Dear Family and Friends,

     This is my last time I'll be writing from the MTC. I'm super close to the field now. I'm getting way excited, but at the same time, I'm a little sad. Just a little. The MTC is great because we are always with so many missionaries, and we have quite a bit of teachers that are always helping both as a class and personal to the missionaries. We also see our branch president, who by the way is probably the best branch president in the MTC, very often. They always have something to say to help us out and get us excited for our missions. President Wilkens is the Branch President. He loves all of us so much. You can talk to him so well, and he'll just tell you anything that he thinks will help you. Brother Fugal is the First Counselor and it seems like he doesn't talk as much, but when you do talk to him he always seems really happy. Also, pretty much everything he does say is funny. Brother Monson is the Second Counselor. He has amazing stories from his mission and from everybody else's missions. He could talk for hours it seems like and you would never get bored. They are all amazing, so I hope that I can find leaders in New Jersey that are as good as them.

     So it was pretty crazy this last Sunday. We have Firesides on Sundays but usually it's no one special. When I walked into the gym where they do all the Firesides and Devotionals I looked at the screen to see who was going to speak. The name Alex Boyé came up. To me, that sounded familiar, but I didn't know who that was. It turns out, I do know who Alex Boyé is. He's a famous singer, especially among the LDS community because all he sings is like Hymns and stuff. He's really good! When he got up to speak, he started out by singing a song. I could tell everyone was excited, it was kinda funny. After that, he told us a few things that I wrote down, then he went in to his conversion story. That was a really cool story. Then he told us how important missionaries are because we will change the lives of our converts forever and we will always be remembered by them. It was pretty inspiring. Then he closed by singing another song. It was pretty awesome. This past week on speakers, we have been pretty lucky. Tuesday we got an Apostle, then on Sunday we got a famous artist. I'd say this has been a pretty good week.

     It's kind of funny. I'm finally starting to get the hang of how things work in the MTC. I'm finally starting to know exactly how things work and how to do things efficiently. I'm wondering why I couldn't have done that sooner. Then I remembered a saying from someone somewhere, that it's the same in the mission field. When you finally get the hang of things in your area, your transfered. The same thing happens in the next area. Then as soon as you really learn how to be a great missionary, they send you home and your two years are up. I remember my teacher Hermano McCord saying they send you home when you finally become a good missionary, because then you're not as humble. When we're out here and we have no idea what we're doing, we are very humble and always asking the Lord for help. When we know for ourselves what to do, we're not as humble. This is another reason they don't send people like my teachers on missions, because they know what they're doing. Interesting.

 

     So here are the A of W (Answers of the Week)

1. I won't find out who my companion is until after I get there. I think they have like a big conference or something and then they'll tell me. I'll tell you more about it when I get find out, in my next letter.

2. Not really. It's still pretty hard to get up in the morning. I'm just as tired, if not more. And the lights in the halls and the bathrooms are extremely blinding in the morning, so that's not too fun.

3. That's a really good question. I'm nervous about a few things, but I think the one I think about the most is getting lost. The layout there is quite different from Utah. All the streets out there are going to be named, and not easy with numbers like in Utah. Also in Utah, I'm NEVER wondering which way is north because all I have to do is find the mountains. Especially here at the MTC, the mountains seems extra huge because we're like right next to them, so it's incredibly easy to know where I'm looking. As far as I know, there are no mountains in New Jersey. So I'm concerned about getting lost. I'm also a little nervous about my Trainer. I'm really hoping he'll be really good. I've heard that the Mission President hand picks the best ones for that job. But he also picks missionaries that are doing a terrible job to see if they can redeem themselves by training a new missionary. So yeah, I'm a little worried about that.

 

Elder Gajewsky