I Found My People - 8/20/2023

Sorry y'all but I'm never leaving this island, I've only been here at the mtc for a week and I've already had so many great experiences and met so many great people. I might end up saying this a few hundred times over the next 2 years but Polynesians are some of the most innately nice people you will ever meet! There are around 100 missionaries here at the mtc and only 40 of them are Americans, so most of the people I meet and interact with are from either Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, Fiji, New Guinea, or different parts of New Zealand. The Tongan and Samoans are terrifying when you first see them because they're so physically massive, but then they open their mouths and they're just giant teddy bears. Don't tell them I said that.


My companion Elder Brimley and I have already been getting pretty good at teaching the restoration, which is what they have been teaching in the classes all week. I can also already feel myself getting sooooo much better at explaining and simplifying doctrine in a way that is clear and simple to understand. For everyone that knows me well knows that's I am not the most talkative person, but whenever I am teaching a lesson the words just seem to pour out of me and it's so crazy to me. I'm really not used to hearing this many words come out of my mouth and it's throwing me off. 

A lot of what they have been teaching us here is centered around the spirit; using the spirit to touch the hearts of those we're teaching, and making sure we are in tune with the spirit at all times so we are better able to convey the Lord's message. 

I don't know what the other mtc's are like but the chefs here are showing food down our throats and it's awesome. And the food is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, everyone gets the same meal every day and they do an awesome job with making food that will make everyone feel at home. 

It's been rough adjusting to the brutal 16 hour time difference, and when you throw in the fact that we have to be up at 6:30 every morning, all of us weak Americans are borderline dead by the end of the day.

Sadly I don't have a Māori accent yet but I'll work on it don't worry, and the Tongans love making fun of our American accents so I like feeding the fire by throwing in some "y'alls" every once and a while. I find it so amazing how fast these young men and women have gone from absolutely no English to being able to speak in sacrament meeting in almost perfect English in just 8 weeks. That kind of stuff will only happen by the power of Christ and the Holy Ghost. I don't have to learn another language but I've picked up some Tongan while helping these other elders learn English, which I've heard will be really helpful once I hit the mission field. 

Feel free to message me on FaceBook at anytime!

Thank you all so much for your emails and your prayers! I miss y'all and I'll talk to you's next week! (Note the Kiwi slang I threw in there 😎).





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