Week 1 (MTC)

I have little time to write so if i have gramatical and spelling errors, forgive me. So 6 days are done in the MTC. Last Wednesday and Thursday were the longest days of my life. It didnt help that Wednesday i was going off of 3 hours asleep and by the time i went to bed i had been up 21 hours. Ha ha. Wednesday we just met our teachers, studied, and had a welcome to the MTC talk by presiden Nally. The rest was "good luck". People say the MTC is immersion by fire and they mean it. I got a schedule and nothing was told to me about anything. WE  had to figure out 100% of it out for ourselves. It was pretty stressful but everything worked out just fine.

Thursday was more meeting teachers and classes along with studying. Friday is when the fun began. So a typical day in the MTC for us 2 week english speakers is 2 blocks of 3 hour classes, like 4 hours of studing, another 1.5 hour class, and eating. Every second of every day is taken up. It's nuts.

My zone is really cool and i feel we were meant to be together. When we first all met each other it just felt right and there wasnt a ton of awkardness. IT felt like i had known them before. My companion is Elder Johnson, he is from central Utah ranch and is really cool. We get along great. He is a tad quiet though so i tend to dominate lessons. So on friday we met our fake investigator Ruben. The teachers all have these fake aliases that we teach and their acting is superb and unbeliavable. Anyway, Ruben lives in England and missionaries asked him what the purpose of life was and he couldnt answer us, so we were asked to go teach him. After that lesson, i walked out and couldnt get this goofy grin off my face. Me. The straightfaced ethan could not stop smiling. It was pretty weird. ha ha.

We arent allowed to say "guys" here. It must be "Elders and Sisters". Sister Nally told us "guys" are the boys at home dating our girlfriends. THey are pretty strict about it, it's pretty hard to break the habit.

Thursday night we met our branch presidency and I talked to one of the counselors with my hands in my pockets. He told me missionaries were not allowed to do that, asked me if i had actually read the hand book (i have), and then gave a sermon to the whole zone about how we should never do that and a couple other things. I went and re checked the hand book and it says nothing about it, but i understand it unprofessional looking I suppose.

Also when I entered the MTC there was a sister Damron who came in behind me. No relation obviously, but I have never met another damron.

So there is this Elder named Elder Matthews and he is pretty crazy and has some crazy stories, I dont believe too many of them anymore but they are amusing nonetheless. Aparently he worked once checking trucks carrying pot ash. and to make sure it was pot ash and not salt, he had to taste it. So then one elder was like "you know pot ash is the remnants of decomposed bodies, right?" he got a pretty amusing look on his face and then we all laughed. Whether thats what pot ash is or not i dont know, i cant check on my iphone anymore... ha ha. I dont actually miss it. anyway, it was funny anyway. Then once of our counselors came in because he heard laughter and stamped it out. He always comes running if fun is being had to make sure it ends and we read in silence, he means well, but we like to loosen up every once in awhile.

The next morning we played basketball and a kid named Elder Garret, who is probably 5'6" and super super skinny and not too athletic, had the ball at the 3 point line and was like "i want to shoot it". I was guarding him so i backed up and said shoot it. he swished it. That boy hustled me good... ha ha. we all laughed.

Later in class our teacher Elder Hales asked us all what we wanted at that moment. He then turned to me and said I dont know about you elder, but i want Filibertos (an arizonan fast food joint that i LOVE). my jaw dropped because he is from Washington or something and i cried a little inside because i want some now... haha. it made my day. Then awhile later Sister Lee, a girl in my district, said to me "Elder Damron, you say the darndest things sometimes...". Imagine that. Me say some crazy things? never.

last night my zone all worked out together in our residence halls. at one point a boy locked himself out. so all of a sudden one kid pulls out a lock pick set and my roommate picked the lock in like 30 seconds. it was a bizarre scene and we all laughed pretty hard just because 1. it was a long day and anything was funny and 2. it was elder garret and i was not surprised at all he knew how to pick a lock. then i had to open up a package and i asked if anyone had a knife, so the kid with the lockpick pulls out a knife and said "there you go. you might have to wipe off some calf blood (he is from a ranch) but it wont hurt you". it was an amusing series of events. We then had an arm wrestling competition which my roommate won. He is probably 5'10" but he is 170. another kid, elder richardson, is 6'3" and 210. THey went at it for literally 4 minutes and my companion finally won. it was crazy.

 

I also saw elder burnham multiple times this week, he is doing well. Elder Brad Wood got reassigned to billings Montana! So if you see an Elder Wood, say hi for me.

 

So we talked as a zone the other day and we were all like yeah we didnt want to go state side but we are happy now (and i am, i mean i love the mtc but if i was stuck here in spiritual prison for 6 weeks i would cry ha ha) and one girl said something interesting. She said that we have been told that the constitution of our country will one da hang by a thread and our church will hold it up. We are being sent within the states to strengthen the church and therefore strengthen the support beam of morals in our country. I liked that insight a lot.

 

I fly to minnesota on wednesday the 29th, ill write more about it next week. when i call it will be in the morning around 7 my time.

 

Anyway, I love you all and think of home often. Im glad to be out on a mission and know that this is where i am meant to be. If any of you care to write me, i will write you back :) have a good week!

-Elder Damron

 

ps. go look up Elder Bednar's 2011 Christmas devotional MTC talk "Character of Christ", i dont say this often, but i can honestly say it was life chagning