Week 2 MTC

Bonjour!

It's been 16 days since I arrived at the MTC and I'm really starting to get used to the schedule and missionary life. My companion and I always show up right when the doors open for every meal so we never have to wait in line. If we show up with everyone else at our district the line can literally be 20 minutes for a single chicken breast with noodles. We have developed pretty successful study habits and can teach lessons entirely in French now.

I have gotten used to wearing a white shirt and tie everywhere I go now, as well as following the schedule for the most part while still being time efficient. We have devotionals every Sunday and Tuesday, and Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve spoke at our Tuesday night devotional, which was really cool. One quote that stuck out to me was when he said he had never seen an unhappy obedient missionary, but he had seen some that were unhappy because they were lazy and not using their time or themselves to their full capacity. His wife also said something profound: "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." Just some food for thought.

We also were able to watch a talk by Elder Bednar about Christlike attributes. He really stressed the idea of being patient and humble, and to turn outward to others instead of caring only about yourself and your own pride. He shared a very touching story about a single mother that had just lost her only daughter to a car accident. When this single mother found out that her daughter was the only one of the three girls in the car that had sustained fatal injuries, her first thought was to call the mothers of the other two to let them know their daughters were okay. I don't think many of us have the emotional or spiritual capacity to be as selfless as she was, but we should always strive for it.

On Wednesday my district got the opportunity to host the new missionaries. This means we basically welcome them to the MTC when they get dropped off and show them where their room is and where to go to class. It was nice to be someone for the anxious new guys to lean on, but I also had some fun spreading rumors about initiation ceremonies and things like that to the ones that weren't crying yet. (We don't have any sort of initiation ceremonies at the MTC).

Also we have to roleplay a lesson in French with our teacher every couple days. We are supposed to base it on the person's needs, but one night all he would tell us was that he had a great day and got to see his girlfriend (whom our district is rooting for him to marry). So we started teaching the lesson and invited him to read a scripture about sharing love with your spouse and children, and he couldn't hold it together for the rest of the lesson. Whoops.

Feel free to email me @jace.martin@myldsmail.net

Love from the MTC,

Elder Martin

Week 1 MTC

Bonjour, friends and family!

Today is my 9th day in the MTC and if I'm honest with myself, the first couple days were really hard but it has gotten a lot better. We get up at 6:30 am every day and our last class ends at about 9:30 at night. Sometimes it's exhausting to sit through 3 hours of french speaking, but since I've gotten here I've come to enjoy learning french, and it gets easier every day. As we learn more about the language it becomes less frustrating and more enjoyable to speak, and I've probably learned more in a week than I did in a year of school. The Gift of Tongues is real.

I am missing the music and friends at home, but we can feel the spirit all the time at the MTC. One interesting thing I’ve noticed is there seems to be no system of social hierarchy or cliques. There is no such thing as social status except for a church calling or assignment. I think everyone just realizes we are all valuable children of God.

My companion is pretty quiet and probably not someone I would normally hang out with but as I've gotten to know him I have come to realize I lucked out. He's very easygoing  and smart, and most surprisingly is actually a professional hunting guide from Alaska. He gets paid big bucks to navigate people through the mountains and aid them in hunting dall sheep. He's even been on TV for it before.

The food here is decent, depending on the day, and with sitting in classes all day long I think I've gained a few pounds. The classes were pretty boring, but I eventually got used to it, and now look forward to them sometimes.

On every P-day we go to the temple in the morning and it's very refreshing and sets a positive tone for the rest of the week. Most free time is meant to be spent studying, and if we don't we'll fall behind, but when we can we go play basketball and my companion and I are beasts. He's 6'4 so we can pretty much dominate everyone else on the court.

On another note, the MTC has been pretty humbling. There are a lot of people here that know the scriptures front and back, and plenty of people that already have been speaking french for years. It takes quite a bit of effort to keep up with them, and helps to remind me that we all have different strengths and all of them are valuable.

Love you all!

Elder Martin

-PS feel free to email me at jace.martin@myldsmail.net