Week 2

 Well Hello Family,

Today marks the halfway point of my MTC stay. I have about 9 days left here at the MTC. I fly out to Ireland on Wednesday Morning the 6th of August. Well, it has been the longest and shortest week of my life. We have been really busy so the days go by fast but it seems like the weeks go by really slow.
Last Sunday the MTC President (President Sorenson) arranged a tour for us downtown so he took us to all the church history sites close to the MTC. Well, it was about a 15-minute van ride away. We went to the river where all the first saints were baptized in England. Then we went to the place where President Hinckley was staying on his mission when he got the letter from his dad saying forget yourself and go to work. We went to five or six other places, and it was really good cool to see and get out of prison for a while. :)
Tuesday and Friday we were able to do a session in the Preston Temple which is in the same complex as the MTC. It's pretty cool there's the temple and a stake center, distribution center, family history center, and a big place across from the MTC where members can stay if they come to the Temple. So, all that is right here in this complex and the ground are beautiful. The temple was beautiful as well. I didn't like the Mesa Temple near as much as the Snowflake one but this one gave it a run for its money. It was good to be in the Temple it felt like coming home, something familiar.
Well, I don't remember if I told you last week or not but there are only about 45 of us here in the MTC and we all came in together. They have three weeks with missionaries here and then they have a week off and then a new group comes in so it's not like new missionaries are coming and going all the time. So, you actually get to know about all of them pretty well. There are about 10 from Germany, 15 from England, 2 From Africa, 4 From Canada and the rest from the USA.
Well on Wednesday the Temple President and his wife came and gave a devotional to the us and they were from Wales, so they had a thick accent, but I think it was the best meeting I have ever been in. The spirit was SO STRONG. Tears were pouring down my face through all of the President's talk. And I know that not saying much for me because I cry at the drop of a pin, but I wasn't the only one. It was just amazing. Ever since then it seems like I feel the spirit 100 times a day in every meeting I go to, and I never did that before. I mean I would feel it sometimes, but I have never felt it this much in my whole life. Another amazing thing was when me and my companion from Germany Elder Troeger were teaching the first lesson to another set of missionaries, and I could just feel the spirit pouring out through our message it was unreal and I knew then if I never new before that that was my purpose for being here on a mission. To help others feel that burning in their hearts that we all take so much for granted. Without the spirit we are just telling them a story but with the spirit we are engraving our message upon their hearts.
Missionary life is good it stretches me beyond my bonds each day and I grow more and more each day to reach what is expected of me. This week we memorized the first vision and a few other scriptures, and we perfected the first lesson which is about the restoration and then we started on the second. Friday was a big deal because we taught the first lesson to a member of the MTC presidency, and we were filmed kinda to pass it off. I was really nervous, and the first part of my message was just us telling him the story but when I settled down and I got that spirit we were bold, and the spirit was testifying it was awesome. Then we watched ourselves and we got to see what we did good and what we needed to work on, but I think it helped us out a lot.
Well, I am glad the Sherwood Reunion went good last weekend mom I'm sure your glad to get that over with. It sounded like it was a lot of fun. How was the Big Sherwood Reunion? I was laying in bed last night about Midnight I couldn't go to sleep thinking about it and I was thinking it was about 5 or 4 in the afternoon at Sherwood Forest. Oh, how my heart longed to be there, I was having a hard night. To be with the people I love, but as the temple president said sometimes our example is needed more than our presence. But anyways I want to hear all about it.
Well, there's not much more news here. After a seven-day drought I got a letter from Mom on Friday and then one from Lindsay on Saturday so thanks to mom and Lindsay for the letters this week they give a little boost to your day that nothing else can. When I got here to email there was an email from Shawn, Speedy, Tommy and Aunt Oona. So, thanks to all of you as well it was good to hear from you. And I hope to hear from you this coming week. Tonight, we are watching the Pioneer Day thing on BYU TV by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Osmonds so that should be really good I am looking forward to that but until next week.
Your Elder
P.S. THE FOOD HERE IS RUBBISH!