August 11, 2010 -- Part 2

Hello Family!!

 

This past week has been one I will remember for a long time.  Its the first week Ive felt settled in, and now I know everyone.  So its been alot easier to get through the day... The days go by so long but it feels like I was unpacking yesterday..but thats not to say im not enjoying my MTC experience! Im learning so much! I know everyone says that, but I reallty have learned alot through the english accent coming from teachers and leaders we have here.  My districts main teacher, Brother Graydon has been of most help to me.  He's been of his mission for only 3 years.. He has so many stories that can relate to what we are going through now, and what we will experiance during the mission..

 

We also had Elder Donaldson, of the Quorum of the 70 came and spoke to us. He gave a powerful talk about focusing on our mission and how we only get out what we put in... he surely got his message across well...Then this past sunday we had President and Sister Bullock (my mission president) come and speak to us.  How great it was to see them so soon! They gave talks about teaching with the spirit.. They are amazing people with great insight, and powerful testimonies! We even had the chance to eat lunch with them after..  We got to know a little bit more about them, and we got to introduce ourselves and talk about ourselves..They gave us a rundown on what was going to happen in the next couple of weeks.. It was such a blessing to have them here!

 

We as an MTC also had our first tracting experiance... they gave us train tickets, and we were off.. Before we left, I had confidence we were going to do well, and come back with so many referrals, we wouldnt know what to do.....haha...well that for sure didnt happen. 

When me and my companion got on the train we were terrified.  But somehow we managed to talk to a guy that was headed to texas.. so we had something in common.. the only problem was we didnt talk to him about the gospel.. only soccer, texas, and college.. 

Then we got to downtown and got about 30 no's in a row...and that was after we built up the confidence to actually talk to people.. Luckily we found (real) missionaries that were serving in manchester.. They took us on splits, and sort of showed us the ropes.. It showed me a whole other perspective..  

So after me and my companion got back together we started having some success.. but only for a few 2 minute conversations...until we saw this 18ish year old kid sitting down.. we felt like we had to talk to him.. Well, we just introduced oursleves as excited as we could.. and he seemed to enjoy us. We started right off by talking about his views on reliegion.  He was like a golden investigator..asking allthe right questions.. "yeah, ive always wondered what was going to happen after this life"

Well.. to make a story short, me and Elder Whited traded off bearing our testimonies on our love for the gospel and how much happiness it has brought to our lives.. It was an amzing experience.. with the spirit being overwhelming.. We got his details, and handed him a book of mormon.. he was so excited, and eager to learn. We later found out his full name is Anthony Joseph Smith....wow.  He was like, "wow thats weird my middile name is jospeh and last name is smith" .. we couldnt belive it.

 

Also.... In about 2 hours we are going through our first of two endowment sessions at the temple..during our stay at the MTC!! so cool!

 

But time is running out again.. it gets the best of us here at the MTC.. just now I love you all so much!! and am loving every second of it!! 

 

Elder Eliason

 

 

ps...sorry for the spelling mom....