Me with Jordan Murray (from BYUI) and my MTC comp and his comp.

Update from the MTC

Sorry I don't have any time to email... I sent dad and Claire more about my companion though, so they'll have to share with you. My whole district is going to SLC so that will be cool because we're really close. I got your package, thank you! Tell Grandma I said thanks too ... she's sent me something every single day so far! Yesterday she sent a huge box of 3 dozen homemade cookies .... like awesome; obviously I'm going to eat every single one in one sitting. I wanted to send her a thank you letter but I don't have her address so just tell her I said thanks so much!

Me and my companion, Sister Phillips, and some of the elders in my district:

The MTC!

The MTC is pretty good so far! My P-day is Saturday while here but I have no idea when it will be when I get out in the field. I'm here til the 11th, FYI. I sent you guys a letter yesterday but you're definitely going to get this before you get the letter so just disregard that I guess. The only thing I don't really like about being here is it's super intense... like my district is so serious all the time, and having church classes all day long is super overwhelming for me... I try to lighten the mood a little bit so I don't die of intense overload but people here don't think anything I say is funny, they just think I'm being disrespectful or something so I need to tone that down a little bit. My companion is really cool, we get along well. She's really nice and so far we haven't had any issues together. She jokes around with me sometimes so that's good. Our first day we had this assignment in class where we were given a reference, like the Book of Mormon or Preach My Gospel or something, and we had to try to sell it to the rest of our district... me and my companion were given the missionary day planner or whatever. I said something like, "Hey at least we didn't get the chastity pamphlet ... " no one thought it was funny, they all just glared at me and thought I was a punk. Hahah! So it's kind of hard to remind myself to watch what I'm saying. The food's good, I'm always starving but I like it. They pretty much have everything so I've been able to chose the healthy stuff. They have tons of fruit and oatmeal (thank goodness) so that's good. We're so busy there's no time to exercise. Yesterday we had gym time in our schedule but it was right in the middle of the day so we couldn't really do anything to get too sweaty... me and my companion just jogged around the inside track for a little. Love you guys, tell everyone I said hello!

MTC life

Family -

I'm just letting you know that I am alive and doing well.  Actually surprisingly well.  My companion is fantastic.  I wasn't nervous coming in at all but I could tell she was.  The only thing I was worried about was gaining weight/the food.  And the first thing she said to me when we walked in the cafeteria for dinner was, "don't think I'm weird, but I'm determined to eat healthy and do everything in my power NOT to gain weight ... so I'm getting a salad."  YES!!   Thank goodness.

I feel bad; everyone here is kind of struggling but I'm like, fine.  Everyone's super homesick and asking for blessings ... don't be offended but I'm not homesick at all.  The only thing that's hard for me is it's way too intense.  Like hardcore church Sunday School or something all day long.  And my district is so serious/boring it's killing me.  I try to joke around and lighten the mood every once in a while but people glare at me and think I'm a punk or something.  Like sorry, I'm trying to smile and make us all a little happier, my bad!  But the branch president called me and my companion to be sister trainers so I can't be killing the spirit too bad.  Seriously, if people in my district don't lighten up and stop being so serious all the time I'm going to lose my mind.  Besides that, all is good. I kinda like it here actually.

Sara Wagher (Jacob's sister) is here. So is Hunter Neus, and my friend Jordan from Idaho (Emily's boyfriend).  So that's been fun, seeing them around sometimes.  I'm really liking it here when I'm not stressing about saying something stupid or falling asleep on my scriptures during TWO HOUR LONG daily personal study.  I think I might have ADHD.  On a better, note, I'm learning a bunch of scripture stuff and getting pretty "brainwashed" as Jamison calls it.  AKA paranoid of the real world outside of the MTC.  Anyways, love you guys!