Hello everyone!!!
So a lot has happened in the past week. It felt like almost two or three weeks but it has only been one! No wonder everyone says the MTC is always the hardest and longest part of the mission.
Wednesday: So, Wednesday was probably the least busy and packed day out of the whole week mainly because we didn't have the full group here quite yet. The rest of the missionaries were supposed to be natives, so they didn't have to travel multiple hours like the rest of us did. The main thing we really did was watch a couple of MTC Devotionals. One was by Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles talking about a talk that he had done back in April 2010 when he was one of The Seventy. The second was done by Jeffery R. Holland and that was really good, being that it was mainly about how we shouldn't be afraid of being out in the field and that we should never go home and turn on the Lord, not doing his work. Once all the native missionaries got to the MTC, we were then assigned to our MTC companions and all the District/Zone leaders were assigned as well. I got assigned to an elder going to the Cape Town mission named Elder (Zackary) McKone. We were a part of the 1st District and my companion was assigned as district leader. The others that were put in our district were Elder Pine and Elder Bair. Elder Bair was assigned the zone leader, but he's been really busy and stressed out. I feel so bad for him because he is such a good guy and he feels like the MTC President has been pushing him a little to hard with his assignments.
Thursday: We didn't really start at the MTC until Thursday, since everyone was finally here. We started off the lessons with all the missionaries watching a sort of "mock teaching." A couple Sister teachers were acting as missionaries while another was acting as the investigator. It was pretty nice being able to see that, being that it kinda showed how we should properly teach without being to forceful about the gospel right off the bat. We were also introduced to our teachers that we'd have for the rest of our time here at the MTC. The teachers that were assigned to my district and also the second district were Sister Vermeulen and Brother Adlard. They are both super cool people, being that they have just recently came back from their missions only like a year ago!! I honestly think that we got the best teachers of the pack, because we can all be more engaged as they are also more engaged in the spirit.
Friday: Due to the fact that a lot of us still had major jet lag from the long flight, Friday was probably one of the longest days this week. I usually love when Friday comes, but this Friday just seemed to drag out a little more than usual. The classes where we had the teachers we were assigned were good, being that we actually all enjoy the teachers we have. However, when it comes to everyone being in the same class with just one teacher, it was sooooo hard to stay awake. Everyone's eyes were drooping, a couple heads bobbing, and even some that actually fell asleep at points throughout!! 😂 Other than those bigger classes, it was pretty good.
Saturday: Today was the day that we were able to start doing some mock teaching of our own!! In class, we were able to kinda "teach" others in class, and that was generally pretty easy. But, we were also going to start "teaching" an investigator that a teacher would pretend to be. The teacher that was pretending is Brother Adlard and the person's name he was going to be was Arnold. The cool thing about this is that the investigators they were trying to be are actually real people that missionaries themselves have gone out to see!! There were even Missionary Reports on the person! It was honestly pretty cool being able to do it, but when it actually came time to do so, it was actually pretty rough, being as we had to treat it as the teacher was actually the investigator. My companion and I actually gave a decent lesson, but the big thing we needed to improve on was the fact that we were a little to uptight and needed to relax a little more.
Sunday: Now today I think was the longest day I may have ever had. Sacrament Meeting and Priesthood went pretty well and I actually enjoyed them. Then we had a Doctrinal Discussion after there was a District Meeting, and that felt like the longest lesson of my LIFE!! 😑😴 I was trying SO HARD to stay awake, and even when writing notes to try and stay awake, it didn't help at all. Choir practice was really good though! We have the songs "Mary, Did you Know?" (I know it's a Christmas song and it's after Christmas) and "Gethsemane" (😭😭). When we got to "Gethsemane," it was honestly super hard for me to keep it in. That song just always gets to me. I just wish that I didn't sit by a person that was tone deaf. He knows he can't sing, but he just wants to be able to hear the music, which is nice, but I would've liked it if I sat in the front row instead, which I should have done anyways. Then we had music appreciation, which was pretty fun. We basically played bingo but with hymns instead😆. But after that, it was getting a little hard to push through the other classes. I always want to pay attention, but I think it just depends on how involved we get into the lesson. It also seemed like the Mission President was having a hard day being that he was kind of taking it out on other missionaries. He was being super sensitive of the rules, but also he was pushing Elder Bair way too hard. We were all done with lessons pretty early, so we were able to go to our beds at like 8:15 (super early) so a companionship from district 2 and all of us in district 1 had like a talk session where we just bonded, and about halfway into the session, it kind of became like a crying circle just to help let out some stress we were all feeling. I think I've found some amazing friends here at the MTC and I always feel the spirit being around them. They are just so amazing.
Monday: This was just yesterday, but it was kind of weird because the schedule was changes due to the fact that the teachers were having like some kind of worldwide meeting thing for an hour just after dinner. We were able to teach our investigators again today for about fifteen minutes each. It was kind of interesting for my companion and I because my companion was feeling a little more stressed than usual and the MTC President was getting on his nerve just a little too much, so he felt pretty angry going in, so the spirit wasn't really with us for the most part of the lesson. We eventually got it back, but we lost a lot of time spending too much on the topic of prayer and trying to teach our way of doing it.
Tuesday: (Today) So, as I'm sure you have probably figured out, today is P-Day! This day has definitely been a lot more relaxing and less worrisome 😊. Today we got to do some studying in PMG (Preach My Gospel) Chapter 3 Lesson 1 in the section about the Book of Mormon. My companion and I have decided to use what we have learned to teach our investigator, Arnold, more about the Book of Mormon, being that we figured out how confused he was when we asked him to read a couple verses last night. Today, for activities, we played a game called "Switchyball" and it was SUPER fun!! I think we found the best game to play here! It kinda feels like Ultimate Frisbee, but with a RUGBY ball instead! Anyways, that's all the time I've got for today, so I hope to get more emails next week!!
Sincerely, the One and Only
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Elder Buchanan
This email was received at about 7:30AM our time which means it was about 4:30PM in Johannesburg! This time difference is amazing to me!
