Hej hej! - Thursday, July 27, 2017

Elder Wayment and Elder Francis

Wow! I can't believe one week has already passed! The Missionary Training Center has already been a completely unbelievable experience. I arrived on Wednesday and my host Elder Whitehead took me around to pick up my tags, schedule, and a few other important papers. 

We dropped off my luggage in my residency, R8, and then went straight to class. Our teacher, Syster Adamson, spoke only Svenska! I was the third person there. Aldste Justin Butler was there, too. He is in my district! 

Our district has 6 elders: Aldste Wayment (my companion), Aldste Cummings, Aldste Bird, Aldste Steele, Aldste Butler, and myself. There are also 3 systers in our district: Syster Huxtable, Syster Cole, and Syster Bingham. We all have the same classroom. There is one other district of Swedish missionaries and they have their own classroom. 

Elder Francis and his good friend, Elder Butler, from Davis High School

All of the days here so far have had basically the same outline, so instead of sharing every detail I'll give a general overview. We wake up by 6:30 (or earlier just for more study time or to run) then get ready. We eat breakfast in this huge cafeteria then either head off for exercise or to class. We have lunch, have time to study (we usually study in the new buildings! 

We don't have class in them but they are SUPER NICE! There are scriptures all over the walls and huge murals depicting Alma the Younger, Joseph Smith, Moses, and others. We eat dinner and then usually have more class afterwards. On Tuesday, though, we had a devotional. It was by Elder Clarke. His message was pretty blunt and too the point. He encouraged us to set goals and to achieve them 100%.

On our second day here we started teaching our investigator Gabriella. We teach her in only Swedish! Aldste Wayment and I have learned a ton teaching her. We'll get better as we learn more Swedish but sometimes it is really tough! Our teacher speaks only Swedish in class and we have already learned so much! I know more Swedish than Chinese now and I took Chinese for two years!

Aldste Wayment is a super talented guy! He is the best at volleyball, basketball, and especially singing. We sing a ton together. He is the district leader and is always positive and excited about missionary work. His family lives in Gilbert, Arizona. On our first breakfast here, we got our food then went to this salad fruit bar line thing. He got a huge scoop of this white stuff that we both thought was yogurt but then he licked his finger and it was sour cream! It was hillarious. 

Our district has become really close. Everyone in my district is planning on going to BYU after the mission except for Aldste Cummings, he is going to MIT. Aldste Steele has already gone to a year at the Y and is a year older than the rest of us, so we all kind of look to him as a mentor.

With his good friend, Elder Bryant Jepsen, who is going to Denmark!

I attended choir practice on Sunday and Tuesday then we sang at the devotional. The choir director is really great at telling church history stories! He shared some cool things about the pioneers, and I have been thinking about the pioneers this week. They are such good examples of faith to us. This week at the MTC was an adjustment and even a little challenging at times, but I thought of all the pioneers went through and remembered that this is the work of the Lord! He will not leave us comfortless.

Sunday was the best day. The best part was when we watched an MTC devotional from a few years ago. It was by Elder Bednar and is called Character of Christ. He talked so powerfully about becoming like Jesus Christ. One of his main messages was looking outward, not in. He described Christlike attributes as "strikingly displayed, consistantly lived." All of the screen savers here at the MTC are the same. It is a picture of Jesus Christ with a message at the bottom that says "Become as He is." 

I have so much more to tell but time is running away!  I will try to type faster next week or something. I am doing well.

My testimony of this Gospel has already grown. I bear my witness that the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored, and I am so blessed to be a part of it! 

Äldste Francis