Week 2 - Missionary Training Center

Hey Mom, Dad, Brian, Jocie, Punk (Jordan), Chico, and all other friends and family,

Mom, can you send me the e-mails of family members so that I can e-mail them directly? I only have yours and dad's. Yes, you can e-mail me on here.

So I've been in the MTC for one week. I will say, it has been quite an eventful, enlightening, and tough week. So much has happened, I've learned a lot about myself.

Kayla Owens sent me a Dear John letter. Thanks for waiting a whole 24 hours for me, and then realizing I wasn't worth waiting for and getting engaged and now having a date to get married in two weeks. Yeah, thanks Kayla. Haha, actually she just said that every missionary should get a Dear John letter at some point in there mission. I don't think 24 hours into the mission is the time to get a Dear John letter. But, Kayla, it made me laugh. Thanks.

Sunday was pretty rough, not gonna lie. We had fast and testimony meeting. Guess what, I'm the new branch pianist. Go figure. But testimony meeting was nice. We have our sacrament meeting with other intermediate and beginning Spanish classes, so we got to hear broken Spanish. That was fun. Then we had mission conference that day. The mission presidency and their wives spoke about baptism, faith, and the Holy Ghost. Then we had district meeting. In district meeting, I had a question that really bothered me, which is why Sunday was so rough. Someone had said something that when the Spirit speaks to you, you need to write it down. Well, I realized at that point that I'd never had an experience like that, or at least, I hadn't realized if I've ever had an experience like that. I kept wondering why and how could I have an experience like that. So that question bugged me all day. Then we had a fireside by Elder Merrill J Bateman. It was a good talk about missionary work or something like that. I took notes, so don't worry mom.

Monday was exhausting. Had rehab for my ankle that day. During personal study, I tried to seek the answer to the question I had the day before. My answer finally came during a workshop later that day. I realized that the Spirit doesn't speak to me the same way it speaks to other people. It provides a way for me to find the answer, instead of directly giving me the answer. The led to other questions, but they aren't bugging me as much as that question did. We also had the opportunity to teach Daniel.

Ok, here's how this investigator thing works here at the MTC. You get some volunteers from the "outside world" and they come in and pretend to be investigators. So you teach them as if they were investigators. Got it?

Tuesday we had to do a service assignment in the morning at 6:00am. Janitorial. Ah, just like the good ol' days. Then we did more study and had the opportunity to teach Daniel again and he accepted an invitation to get baptized. It was weird how excited we were because he isn't a real investigator. It'll be interesting to see how I react when I get an actual baptism. I got cleared to play basketball again, so my ankle is better (kinda). Super Cecil Samuelson and his wife gave a devotional about missionary work. That seems to be a pretty stressed topic here. He told us to remember we are always missionaries even when we think no one is watching.

Wednesday. Study session. Taught a new investigator Casey with out district. It's hard to develop a personal relationship with her because there are 10 of us trying to get to know her and she's not very receptive. Taught Daniel. Gym time. Played basketball against a U of U basketball player and I think I frustrated him. It was fun.

Today. Went to temple. Really, really nice. Wrote letters. That's about it.

My ankle is still really puffy. And it's stiff. But it doesn't hurt at all. I mean, if you hit it, it's like a bruise. But, I know what you're going to say dad. Ice it. Okay.

I leave here August 23rd, or August 24th, or August 25th. I've heard three different things in the past week. Apparently they keep changing it. The most recent one is August 24th. So I will say August 24th, for now.

Mom, you'll love this. We get 40% off at the bookstore for everything basically. Plus, we get $6 a week to use on whatever we want.

Food is okay. My companion has gained like 20 pounds. I haven't gained anything, even though I eat the exact same thing as him, more than him sometimes.

Found the bubble gum tree. It really smells like bubble gum. Sometimes, I just go up to it and hug it and smell it. Refreshing.

So there's a scripture in Proverbs that talks about writing letters to missionaries. I don't have my scriptures with me at the moment, but it's in Proverbs 25:25. It goes something like "Just as a thirsty soul loveth water, so is good news from a far country." So just as thirsty people love water, missionaries love good news from a far country. The "outside world," as we like to call it.

Parents, post this in my blog and post the link on my Facebook. Please. Gracias.

Love you guys.

Elder Nathan Gruenewald