Thursday, January 28, 2016

MTC Week 1

Hello everyone! What a glorious week its been! The beginning went so slow but now its gone by so fast. Crazy to think I will be outa here in a few days. But yeah good times MTC.

If someone could tell Tom and Kelsey thank you for me, that'd be awesome! they sent me some candy and I thought that was very nice of them. Let them know that i really appreciate it!

Where to start... Ill go with Sunday because the beginning isn't so interesting. Yeah I've been assigned to be the Zone leader! We go went to branch counsel and reported on our zone and district and such. We are also supposed to plan our Sunday meetings next week. We've conducted district leader interviews and such as well.

We have 2 investigators. I mean "investigators" because they are both members. But they act real if that counts. We teach them every day and prepare lessons for them which have gotten alot better over the last few days. Teaching is a lot harder than I thought it would be but I've gotten used to it and understood more how to teach the investigator, not the lesson. We had 2 lessons specifically where we came out and were like... that was awesome! they totally got it and we were able to convey our message very well to them! we did a little celebration dance as well.

My district is super duper fun. We are sooooo tight. We do like everything together and that makes life so much more enjoyable. I care for them so much and I am willing to do anything for them. which leads me too... a crazy experience I had!

On Thursday at the end of the day I thought I would stand up and tell everyone that I loved them and I was willing to do anything for them, like blessings just talking etc. Thought it was a little weird but I did it anyways. Two days later one of our sisters was having a super rough day for whatever reason and she asked me if I could give her a blessing. Now I've never given a blessing so it made me super nervous but of course I said yes. I didn't know what to say of what she needed. Anyways as I'm sure many people know, words just come to you when you are blessing someone. I didn't know what I was saying and I knew that it was the lord talking through me. Now all of that is pretty normal but what was really strange to me was that I saw distinct images of her on her mission in the future, teaching lessons and being an amazing missionary. After I ended the blessing I told her "privately" (our companions were there) what I saw. For whatever reason, she didn't think she could be a great missionary but I was able to directly change her mind and she was able to completely change her views and her attitude about herself.

Honestly I KNOW my district will be amazing missionaries. They are literally the best missionaries I've ever seen. Ive had the opportunity to observe their lessons as well as be a fake investigator for them all and they are truly amazing. We are all sent to the same district for a reason. They will be my leaders in not too long and I look up to them a lot. I love them all more than I thought I could love randoms strangers that I met a week ago.

This might surprise my family... but I've become known as the random fact king in our district. For some reason they enjoy me saying random facts all the time which works for me because i love random facts.

I guess thats all for now, I'm still working on sending pictures. I have to switch computers so ill email them a little bit later.

Anyways ask me any questions that you want and ill be sure to answer them! Thanks for the love!

Love
Elder Andy Carter








Friday, January 22, 2016

First Letter from MTC

Full missionary now! cool huh. anyways I have 20 minutes today so i will say as much as i can. 

First of all I'm alive! I'm doing well. And second of all yes i won.  The MTC has been great so far. I've got a great companion and he is so eager to teach and to serve. His name is Elder Osborn. Glad to be with him. He's like the same person as me. We played tennis in High School and we love basketball as well. My district is so great. I can tell how nervous we all are but we are starting to bond. Today during study today i just said hey everyone can we all just share our favorite scriptures and talk about them for a few minutes? it was a great experience. The two other elders said to me... I'm so glad we did that because i normally don't like to talk to everyone but it was fun to be able to share a little bit.

The rest of our zone is pretty fun. They are just like a bunch of high school/college guys haha. Its been nice to be able to chat with people that have more experience than us... although its only a week. We were talking with the current zone leaders and they wanted us to guess how long they had been at the MTC. We thought they had been there longer but nope. 7 days more haha.

So first day. I get dropped off and i walk with my greeter and we go to the main building to get our name tags. Then we go through the store and get some other materials that we will need. Finally he takes me to my room to drop off my things and shows me where my class is. I walk in and the teacher gives me a big ol bear hug. Great guy. Then he tell us who our companions are and we walk over to a welcome meeting by the MTC presidency. then we got the opportunity to see a global broadcast training for missionaries around the world. It was like a devotional but with some interaction from missionaries at the meeting. After the meeting we went back to our room and unpacked to prepare for the second day.

Day two was mostly personal and companion study time. Today seemed to be WAY longer but im alright with it. We also met with our Branch Presidency and talked with them for a few hours. Tomorrow is our first experience in teaching an "investigator" who is really just a member pretending not to be. I'm excited to see how i do. 

Fun Fact: Sister Smith is in my district. first day she walks in... I'm like Hey Laure.... i mean sister smith ahha. Its been weird calling everyone sister and elder.

So i was notified to day that i have been assigned to be one of the zone leaders starting on Sunday. I have no idea what that means or what i have to do, but i do know that on Wednesday, i am one of the greeters for new missionaries! so tell savanna I'm living her dream :P

Our P-Day will be next Thursday as well. Today we didn't have a PDay because its only the second day. So ill email again in a week. We don't have travel plans yet but we will know them before next Thursday so i can let you know what is going on.

I love it here in the MTC. Im glad i chose to serve and theres no place id rather be. Pictures to come later i promise!

Love you all! I'm sure you are doing well.

Elder Carter