Week 5

Friends and Family,

This week was probably the most normal week that I've had at the MTC so far. I finished up my hard-core drugs from the doctor and I'm pretty much healthy again. I've thought about the mile record a couple of times, but I have not yet made another attempt to break it. I may or may not try for it later this week. I'll see how I feel this week.

Something else worth mentioning is that I am now the District Leader. It's not due to anything that I've done well, it's just that there are only two Elders in the district so we each get half the time in the MTC. And it's highly likely that we'll also be zone leaders after our せんぱい leave because our district will have the most seniority and we're the only two Elders in the district. It's fun stuff.

A hobby that my companion and I have picked up lately is sucking on icebreakers. The MTC puts money on our MTC cards every week and we don't have anything to spend it on or save for, so we've just been going through icebreakers. I think we're currently at seven containers, and we started about five days ago. It's pretty interesting. On the same subject, they have cinammon flavored icebreakers here. I set the first record at ten, but then one of the sisters did 14. I'm not sure that I'll contest her for the record, because ten was plenty. My tongue wasn't quite the same for a little while after that.

Also, I thought I might share the most frequently quoted scripture at the MTC. The scripture is 2 Nephi 34 which discusses what happens to liars. The most frequently cited missionary rule is page 33 of the missionary handbook. It describes what interactions between male and female missionaries should be like, and it doesn't take much for the missionaries here to decide that another Elder or Sister is violating the rule. And they'll be sure to let the violators know. :) It's all in good fun though. I haven't seen anything yet that has been too questionable. Except that one Sister in our zone keeps having random Elders come up to her and ask for her email. That's a little weird.

My favorite scripture this week was Doctrine and Covenants 100:5-8. It's the one that says that the Lord will give you the words that you should say when you share the Gospel. That's pretty comforting even though I don't have any real investigators yet. I'm can't even speak in English, so I'm definitely going to need all the help I can get in Japanese. :)

I attached some pictures. The first one is of Elder Kurita and me. He's from Japan. The second one is a picture that's on the wall on the bottom floor of my classroom building. It's pretty good. The last one is the icebreaker container that my companion and I are working on right now.

I love you all,
Elder Mitchell

 Elder Kurita and me