, we were expecting to get two hours of gym time… but we didn’t! I have never felt so robbed before. We had a devotional (talk) and I slept through the whole things. Whoops :/

26th April

Nothing happened today. Like… nothing. I had a pretty bad headache and then got hit in the face point blank in volleyball, but that was it.

27th April

I woke up and still had a pretty awful headache. Got given some STRONG ‘Merican drugs and an hour later I was zoooooming! I was in a different plane of existence. I fell off my chair… I was OUT OF IT!

Afternoon class was on how The Book of Mormon and Bible go hand in hand. So good! I ran into a senior couple and we just started chatting. The husband was talking about how missions are what we make them. “Don’t waste a single moment. You decided to come for a reason… fulfill it!” He was very passionate.

28th April

Nothing to report

29th April

Elder Gessel and I taught a lesson in one of the observation rooms, which was terrifying. We had 15 minutes to plan a 30 minute lesson. It was definitely one of those lessons that is led by the Spirit. We both had times where we had no idea why we were saying or doing the things we were but they ended up being the perfect things to say. After that stressful situation we read the Book of Mormon and read all of Alma 20. Very cool.

We hung out as a district outside in the sun, and then just as we stand up to go to class… my nose started dripping blood! Eventually it just started pouring out like a tap. Very metal. Elder Gessel’s mum is a nurse, I believe, and so he was just chilling. So was I, to be fair. I was more intrigued then worried. Its kinda weird seeing blood pour out of you. Waited for my nose to stop bleeding, got the blood out of my shirt, did some Duolingo, and then finally went to class (we were really eager to go to class if you couldn’t tell).

Later, we played Spikeball outside whilst looking at the mountains. Never felt so American. HOORAH! Finally feeling super comfortable here!

30th April

Church was good! Lots on the subject of faith. Very good.

We had a “departing devotional”, which was like a “You’re ready for this!” pep talk for entering the field. It was strangely emotional. We sang “We’ll bring the world his truth” but changed the words from “We will be the Lord’s missionaries” to “We are now the Lord’s missionaries”. It’s strange prepping for something your entire life, and then finally doing it. I ran into a Sister Vest, who is from Virginia and her family lives in my mission! I believe she told her mum to look out for me and feed me… bless up Vest fam!

We met as a branch and all the departing missionaries bore their testimonies and said their farewells. Pretty emotional. I’ve started writing journal entries in the style of scriptures and it’s honestly so fun! Really makes you consider what’s important and how you want to say it.

1st May

Breakfast, laundry, ping pong, post, jelly bean taste testing, lunch, chat, hangout, go to clinic to check on my epipen, get sent to BYU Medical Centre to check, get sent back to clinic to see why it isn’t sorted out, dinner, mess about, gym. Honestly, today’s been such a laugh! We made the first part of a music video but couldn’t stop laughing so that’s all we completed. Got a good bunch of lads here, I shall miss them dearly. Spikeball and then I met Elder Carbine who’s going to my mission. He’s a cool guy! Pretty amazing day!

2nd May

Lots of T-book (a journal people write in to say goodbye) entries and messing about. In all honesty though, today was a blur! I’ll miss the MTC… strange to say that because I didn’t always enjoy it… but onto the next chapter of life we must all turn.