Greetings, and hello again you fine males and females. So much to talk about this week.
Week one of in-person mission training-Provo Center in the bag.
Man, it's been an experience! To start off I saw an old school friend, Elder Morrills who will be serving
in Germany, crazy right? He's been here 7 weeks learning the language and he has two weeks until he
flies to Germany. Side note: if I was to be called anywhere outside of the UnitedStates my hope was
to be called to Germany). Next was the food here is not as bad as some say it is, so that's a relief.
My favorite food here is called the aloha plate which is rice, pork and salad. Crazy, I am eating
salad. Also, my old stand by--Chicken noodle soup. I told myself I want to do my best to eat healthy on
my mission. One of those goals is to not drink any soda for 2 years, so far going strong.
Amazing feelings have been felt here. My companion is awesome. All missionaries here are
organized by Districts (sisters and elders) Elder Noble is my Zone leader and he's great.
We all get along. Then we have our Zone and Zone Leaders who watch over the Districts and
relay information from our Branch Presidents and their wives.
I met my branch presidents Thursday night and two of them served a senior mission with their wives
in Guatemala 🇬🇹 where I was adopted from which was touching to me. I got to talk to them about my
adoption and they were so happy. They served where I was born in Suchitepequez.
God knows us and our journeys and He loves us.
Some of the things we do here-- service–this morning I was vacuuming building. There is a huge gym
here and I am liking volleyball. Yesterday we had a really awesome devotional.
I got to bless the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in my Zone Sacrament meeting on Sunday.
I have really awesome teachers, Sister Gross and Brother Tollman. We learn, sing, testify, eat, exercise, serve, have fun together and feel the spirit of God. The buildings here are cool.
I love the top floor because there is a mural I love there. I’ll try get a picture of it
and put it on next weeks blog. You can feel the Spirit here so strong here at the MTC. It’s
different from anywhere I’ve been. It’s similar to being in God’s holyhouse, His temple.
It’s an amazing feeling. We also get to go to the temple which is awesome.
Have a listen to the song "I will walk with Jesus" we sang it all together and it was a really good experience.
As of right now I am not nervous or feel anxious about anything. I am just overcome with joy
to serve my Savior with full heart. That's not to say I wasn’t sad at the moment I left my family.
I was definitely crying but I knew that what I was doing was something I wanted to do and I am so happy I
decided to serve a mission.
Something that really hit me this week especially was the day before I came to the MTC.
The missionaries that are serving in my hometown, Elder Taylor and Elder Miner-Ho came
to my house to wish me good bye on my journey. Those two have been inspirational to me
and the Lord is strong with them. I'm so happy to have met them before I left. I hope they have
success in their missions. The Lord spoke to me through them, they are amazing missionaries and
they could not have entered my life at a better time-thank you Elder Taylor and Elder Miner-Ho
Quick shout out to my bestie boo Lexie who got a new job so congrats her, can't wait to hear how
she does-miss hanging out with her but for now I have the Lord's work to attend to.
The scripture I chose for my mission scripture is Matthew 4:19
"And He saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of
men."
It's been awesome peeps! Hope you all are doing Sigma and your days are going good!
Elder Saunders
