MINNESOTA MINNEAPOLIS MISSION

WEEK ONE

Hey!

The MTC was way different than I expected, but I love it and I can feel the spirit all the time. I miss you guys a lot and when I left you guys I was to, but they welcome you so well and make you feel loved and comforted. The first day I met my Companion and my district. My companion is Elder Huntley and he is awesome. We get along super well and we really haven't left each others side since we met. He likes to play water polo which I think is super awesome and he is from Centerville, Utah. I'll explain districts a little bit, our district has 12 people, 4 Sisters and 8 Elders. We go to class together and lunch, church, devotionals. We are super close as a district, a lot more than the other districts. Elder Lytle is a lot like Kyle Laga, he likes theater and can talk to you forever and make you laugh, he is from Nevada. Elder Brown is his companion and he plays the piano really well. Elder Rossell is our district leader and he is from Arizona and is a Cardinals fan! He has so many stories and is a good leader and keeps the other Elders focused. The Sisters are awesome Sister Benson is super nice and she helps us feel the spirit. I have been able to sleep pretty well, which is unusual, but I have to imagine my puppies sleeping next to me.

A day in the MTC is usually a lot of study and prayer. We pray before and after we do anything which is really nice. My days are so much better with prayer. We wake up at 5:30 to make sure we can shower first and then read our scriptures for a bit then meet in our classroom at 7, sing a song, have prayer then go to breakfast. The first couple days I was here I was never hungry, but I ate anyway. We then go back to class then have a lesson with our teachers Sister Thompson and Sister Turner. Every day is already planned for us so we follow that. We have personal or companion study to help teach our investigators. We start with prayer to know what they need to know to help them come unto Christ. The first day we had an opening devotional and at the end what they said is that we can do anything through Christ. The first investigator we taught was Amanda, which was Sister Thompson acting like a person she taught on her mission and she acts like Amanda would. They do a really good job at doing this, when teaching her I didn't feel like I was teaching Sister Thompson I felt like I was teaching Amanda. We are Teaching Sister Turner acting as Erin right now and will meet with her a couple more times.

We have a thing called TRC and I don't remember what it stands for, but they give us little papers with a little bio about a person and then we prepare a lesson for them. We teach by the spirit and when we prepare what we feel they need to know to want to come unto Christ. Our first TRC investigator is Austin Putnam. He likes hunting a lot so when we met with him we really got to know him and let him feel comfortable with us. We met with him for 25 minutes which was not enough time. We were going to teach him about the Restoration since he already believed in God, because he is a Baptist. We weren't able to get into the Restoration because he had a lot of questions, but that was okay because we are there to teach them about everything in the gospel and it is more important to answer what questions they have so that they will want to know more. He asked what we think of other religions perception of the Bible and I explained it to him like this. If you have a mirror and it falls and a whole bunch of people grab a piece they only have part of the mirror. So all these other churches only have parts of the truth. After the Great Apostasy there wasn't anybody to make sure they were teaching right doctrine and they started to change things and have different ways of reading scripture. Our church is the only church that has the whole truth because we received revelation through Joseph Smith. We then explained about the Book of Mormon and how it is just another Testament of Jesus Christ. Our Second investigator was Yui Kuwahara, we weren't able to teach her because she couldn't make it yesterday. She is from Japan and doesn't have a religious background and likes to read, playing badminton, and things with art.

Since I got here everyone was just telling me to just make it to Sunday. The days seemed so long and the things I did in the morning seemed like I did them the day before. Monday went super fast though and its crazy I've been here for almost a week. The days go by slower, but the weeks go by super fast. On Sunday we got to take a walk around the Temple which was nice. I got pictures with my district and companion. but I don't have the pictures with my district on my camera so I'll have to send them later. We have the chance to go to the temple which I really want to go since I was only able to go once. We were able to partake of the sacrament on Sunday and it was the best sacrament I've had because I learned that we need to repent every single week for anything whether it is big or small. I am so grateful for the Atonement and what it does for all of us. What Christ suffered for us and I am sure while on the cross he was not praying for comfort for himself, I know he was praying for others that they may have comfort. Like when Peter cuts off the ear of the guard and Christ heals him even though he had just been in the Garden of Gethsemane suffering for us, bleeding through every pore. That is the Character of Christ, which I was able to watch. Instead of thinking of yourself saying I want, I want you yo think of others and how you can help them. On Sunday we had Matthew Holland, Elder Hollands son, come talk to us for a devotional. He talked about Joseph Smith and started with his child life and what he suffered. I don't have a lot of time to write, and hour, so I would encourage you to look up about his child life. He shared a scripture that I thought was awesome: D+C 135:3 "Joseph Smith, the prophet and seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus, for the salvation of men in this world that ever lived in it."

Elder Bullock