MTC Week #1

Hello everyone!

I honestly have absolutely no idea where to start. Everyone told me the MTC was hard, but I was in no way expecting how hard it really is. If you know me well, I'm not really the most emotional guy, but this week easily beat all the emotions in my live by 100 times. I'm sure I've cried more this week than the rest of my life combined.

This week has been absolutely unbelievable, and I will try to give you an adequate summary, but even that will barely give you any sort of idea of what it is really like.

The moment I arrived, they let me give a hug to my mom and dad and then immediately got me my stuff and sent me to class. I met my district, and they are pretty cool. My companion is Elder Vander Werff, and he is a pretty great guy. Elder Geddes, who I know from jr high and high school is in my district. His companion is Elder Jensen, who is pretty cool, especially cause he laughs at my jokes :). The sisters are pretty great too, but I think they think we are really immature.

This Wednesday over 680 missionaries arrived at the MTC, and there are 2400 total. It is really crowded, but there is an up-side to that! I have seen so many missionaries that I know, including Elder Ethan Wilkinson, Bryant Ferrin, Michael Hebert, Ben Mullins, Logan Mackay, and Isaac Larsen, who I got a picture with.

The days here have been overwhelming, We study and learn all day long, and we taught our first investigator in Dutch on Friday, less than 48 hours after we arrived. We will be teaching that same investigator every day this week, in Dutch, which we obviously still don't speak. This was the hardest thing for me, because I hate to not be in control, and nothing is less in control than teaching an investigator in a language you don't speak, and then she responds in a language you don't speak. I've now learned that there is no possible way for me to do this on my own, and I need to rely on the Lord and the Holy Ghost in Order to preach.

The Spirit here has been incredible. Every time I feel inadequate, or that I can't keep on doing this, the Holy Ghost has given me an overwhelming feeling that helps me continue on. I think the reason why they make the MTC far too hard for any young man to handle is to teach us that we CAN'T handle it. We have to let the Lord handle it. I've never been challenged this much before, and I haven't ever felt before this week the feeling that I couldn't possibly do it. I tried to rely too much on my own abilities, and it worked for the first few hours. After that I couldn't. They teach us the hard way that the Holy Ghost is the only way to teach.

Dutch is a fairly easy language because it sounds so much like English, and I feel okay about it. I'm really really far from being fluent, but I am picking up a few useful doctrine terms and regular terms like graag gedaan (you're welcome), and alstubleift (please).

Sunday was a huge relief from the building stress of the MTC. We had a lot of personal study time, which really helped me get away from the freaking out I did earlier about teaching in Dutch. We had an excellent devotional after dinner. we watched Elder Bednar's talk "Character of Christ." It basically taught that in order to emulate Christ we need to turn outward in hard times instead of selfishly turning inward.

Right after the movie ended, everyone stood up, and I thought that maybe we were letting the MTC presidency out first. Then we sat back down and the President starting thanking Elder Bednar for his talk and for being with us. At first I thought he was being sarcastic, but then ELDER BEDNAR himself came up the the pulpit!!! He took questions and gave some really incredible answers. He is by far my favorite member of the twelve. I love his sense of humor, and I feel like he really understands the youth. I highly suggest looking up his "Character of Christ" talk.

My photos aren't incredible, but I hope you enjoy them. They are of my district, roomates, Isaac Larsen, and the name tag that I will be wearing for the next two years.

Sorry for the long email! I told everyone that I would make sure my emails were going to be short, but there is no way to fit everything that I want to even in this long of an email. I would love to recieve emails and letters from you!

I miss all of you!

Love,
Elder Thornton