Leaving It All "In The Field": First Letter From The MTC

Elder Clinger and Elder Wood

The District

I cant believe that its already been a week! time really does fly here in the MTC. The first couple days here are kind of a blur now but I know they were great! The day after we got here our branch president assigned me and my companion Elder Clinger as new zone leaders. I felt way overwhelmed but it really isnt that bad. OH my companion is a great guy! hes from Southern California and way way smart about the gospel. We work great together and I really did luck out to get such a good companion. I'll tell more about him later. The food here is amazing and i can just tell that ive already gained tons of weight. haha When I got here my whole district was afraid of me and didnt dare to talk to me except for one kid named Elder Gardner from Pocatelo Idaho. He follows me every where I go because he found out I was playing college football. He reminds me from Kevin on the office. He looks just like him and believe it or not his name is Kevin! Hes way funny and we've gotten pretty tight because every gym time he comes and watches me work out in the weight room because my companion is a twig (as you can tell) and refuses to go in the weight room. Every single person in my zone looks and reminds me of somebody from the office I'm sure you can tell who reminds me of Dwight (Elder Wolvers from Alberta Canada) and then Toby(Elder Ebright). My zone is pretty funny and we all get along pretty good. Im glad I dont have to share a room with any of them but my companion though. Hunter Evans my best friends room is right down the hall so we talk every night which is pretty cool.
ummm theres not alot to talk about really, we have like 5 hours of personal study every morning before our class the second part of the day and then me and my companion have a bunch of leadership meeting after class so days here are way long but it goes by waaay fast! its weird. I feel like all I do is eat food. My Coaches would be so proud. On a spiritual note.. Me and my companion have to teach a P.I. and TRC investigator every day and its been so sweet! our P.I. investigator committed to babptism our first meeting with her. At first I felt so uncomfortable with that stuff but its amazing how fast you change. One thing ive learned is that you have to love the people you teach. Thats why its so important to treat your investigators here as if they are real. The second thing is that you dont have to know everything but as you teach simple truths and things that you know to be true the spirit will teach them everything they need. We had a devotional sunday night and the lady that wrote the song daughters of zion spoke and i dont think ive ever felt the spirit more strong then at that meeting. I've learned to love singing the hymns! MTC really does change you!! Before every meeting we start out with a hymn and they really do bring the spirit into the room. Having the spirit with you as you teach and learn is so important and that is why i think ive learned to love them. I even went and bought me my own little hymn book. Well anyways at that devotional we all stood and the Elders stood and sang Army of Helaman and the sisters sang Daughters in Zion. And holy crap you cant really even put it to words really. It was so powerful!! Last week and this week the new Mission presidents from around the world have been here being taught from all the apostles so half the place has been locked down but once in a while you'll see them and its pretty sick! The other day me and my companion walked past Elder Bednar and talked to him a little bit. Every Tuesday there is a devotional and we knew there was gona be an apostle speaking because of this training thing that was goin on. We showed up and there was six apostles there! Elder Christopherson spoke on charity and how every soul is great in the sight of god. Ive had some pretty cool experiences here. The second day while playing basketball my companion twisted his ankle and has been on crutches for a week! are you kidding!? He loves it because i have to carry his bags everywhere and get all his food... We get to take elevators everywhere though so i guess thats good.. Well I kinda flew through this email but i summed up the coolest things i think. I didn't even write this much in my three years of high school so my eyes and brain hurts really bad right now. This is my only p-day in the MTC so the next time you here from me i will be in Canada. I leave July 1st at like 2:30 in the morning.. kinda sucks. sorry if things arent spelled right or dont make sense i didnt proof read it...
Love you all. Church is true.
-Elder Wood