MTC Letter #5

Oct 8, 2010

Hola Todos!

Guess what? Today marks the halfway point for the MTC! It's downhill from here! (For the MTC at least).

General Conference this past weekend was awesome! I realized how often the apostles say "missionaries", and whenever I heard it, I though "Hey! That's me!" It made Conference much more personal. I took so many notes! (Contrary to before, Mom and Dad :P I should've paid this much attention before!). I hope everyone who was able to watch it was able to apply some principles to their lives.

This week I've realized how hard being extremely patient is. One of my companions wakes up late, and takes his time getting ready, when he knows we'll be late. So when my other companion and I are waiting at the door to leave with our backpacks on and everything, it becomes really hard to have patience. But, those times where I've realized that I'm being really impatient, I try to calm myself down and when I do, I feel much more at peace, and happier. So I urge everyone to try their hardest to stay patient and "keep your cool". You'll be able to feel better and relax more with them. After all, I'm with him 24/7 so I need to stay patient. It makes life better!

Life at the MTC is back to the same good ol' schedule. It started to get cooler a few days ago and I love it! I was tired of walking outside and burning up. The other night, I rained and hailed like crazy! It was really cool, the lightning and thunder was awesome. Ha.

Being able to go to the Temple every Friday is the best. It’s a nice "escape" from the world. The peace I feel there I can't feel anywhere else. I'll definitely miss it in the mission field!

The last TRC went well, we were supposed to teach the Plan of Salvation, but I don't think the "investigator" knew the task. He said he didn't know how to pray, and didn't know much about the Book of Mormon. So we ended up teaching him how to pray, about the Book of Mormon, and about the Restoration. It went really well and felt more realistic because he didn't follow a set task. When we asked him to pray at the end, he prayed like he was an actual investigator. It was an awesome glimpse into what I would experience in the field because I felt so happy for the investigator and felt a sense of joy for him. It was awesome!

Well, I hope life is well for everyone. Always remember to stay happy and optimistic about everything in life, your life will be much happier, I guarantee it!

Love and Miss you all!
-Elder Whittle

P.S. In my address, the CHI-VDM 1110 is actually CHI-VDM 1108. It's the departure date, so the original was wrong.