wow I dont even know where to start so much has happened lets start with wednesday
I was picked up finally by a host and he led me through a chapel and
they gave me my name tag there and a packet with my room and other
information. then I was rushed over with my luggage to my dorm in
building 18 right off of freedom I even got the basement room as I
walked in to my room I see these guy with bright red hair and glasses
and the host introduced him as elder drake my new companion. we were
then taken to the chapel for a new missionary introduction I swear we
sung like ten songs then the mtc president and other leaders that I
can't even remember now I was so worried but as I sat with my district
and my new comp. I learned that we were all going to Salem. I guess this
is the point where I introduce everyone in my district first there is
my companion elder drake great guy I love working with him though at the
time he seemed pretty overwhelmed and I was unsure what to think of
him. then the first sister I met there was super friendly sister bent
shes great and has a lot of excitement for the work and to be there it
was definately contagious and I felt better especially after seeing
elder drakes unsureness then I met her companion sister twichell she
seemed a lot older that sister bent though their the same age she just
graduated with a degree in sewing from byu i then there was elder young
he's actually just from orem went to mountain view hes quite and tends
to get down on himself a little bit because of his being short and a
little bit large but a great missionary we get a long great. Then there
is sister edwards who is a convert of almost two years and sister mecham
who seems nice and is from a small town here in Utah though I had never
heard of it oh by the way elder drake is from Ogden so pretty close.
then there is elder Mcmullin great guy from arizona he has a third of
normal hearing and has to wear hearing aids but he is fantasic a natural
leader and very willing to help after that first orientatation I went
to class for the first time I actually had to cross freedom to get the
classroom and subsequently the cafeteria as they are over in the
raintree complex. My class room is actually the living room of one of
the dorms just turned in to a classroom with desks and a flat screen tv
my teachers are bro belliston and sister lamplugh their really nice
though moy favorite is bro belliston he is so kind and absolutely
hilarious. we then went to dinner in the cafeteria (old pool house) and
instead of the main MTC we have a set meal every one eats the same
thing, I actually had a cesear salad as the main course of my lunch
today my p days are fridays but since I leave on the 24 I will onlly
have one more p day so that when everyone will be able to hear back from
me through emails and that is the only time I can read them if you need
to get in touch with me sooner the mail is faster we get it twice a
day. So back to the first day after dinner I met our zone leaders Elder
Garrett (6,6 the man puts josue to same) and elder bair pretty tall also
they seem nice not my favorite but still nice. then we went to a
teaching experience at a chapel The bus I ride now is called the ryde it
took three buses to get us all there once there we were divided into
three groups and ushered into a room with a bunch of chairs for us and
at the front of the room was a living room set up and then bro
christensen came in and if youve seen the district you might know him
better as elder christiansen and he told us that we were going to have
real people come in and we were going to tteach them as a group andn to
focus solely on the investigator and so we did and if we wanted to teach
something to them we would raise our hands and talk to them we went to
three different rooms and three different investigators I spoke
sometimes and I want you all to know that the lord puts scriptures and
thoughts into your mind as you go not to try and solve it yourself after
that which was amazing we got a tour and then went to bed the three
other elders in my district were my roomates and our district has been
getting along great we shower in shifts, I''m in the night shift and so
after showering and getting ready for bed I had like no time left to
write in my journal so I had to go straight to bed. funny story so it
was blazing hot the first day so we were all hot and sweaty so uuupon
arriving back to the dorm we turned the temp down so it was feeling good
until a half an hour after laying in bed sleep was hard despite being
tired and by the way for those of you planning to go on a mission you
pray so much more so this was like midnight
now and I could still hear the air conditioning and also I'm on the top
bunk but it was getting cold so I covered my self with my blanket and
slept waking up every couple hours convulsing because it was so cold in
the morning I wake up with my hands numb and I ask my companion is it ok
if I turn the heat up alittle trying to be careful not to offend anyone
and he says sure go ahead. I walk out to the thermostat and remember;
this is at 6 30 in the morning so Im groggy I look at it and the tab was
a low as it can go on 55 degrees and I just look at it and I verbally
was like what and then so confused I turned the heat up alittle and got
dressed with my suit coat on as fast as possible and left to zone
teaching by brother elton at first he struck me as rough and mean hes
very oppionated and very vocal but as he taught that the only person
that could teach us to do missionary work was God I knew he was speaking
through the spirit and I felt a liking not quite a love yet but I felt
better about him oh one other cool experience at the end of zone
teaching I felt strongly impressed that I was suppose to pray that what I
was to pray for was special and right as I'm getting ready to
voulenteer he calls on someone else feeling alittle down like oh I guess
it wasn't the spirit I went to my next class which was a workshop
taught by bro beeston and right as we are starting he goes ok it looks
like elder Telford has a special pray for us would you mind giving it
and it touch me that it was God and that my impression was right and
that this man who I had never talked to before knew what I had and it
wasn't even that the pray was that special but it was special to me
after that we had study time and towards the end of the first hour I
noticed my comp having a hard time focusing and I felt inspired to do a
comp study with him and we did it was great we are so different from
each other but we fit together so well when it comes to Gods work then
we had teaching by bro belliston and he informed us that we were going
to role play and teach him pretended to be an investigator named ghee he
showed us a video about ghee and then we went straight to comp study
to prepare a lesson after praying and pondering his needs we came up
with what he needed to be taught found our starting scripture and went
with it and broke for individual study and I was feeling pretty burned
out I was tired and kinda homesick but after trying my best to find
scriptures and topics we met back together to prepare and we had gone in
totally different directions but somehow they fit what I could find he
found and what he couldn't find I found and that's when we got into it and
the excitement and the inspiration just started growing and we totally
forgot that this wasn't a real person after that we went to dinner and
every dinner has mashed potatoes so I'm getting pretty sick of them but
Ive been good eating really healthy I have yet to eat one of the
deserets but after we went to met our branch president and found out
that get this half my branch is going to the Atlanta Georgia north
mission and that's the same mission my president served in he did
interviews and assigned callings elder drake was assigned district
leader and I was assigned his senior comp so we are still confused on
whose in charge of who but we feed so well off of each other that no one
person dominates we alternate our talking really well this night I had
more time slighly though Ive learned if your going to be a missionary
learn to write fast and a lot today we had zone teaching again the
morning started rough but picked up after lunch and p day started we did
laundry accidentally broke rules by playing basketball waiting for the
wash you only play basketball during gym time but Im doing great as long
as I take it one day at a time best of wishes and I bear my testimony
that God loves everyone of us and that we don't have to be perfect but
only have a desire to be better we are striving for eternal life which I
learned today is eternal progression and Debra my favorite scripture is
2nephi 4:30-end
if you ever want to start progression after messing up say that prayer
to our father in heaven with full intent and you will be bless its
powerful
Sincerely, Elder Telford
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