On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 8:25 AM, Zachary Baldwin> wrote:
Hello all!!!!The mtc is so great! loving every second of it.....well, trying to atleast. My schedule is so busy and sometimes it gets overwhelming. i am definitely learning how to pray a lot. it helps so much! I have already learned so much during my first week here. i have the first lesson down which is the restoration of the gospel and gods love for all of us. i am working on the second lesson which is the plan of salvation, there is so much to learn! lesson three i have kind of skimmed over, but definitely trying to learn as much as i can while i am here. Our first day in class we had a little questioneere? if thats how you spell it..idk haha. but anyways, it was about our comprehension with the BofM and i qualified for the tutoring!!! i am so stoked about that. i already had my first tutoring session and my tutor, sis. mccloskey, pretty much just taught me how to really get deep in the scriptures to really try hard to get what they are trying to say. it is amazing the great detail that is in each scripture as you read it. so i meet with her twice a week during study time and i can already see the difference as i am reading. so ya, the food is not too bad. my companions are great. elder n and elder d are very easy to get along with. it is just us three in the room. so after the first crazy 3 days came the sabbath. sundays in the mtc are so awesome. it gives us a break from the long vigorous hours in the classroom and it is much needed! we spend on average about 11 hours in the classroom each day and sometimes it can be a bit frustrating. personal study time is very hard to stay focused, but im getting off track...back to sunday. we had priesthood with our zone and then had sacrament meeting. all of us missionaries in the zone have to prepare a talk each week depending on the topic given and then are picked at random by a member of the branch presidency at the pulpet. luckily, this week i didnt have to speak, but i feel like i am going to be picked this week. the district going to hong kong left on monday and they were pretty awesome. elder c and elder e, our zone leaders, were very cool cats and taught me alot on leadership type stuff. e is from england and c is from yorba linda. i have the opportunity to be a district leader while i am in the mtc. i really try hard to focus on how we can strengthen our district and set goals that will help us come together and really gain a good friendship with each other. one of the goals was to exclude the words hate and pissed from our vocabulary and each time someone says those words, they get a strike and if they get 3 strikes, they have to tach the district lesson on sunday. so hopefully that will help get rid of some of the negativity within our district. i can thank jackie for that goal haha. the members in my district are very fun. ill list them off right now... elder h, elder b, elder n, elder d, sister m, sister b, sister s, and sister w. sister s is from tokyo japan and i had her write "elder baldwin" in japanese characters in my scriptures with silver sharpie and on the back of my name tags in regular sharpie...i thought it looked pretty cool. thank you everyone for all of the letters and postcards! i got so much mail this week and it helps so much, so keep sending stuff! 6 postcards, 8 letters and 2 packages! i felt kind of bad though because i was the only one that got that much mail in the district. everyone else only got a couple of letters if that.sounds like everything is busy at home! tha is so awesome that you read out of dads journal for fhe. i am trying really hard to write in my journal every night and so far, im doing well. i pray every night for you and the rest of the family. prayers help so much! so please, keep me in them because i definitely need them as i am trying to learn all of this stuff in the mtc. one last thing before i go... we actually got to teach a real investigator yesterday. his name was george and from orem, ut. about 6 months ago he went through a leg amputation due to a blood clot in his femoral artery. that experince really brought him closer to god becuase it made him pray and ask why god had done this to him. he received a direct answer and it happened to him to bring him closer to christ. due to this experience he was able to meet a lady named tammy who was also a leg amputee, she is a member and became really close to george as he struggled through the difficult times he was going through.. tammy and his family prayed also on why god had done this to george and got the same answer as george did word for word. as he was telling us his story i immediately thought of ether12:27. we went on with the lesson we had for him and it was the most spiritual experience i have ever had. as i was bearing my testimony about how god loves each and every one of his children and how he gives us trials and weaknesses so that me may become strong, i started to tear up and george started to tear up. the spirit was so stong and i am so glad i am able to teach george. he wants to learn more about life after death so we are preparing the plan of salvation lesson for him. amazing!tonight a general authority will be here! possibly a member of the 1st presidency! it is the mtc presidents all of the world training this week so i am stoked for that! i will have to tell you about it next week. well, my time is up! love you all, have an amazing week!!!!!love, Elder Baldwin
Great choice for your favorite scripture. That will come in handy many times.
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